Projects

These are my favorite parts of being an engineer; all the cool ways I can apply everything learned in the classroom- please feel free to reach out to chat about any of them!

In April 2025, I founded a nonprofit propulsion research organization to provide undergraduate students with gritty, technical experience and to push the envelope of rotation detonation rocket engine (RDRE) technology. Leading a team of 5 propulsion engineers, we are engineering every detail of the engine from the fuel system plumbing to the thrust chamber mechanical design to the fluid dynamics simulations of injector orifices and plenums. The metal 3D printed version of our first engine (for which I did the base design) is shown to the right. By April 2026, we will have our first engine completed and plan to be starting test campaign!

As a sophomore, I led the propulsion development for Penn Jet Propulsion's competition team. As team lead, I managed 7 people with the goal of designing a variable nozzle to alter the thrust of a small turbojet engine. We used overlapping fins to minimize actuation and weight considerations while optimizing nozzle shape (compared to polygon designs), leveraging direct metal laser sintering to manufacture complex geometries. I was responsible for managing the top-level of all project systems, as well as the detailed design of mechanical components pictured below. After owning the design from ideation through fabrication, we competed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in April 2025, beating out 18 other teams to win the design award. Check out our poster (below-left) for more details!

In spring 2024, I designed and manufactured a Stirling Engine, or a "heat engine." This engine runs at 1443 rpm off the heat of a butane torch (and a kickstart) and is modeled after a miniature roulette wheel. The entire 61-piece assembly was modeled in Solidworks. In making this, I learned how to use CNC and manual mills, lathes, and various other precision machining equipment, as well as manufacturing basics. And on the design side, I learned the basics of GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and Mastercam.

In fall 2024, I worked with 3 friends to develop a mechanical diorama, powered by pumped water over a waterwheel. The barn-like "shell" structure contains a custom music box (which plays Old MacDonald) and custom cuckoo-clock, both powered by the waterwheel. We used a series of gear ratios and chained systems internally to provide ample torque to the waterwheel and speed to the cuckoo clock. 

In fall 2024, I designed and built a "bauhaus" themed chess set with 3 classmates. We used alternating types of wood to create the checkerboard and both a CNC and manual lathe to machine each individual piece. At the end of the project, we had each side anodized to fit the bauhaus color scheme and differentiate the teams.

In fall 2023, I developed a SVM classifier facial recognition script to hone my python skills. It allows users to train a database by taking photos with a webcam, then classify a live video feed based on the database. The main downside of an SVM classifier lies in its inability to recognize faces outside the database, which could be solved by training millions of random faces under the label "not recognized". (Rough code below)