For the 2020-2021 cycle, we competed in the ASME virtual design competition in April - May 2021. We were responsible for designing and performing simulations on a recumbent bicycle built for speed, endurance, and obstacle competition. As the team lead, I built and managed the top-level CAD assembly, while overseeing progress for our drivetrain, frame, and fairing teams, leading meetings, coordinating design reviews, and handling club logistics.

Our bike was designed with a focus on stability, ease of use, and adjustability, without sacrificing performance. The bike features a compound chainring-internal hub drivetrain, to allow for static shifting and a variety of speeds. The aluminum chassis is lightweight and easy to manufacturing, while allowing seat adjustability. The combined assembly, along with the fairing, is shown below.

For the 2020-2021 cycle, we competed in the ASME virtual design competition in April - May 2021. Designed a pizza cutter using mechanisms we learned from the design of planar machinery course. The cutter of our machine used a slider-crank mechanism, while the turntable featured an adjustable geneva wheel. This design allowed for repeatable cuts while allowing for a discrete turning base to create even slices with a standard DC motor.

We also completed FEA analysis and torque simulations. All project details can be found in our report.

Wrote a short story about a struggling gig musician. The manuscript can be found here.

3D printed and assembled face shields to donate to local hospitals amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Worked with my brother to reach out to hospitals to assess needs as well as to verify which designs were acceptable for medical use. Ultimately donated 200+ shields until there was no longer a PPE shortage.

Designed a snowboard helmet mount that allows smartphones to be used as action cameras. This provides a low-cost alternative to professional cameras such as GoPros. Manufacturing processes, fits, and tolerances were specified for prototype and large-scale manufacturing. The project report can be found here.

Scaled down a hot rolling machine to design a tabletop rolling machine capable of flattening sheets of plasticine. As student shops closed due to the pandemic, simulations were performed to evaulate and assess weaknesses in the design. A website and paper were made for the project.

Used LabVIEW with PSoC to simulate a real-time mechanical goalie minigame. The primary state machine system in LabVIEW connected to a ball trajectory simulation subVI, a PSoC 5LP board to simulate mechanical actuation, and a ball-tracking vision demonstration built using the LabVIEW vision development module.

Designing and manufacturing a bike capable of traveling 60 mph for the 2020 World Human Powered Speed Challenge. As the frame team lead, I am responsible for leading a team of five engineers to build the frame of the bike and integrate it with the drivetrain, fairing, and electronic systems.

The frame was initially designed in SolidWorks. It features a roll cage design to allow for stability while limiting the total weight. From there, after several rounds of prorotyping, it was manufactured in the Berkeley mechanical engineering machine shop. We cut and notched the tubes using a mill, band saw, and files, before the tubes were welded together.

Unfortunately, the competition was cancelled and school machine shops closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now focusing our sights on the 2021 ASME competition, for which I will be serving as team lead.

Designed filtering circuitry and voltage regulation system to power varying circuit components. Performed principal component analysis on recorded audio clips to allow classification of commands. The final robot was capable of following commands to drive forward/backwards at varying speeds and make 90 degree turns. The project report can be found here.

Built a version control system in Java similar to Git that allows for add, commit, push, merge, checkout functionality. Wrote file I/O methods and implemented HashMap and tree data structures.

Designed and 3D printed a Nintendo Switch Joy Con controller wheel for driving games. I iterated through several designs, improving them to fit the controller better and to feel more comfortable when being used.

Built a wooden piano rack for a piano in a Berkeley dorm. The wood was cut using a jigsaw, bandsaw, table saw and sander. Pieces were assembled using wood screws combined with reinforcing pieces as well as wood glue.

I wrote Phoenix during my senior year of high school. Having more free time during my last two semesters of high school and wanting to challenge myself, I decided to attempt to write a novel. An english teacher I had told me that the best way to write a good book was to write bad one first, so one night, as I laid on my bed, I pulled out my notebook and began writing what would become the prologue of Phoenix.

The novel is a coming of age story about a high school senior named Marcus living in a quiet town in the eastern US. After several events cause his life to fall apart, he embarks on an adventure across the country, taking him through places and events he never could have imagined experiencing.

Beyond the journey that came with writing a 90 000 word novel, being able to self-publish the book through a Amazon's Createspace service was a great learning experience for me. I saw how easy it is to turn visions into reality and the feeling of being able to hold a hard copy of my book was amazing. I hope to continue to write in the future and can't wait to bring more of my ideas to life.