Robotics Projects (Pre-college and Early Work)
I’ve been building mechanical systems since early childhood, starting with simple autonomous builds and evolving into structured robotics and competition platforms. These early projects developed my intuition for system design, constraint-driven engineering, and hands-on problem solving; foundations that now inform my professional approach to mechanical design and mechatronic systems.
Early autonomous system build focused on path planning, structural stability, and continuous motion control. This project, made in 6th grade, sparked my interest in automation and mechanical systems and represents my first exposure to system-level design thinking.
Focus: Mechanical fundamentals & robustness
Designed and built a competition robot focused on reliable cone pickup and stacking. I worked on the mechanical layout and a motorized fork mechanism used to lift and stack game elements while maintaining stability during match play.
Focus: mechanism design and kinematics
Helped design a robot capable of stacking disks at varying heights using a compact reverse double four-bar lift. This mechanism allowed rapid vertical extension while staying within strict starting size constraints.
Focus: System integration and constraint-driven design
As team co-captain, I led the design of a robot optimized for cube intake and stacking using a diagonal ramp and roller-intake system. Due to competition size limits, the ramp was designed to deploy after the match starts using a controlled release mechanism.
Focus: Leadership and functional versatility
Served as team captain during a largely virtual season due to COVID-19. The robot was designed to intake, sort, and score game objects of different colors using counter-rotating mechanisms, allowing continuous operation without stopping the intake.
Developed a scouting and analysis system to collect and evaluate team performance data during VEX competitions. The tool aggregated match statistics into a centralized spreadsheet used to rank teams and support alliance selection and match strategy decisions based on efficiency, consistency, and role specialization.
View the full project here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fZdvA9A85MKXA8-AEAR7T4LWqs9sLp7gh3fPtb-VknQ/edit?usp=sharing
Teaching & Technical Mentorship
During the summer of 2020, I assisted in teaching VEX Robotics, supporting students as they progressed from basic mechanical assembly to autonomous programming. I helped guide mechanism design, motion control, and debugging, culminating in a final project where teams programmed a robot to stack objects autonomously. Below are images of my students' work.
