MIT Portugal selects twelve MIT students and twelve students at Portuguese universities to participate in a two-week marine robotics summer program. We sat in on lectures that spanned topics ranging from ocean science and marine biology, to the mechanical design of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) used to collect data studied by marine researchers. The program also involved field work and hands-on challenges. The second week of the program involved working in teams of four to assemble a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and tailor it to a specific purpose. In my team, I implemented a lightweight underwater trash detection model to run on the Raspberry Pi, and built a servo-actuated gripper. Read about the program here.
I joined Caltech's UAV club during the COVID pandemic in the Fall of 2020. I built two different kinds of photography drones, one which uses a smartphone and a handheld gimbal as the camera system, and one which aims to be the most compact gimbal-stabilized GoPro drone, rivalling the official GoPro Karma. Read more about these drones on my drone projects page.
I was president of Caltech's California Beta Chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor society in the United States. I served as president during my senior year. Members of our chapter qualified by exhibiting exemplary character as individuals, engineers, and scholars, along with academic eligibility by being at the top 1/8th of their class (juniors) or top 1/5th (for seniors) in regards to GPA. I attended the 52nd annual Tau Beta Pi convention in Knoxville, Tennessee where I served on the awards committee to help select the Most Improved Chapter award for 2021 and 2022.
Like the UAV club, I joined the Caltech Robotics Team during the COVID pandemic. I designed a 2-axis camera gimbal system for the "Gerald" submarine that made use of dual cameras for depth perception.
