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. Teaching matters to me just as much. I've spent years tutoring physics, mentoring students, and presenting technical work. I'm currently open to work and expanding my hands-on robotics toolkit with Viam's platform and hardware.
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
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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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 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.
A sealed enclosure for a large-scale electrolysis stack with fume-hood exhaust, designed using OSHA industrial ventilation guidance to dilute and remove carbon monoxide.
LAMMPS simulations of bulk metallic glasses (glass-forming ability and rearrangements under cyclic shear) and of deformable particles clogging in hopper flows, run as parallelized workflows on HPC clusters.
FIRST RoboticsRobotics started for me in high school with FRC Team 1986, Team Titanium, in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I spent four seasons on the team from 2010 to 2014. For the first two I was on the mechanical subteam, designing and fabricating our competition robots. For the last two I was team captain and the robot's driver. Over those four seasons our robots won seven 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.
About the award
In Aerial Assist, alliances passed and launched large exercise balls into goals, earning bonus points for teamwork. I captained the team and drove Tusk in competition.
In Ultimate Ascent, robots shot flying discs into goals and climbed a pyramid at the end of the match. I captained the team and drove Kraken in competition.
In Rebound Rumble, robots shot foam basketballs into hoops and balanced on bridges at the end of each match. I was on the mechanical subteam that designed and built Pegasus, and I was the team's human player in competition.
In Logo Motion, robots hung inflatable shapes on a scoring grid and launched minibots to climb towers in the final seconds. I was on the mechanical subteam that designed and built Final Force.
I'm taking on tutoring students in New York City. I tutored engineering physics for three years as a Peer Learning Assistant at Missouri S&T and was a Teaching Fellow for dynamics at Yale. I enjoy helping students build real intuition for technical subjects, not just get through the next problem set.
High school, AP, and introductory college physics, from mechanics through electricity & magnetism.
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.