I graduated from the University of Michigan in 2026 with a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering.
My background is in mechanism design, thermal systems, and controls, and I’m most at home on
open-ended problems
where I have to prototype, test, and iterate my way to an answer.
The competition ranked teams on how close their rocket landed to a target distance, somewhere
between 100 and 200 feet, announced only on the day. That meant we couldn't tune the rocket
by trial and error ahead of time. We needed a trajectory model accurate enough to set up
a launch for a distance we hadn't seen yet.
My role
I designed and fabricated the fins and nosecone. Wind tunnel measurements and test flights
showed the rocket needed more stability and less drag, so we added weight to the nosecone
and redesigned the fins. I also helped build the MATLAB trajectory model. Thrust was the
hardest part to model, and it had the biggest effect on predicted distance.
Result
On competition day, our rocket landed 6 feet (under 5%) from the 130-foot target, and
we placed in the top ten out of 40+ teams.
Tools
MATLAB, SolidWorks, wind tunnel testing
Four Bar Linkage Design and Control
University of Michigan, 2024
Fig. 2. Our device sensing and knocking down flags during a timed run.
The competition ranked teams on how many flags their device could knock down in a set time.
Our design used proximity sensors to find each flag and a four bar linkage to aim an
LED at each flag’s light sensor to trigger it. The hard part was speed: the faster the linkage moved, the more likely it was to
overshoot and miss, so we had to tune our PID controller to get as much speed as possible
without losing accuracy.
My role
I analyzed the linkage's motion, energy conversion, and motor control using SolidWorks,
MATLAB, and MSC Adams. During testing, we tuned the PID gains, feed-forward values, position
settings, and proximity sensor thresholds, repeating the cycle until the arm moved quickly
and cleanly. I also helped write the the Arduino program that handled sensor reading, PID control,
and flag sequencing.
Result
Our team finished in the top 20 percent of 35+ teams, ranked by flags knocked down in the
time limit.
Tools
SolidWorks, MATLAB, Arduino, MSC Adams
About
At Riverbend, I work on product development. Before that, at Michigan, I received the university's
Distinguished Leadership Award for my role as president of Pi Tau Sigma, the Mechanical Engineering Honor Society
Outside of work, I love to play disc golf, ride my bike, and ski.