I'm a multidisciplinary robotics engineer and researcher. My background spans autonomous systems, controls, simulation, mechanical engineering, physics, and mathematics. At Yale I earned an M.S. and M.Phil. in Mechanical Engineering as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in Prof. Ian Abraham's lab. There I developed algorithms that let teams of drones explore cluttered, unknown environments safely, combining ergodic trajectory optimization with control barrier functions, and tested them on real quadrotor swarms.
Before robotics, I spent years simulating materials and quantum phase transitions on HPC clusters, first at Missouri S&T, where I earned a B.S. in Physics summa cum laude, and then in Prof. Corey O'Hern's group at Yale. More recently, I worked where software meets hardware at Oxylus Energy, building a PyQt5 control system for multi-station lab hardware and designing a ventilated enclosure for a large-scale electrolysis stack.
I like taking an idea from theory to a working machine: researching it, developing the algorithm, writing the code, designing and prototyping the parts, and testing the physical system. I enjoy both simulation and experiment, and almost all of my work combines the two: modeling a system to guide the design, then testing the real hardware to check the model. Teaching matters to me just as much. I've spent years tutoring physics, mentoring students, and presenting technical work. I'm currently open to full-time roles and to consulting on mechanical engineering, software engineering, and robotics engineering projects, and I'm expanding my hands-on robotics toolkit with Viam's platform and hardware. Get in touch →
ROS 1/2, Viam, multi-robot planning, trajectory optimization, and control barrier functions on real drone swarms and robot arms.
Research codebases, hardware control, and PyQt5 GUIs for instrument and lab automation.
High-performance simulation, numerical methods, and data analysis tooling.
LAMMPS molecular dynamics, parallel Monte Carlo, and large-scale workflows on Linux clusters.
Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks, and Siemens NX, plus 3D printing, laser cutting, and machine-shop work, from FIRST robots to lab enclosures.
Origin, MATLAB, and Python for experimental and simulation data, plotting, and publication figures.
M.S. & M.Phil., Mechanical Engineering
Advanced to Ph.D. candidacy (2022)
2019 – 2025
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B.S. Physics, Summa Cum Laude
2014 – 2019
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High School Diploma
2010 – 2014
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PLTW Engineering
2012 – 2014
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Finds the objects on a table, drives a Viam-controlled arm with a wrist-mounted Intel RealSense depth camera around each one, and fuses the views into a smooth, watertight 3D mesh of every object. Fusing ~50 views cuts surface roughness from 0.27 mm to under 0.08 mm.
Collision-free search trajectories for single drones and drone teams in cluttered environments. Discrete control barrier functions are built into ergodic trajectory optimization, so the robots cover a space thoroughly while staying provably safe. Validated in simulation and on real quadrotors.
An autonomous trade-show booth greeter built on Viam. A fixed webcam and a pre-trained person detector track passersby, and an SO-101 robotic arm turns toward each one, points, beckons, and waves. Runs on both a simulated and a real arm.
A Viam module that finds where a gripper's fingertips really are by touching them to the table, the way machinists set up a tool, then corrects the gripper's frame in the machine config so motion planning stops driving fingertips into the table.
Continuous exploration for battery-powered multi-agent teams. A battery model predicts each robot's state of charge, and planning trades battery use against coverage so at least one agent is always exploring.
Uses Stein variational inference to generate a diverse set of ergodic search trajectories at once, so a planner can choose among many good exploration strategies instead of committing to a single local optimum.
A swarm of Bitcraze Crazyflie 2.1 drones that flies into formation to spell a "Y". I built, calibrated, and programmed it over a single weekend, right after the drones arrived, to show prospective Ph.D. students visiting the newly opened lab.
A modular PyQt5 application for running many lab stations at once: per-station configuration, dynamic USB device mapping, live sensor polling and telemetry, and validated, synchronized test schedules.
An airtight, mobile 80/20 and polycarbonate enclosure for a large-scale electrolysis stack, vented to a fume hood and designed to OSHA standards so people stay safe even in a worst-case carbon monoxide leak.
I carried out simulations of bulk metallic glasses in LAMMPS (glass-forming ability and rearrangements under cyclic shear), and of soft, deformable particles clogging in hopper flows using MATLAB and LAMMPS.
Google Scholar
FIRST RoboticsRobotics started for me in high school with FRC Team 1986, Team Titanium, in Lee's Summit, Missouri, where I spent four seasons from 2010 to 2014. Throughout my time on the team I worked on the mechanical side, prototyping, designing in CAD, and manufacturing our competition robots. From the 2012 off-season until I graduated, I was also the team captain and the robot's driver. Over those four seasons our robots won eight regional championships, and in 2013 Kraken reached the Newton Division finals at the FIRST Championship. I also volunteered more than 1,000 hours mentoring younger students through FIRST programs and summer camps.
The FIRST Dean's List recognizes high school students for their leadership, technical expertise, and commitment to FIRST's mission of inspiring students in science and technology. I was named a Dean's List Finalist in my senior year as Team Titanium's captain and driver.
My senior year and second season as team captain and driver. I put in more than 300 hours over the six-week build season, with a major role in mechanical design, prototyping, and fabrication, and mentored younger students as they learned to use the machines in our shop.
I drove Tusk to two regional wins, and was named a FIRST Dean's List Finalist.
My first season as team captain. I put in more than 300 hours over the six-week build season, with a major role in mechanical design, prototyping, and fabrication, and mentored younger students in the shop.
As driver, Kraken lost only one match all regular season, won all three of our regionals, and reached the Newton Division finals. I also drove us to an off-season win at the Cow Town ThrowDown.
I went all-in on the mechanical team, putting more than 300 hours into the season and contributing to the robot's CAD design and fabrication.
As human player I fed foam basketballs onto the field, then spent the last 30 seconds of each match launching them across the field at the hoops. In the off-season I became the driver and won my first event, going 14–1 at the Cow Town ThrowDown.
My first build season. Like most freshmen I tried electrical, programming, and mechanical work, and found my place helping the mechanical team build the robot. I went to kickoff, helped work through the rules, brainstormed strategies, proposed designs, and helped in the pits at every tournament.
This was the season I fell in love with robotics, and it set me on a path toward science and technology.
Each summer our team hosted three weeks of STEM camps, with several sessions a day for kids from first grade through middle school. I mentored at every one, putting in hundreds of hours each summer.
Throughout the school year I spent several nights a week mentoring younger teams:
The off-season stayed busy too:
I'm currently tutoring students throughout New York City. Over the years, I've spent thousands of hours teaching and mentoring students from elementary school through college across a wide range of subjects. My experience includes robotics, CAD, university-level calculus, Physics I and II, and engineering dynamics. I've also taught classes and worked with students at Yale University.
As an undergraduate at Missouri S&T, I worked as a Peer Learning Assistant and became known on campus as someone students could turn to for help with Engineering Physics I and Physics II through the university's LEAD sessions. I graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Physics and minors in mathematics, geology, and philosophy of technology. I went on to earn two master's degrees at Yale University, where I also advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in robotics and autonomous systems.
Throughout my education, I enjoyed helping classmates outside the classroom, often organizing study sessions where we worked through challenging concepts, tackled homework, and prepared for exams together.
My strongest areas are physics, robotics, mathematics, and materials science, though I'm comfortable tutoring a broad range of subjects and academic levels. Most importantly, I enjoy helping students develop a genuine intuition for what they're learning—not simply memorize formulas or work through problems, but understand the underlying concepts and why they work.
High school, AP, and college physics, from mechanics to electricity & magnetism, through graduate-level courses like solid state physics or chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics.
Algebra through calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra.
Python and MATLAB for beginners, students, and scientists getting started with computation.
Intro robotics, CAD, and mentoring for FIRST and other student robotics teams.
I'm based in New York City and open to full-time roles, consulting projects, and tutoring. If you have a role, a project, or a question, I'd love to hear from you.
Robotics, controls, and autonomy engineering, with a focus on autonomous systems, motion planning, and optimization-based control. I'm interested in developing intelligent robotic systems, integrating advanced algorithms with physical hardware, and solving challenging real-world engineering problems.
Mechanical engineering, software engineering, and robotics engineering projects, from design and CAD through code, prototyping, and testing.
Physics, mathematics, programming, and robotics, from elementary school through graduate-level courses. More →
cameron.lerch@gmail.com · New York City
Presented "Monte Carlo Simulations of the Magnetic Behavior of Diluted Hexaferrites," my research with Dr. Thomas Vojta and Dr. Julia Medvedeva, at Missouri S&T's annual Fuller undergraduate poster competition. It won first place at the 47th annual competition and runner-up at the 48th.
Selected to present my poster "Disorder and Dynamics of Quantum Materials," my research with Dr. Thomas Vojta on diluted magnetic materials, to Missouri state legislators at the State Capitol.
Battle of the Brains is Burns & McDonnell's STEM competition in which students from across the Kansas City area propose a new exhibit for Science City at Union Station. My class at Summit Technology Academy, led by me and one of my classmates, put together our submission, "Wright into the Future," and I developed the entire CAD model of the exhibit.
Our entry took second place, standing out among thousands of entries and winning our school $5,000.
