Projects
During my time at MIT and Georgia Tech, I worked on several projects and initiatives. These projects have spanned from robotics and hack-a-thons to community initiatives and equity-focused work. Although the projects discussed on this page are diverse in nature, I tend to have interests in engineering, humanitarian and policy-focused work, so each project will fall under one or more of those categories. Quite a few of these projects were recently started and are still ongoing. See more below!
Graduate Projects
Technical Work
Passion Projects
Institute for Engineering Equity (IEE)
Quantifying Power
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
My Podcast (Coming Soon)
Undergraduate Projects
Technical Work
Passion Projects
High-Temperature Electrothermal Probe
Figures show two iterations of the probe design
Over the first two and a half years of graduate school, I created an electrothermal
probe capable of withstanding high temperatures (>600°C). Along with going through
the various iterations of this probe’s design, I worked on the sensitivity, data
and error analysis needed for gathering thermophysical properties from the
probe. The goal of the probe was
to measure high-temperature fluidized heat transfer media
(HTM) - particularly molten chloride salts - for the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (Gen3CSP) Initiative.
A concentrating solar power plant (click image to enlarge) is composed of a
field of "mirrors" known as heliostats that direct
sunlight towards a receiver. Heat transfer media (HTM) flows past that receiver and
stores thermal energy from sunlight. This HTM is then transported to a heat exchanger
and used to generate electricity via a power cycle.
In 2018, the Department of Energy began the Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power
(Gen3CSP) Initiative, which sought to create a concentrating
solar power plant so efficient that it could compete with the
cost of electricity generated by non-renewable resources. In order to ensure the
desired efficiency is reached, this plant will operate at higher temperatures
than its predecessors. Due to this new higher temperature range, there is a lack
of thermophysical information about the plant’s potential HTM options. The probe
I designed was made for characterizing high-temperature heat transfer media for
use in energy systems like the Gen3CSP plant.
Using the 3𝜔 technique, this probe finds the thermal conductivity and heat capacity
of the heat transfer medium of interest. The 3𝜔 technique uses a thin (nanoscale) metallic
sensor, or heater line, to propagate heat at a given frequency into the specimen.
The local change in temperature of the specimen is then measured by the same sensor
and recorded. This data is plotted for various frequencies and fit to a model – in my
case, the multi-layered radial heat transfer model. That fitting gives the thermal
conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of the HTM.
The final image gives an overview of the 3𝜔 technique and the models used for analysis.
References can be found in the bottom right corner of the image (click image to enlarge).
I’m currently working on finishing this project and publishing a
journal article on it.
EmboSight Tactile Display
As we rely more on screen-based technologies like cellphones
and tablets, for everything from work to entertainment and
spend more and more time on these devices, they have become
integral parts of the modern American’s life. Along with electronic
screens, various flat surfaces have risen in popularity to communicate
information on devices such as electronic stoves, scanners and washing
machines. Such surfaces contain vital visual information that are often
indistinguishable for people who are visually impaired and blind.
For our Designing Open Engineering Systems course, my partner and I
designed a tactile interface for users with visual impairments to interact
with images.
We used a vibration-based motor-screw matrix for actuating pins in
the display due to its manufacturability and the fact that its accompanying
tactile interface tested the best with clients. The vibration-induced
pin matrix was inspired by this Master’s thesis.
The final design is composed of a smooth plastic enclosure, a large power
button at the front of the device, a power jack, USB port and over 700 pins.
In the final version of the device, the plastic enclosure will be made using
injection molding. The side of the device has a USB port and power jack that
can easily be accessed by the user. The top of the device has the 3-mm round
tops of the pins exposed. The section with the pins is 5” x 5” and the device
is 10.3”x10.3” with a total height of 4.40”.
The device is designed to raise the pins by about 3-4mm - creating distinct
“raised” and “lowered” binary positions. In the case of impact, pins are
protected using the raised top of the device. The cover is made to completely
enclose the internal actuation mechanisms of the device from every angle.
Future iterations of the device may incorporate items such as a flexible elastic
sheet to cover the pins to make for more contiguous contours or a more advanced
gear train that takes advantage of the need for opposite facing preload axles to
be synchronized. Such a gear train may require only one stepper motor to control
all preload axles. Initial prototypes are expected to be more costly to manufacture
and include more parts than our final mass-manufacturable design which will require
injection molding and optimized tooling for placing parts such as the set screws and
pins during device assembly.
An Upgraded Composting System
Bioplastics have become commonly used in many everyday plastic goods.
For my first graduate design course, my team and I sought
to fulfill this need by designing a functional, effective,
and inexpensive composting solution for food courts,
restaurants, and eateries to implement in their facilities.
Figure 1: Initial sketch of our device with the major components labeled
Figure 2: 3D renderings of our device showing the (a)
front, (b) top, (c) trimetric and (d) back views
The design included a leadscrew that automatically that
has temperature controls that mixes the pile to mix and
heats the compost, shredder that breaks down plastics
into smaller pieces, removable bin, separate food and
bioplastics chutes, user-control panel, a solar panel,
and an IR sorter to reject non-bioplastics to the general waste bin.
The unit will be supplied to users with a mixture of 6
bacteria (bacillus licheniformi, bacillus smithii,
bacillus brevis, geobacillus thermocatenulatus, and paenibacillus
amylolyticus) that will aid in microbial degradation of PLA.
Additionally, it will have controls for optimal hydrolytic
degradation of PLA at 60ºC, 80%RH.
Figure 3: (a) Sketch of the improved design and (b)
3D rendering of the second iteration of the design
Figure 4: Views of (a) the top of the device and its
solar panel, (b) the back of the device with the information
panel, (c) the side of the device with labels, (d) the front
of the device with the control panel that consists of a
touchscreen, the on/off button and shredder speed knob.
Equitable Energy Technologies
In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,
“We are the first generation to be able to end poverty,
and the last generation that can take steps to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change." As we create new sustainable
energy technologies, a need still exists for us to better engineer
them to serve everyone; therefore, I am pursing research at the
intersection of energy, design and equity.
Overall, I seek to use my knowledge of emerging sustainable energy
technologies to create frameworks for equitable energy system design.
Although many solutions to energy inequity are typically viewed at the
policy level, I am seeking to understand and address these inequities
starting further upstream in the process – from the viewpoint of mechanical
design. My overarching research question is: “How can design methodologies
be used to guide and assess the equitable application of energy technologies?”
I started this project in January 2021, so more information will
be added as the project progresses.
Institute for Engineering Equity
I sought to create a place within the Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE)
that could house equity-focused research like mine. So,
I proposed the creation of an Institute for Engineering Equity under the CoE through
its Student Innovation Competition - Promoting Equity and Access (SICPEA) in
February 2021.
There are three main issues that the application sought to address:
- The underrepresentation of racial and gender minority graduate students in the College of
Engineering
- The lack of opportunity, resources and encouragement for underrepresented graduate
students who seek to do research that impacts their communities
- The lack of an institutionalized way to work on research projects at the intersection of
engineering and equity
The IEE would address these issues by creating a fellowship and
providing students with an opportunity to pursue graduate engineering
research to aid disenfranchised populations.
You can view the whole proposal here:
Institute for Engineering Equity Proposal
Quantifying Political Power
I learned R in a 6-week “Open Data With R” introductory
course. For the final project, I sought to take the
first steps in a thought experiment I’ve been working
on – quantifying political power - by looking at PAC
donor data.
Abstract
In a quest to quantify power within the United States, I took a preliminary view into Political Action Committee (PAC) donors, their estimated wealth, the most popular PACs and the political parties they are donating to. Due to the limited time for this project, only data sets from 2018 were used. Donors who gave to the top 20 PACs by amount in 2018 and paid at least $200 were observed as well as 2018 IRS data and 2018 PAC contributions to political parties view the OpenSecrets website. More data analysis is needed to form conclusions on the correlation between wealth and PAC contributions, but from preliminary analysis, the higher one is in income, the more likely it is that they will donate to a PAC - with majority of donations coming from the top ̃30% of incomes and exponentially decreasing with lowering income range. This preliminary view provides a framework by which I can begin the larger project of quantifying political power in the United States by observing more factors - financial or otherwise - contributing to an individual’s or institution’s power in our society.
You can view the final paper I wrote for the course using RMarkdown here:
Open Data With R Final Paper
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon was a 36-hour virtual
hackathon dedicated to designing policy proposals that
aim to solve today's most pressing economic challenges.
Over the course of the weekend, we drafted policy memos as
groups under public health, trade and immigration, firms
and workers, and financial policy.
My group was part of the firms and workers track and
we looked at creating a new upskilling program for the
city of Seattle to better assist lower-income workers.
You can view the memo from the hackathon here:
Final Covid-19 Policy Hackathon Memo
The Before It's Too Late Podcast
After participating in ComSciCon Atlanta (a multi-day
science communication workshop) in 2020, I decided to
further explore my passion for science communication through
a podcast. The Before It’s Too Late (BITL) podcast
focuses on the ethical questions and conversations around
emerging science and technology.
You can listen to the podcast introduction below.
Listen to the BITL Intro:
MIT Senior Thesis Project
About 2.1 billion people worldwide, majority of whom are of the
poorest income quintile, lack access to safe, readily available
drinking water in their homes. In the paper
Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem, the xylem from
the sapwood of coniferous trees was found to be an effective and
low-cost water filter. For my undergraduate senior thesis, I sought to create a convenient
and effective method for carrying out quality control tests during the manufacturing process of these xylem filters.
My senior thesis in Dr. Rohit Karnik’s Microfluidics & Nanofluidics Research
Laboratory allowed me to utilize my backgrounds in both biology and
mechanical engineering. I created a protocol for failure testing of the xylem filter
and instrumentation to affordably and efficiently test these filters by hand
using particulates seeded in fluid.
Figures: Setup for Water Testing and Setup for Air Testing
The goal of my thesis was to create the criteria, design the system, and identify
the materials and hardware that could be used to create a simple, consistent
and easy-to-use testing setup. To reduce costs, the testing was also to be done
by hand. The ultimate goal was to create a device that would
identify the permeability and rejection of the filter.
Figures: Design of water-based testing system and Simplified CAD of Air Testing Setup
For destructive testing, I used a syringe design in which the user could use dye,
seeded particles like tumeric and provide pressure through the filter by pressing
the water through the syringe and collecting filtrate.
For non-destructive testing, I used an asthma inhaler as a model for the
design because an inhaler allows the user to deliver a pre-determined amount
of air containing particles that will function as ther "contaminants". The
inhaler-based design contains both the inhaler and a slotted base to allow
manufacturers easy access to the filter.
My senior thesis can be found here:
Senior Thesis
Design & Manufacturing II: The Yo-Yodeler
In my Design and Manufacturing II class,
we formed teams of about 5-6 students and created a yo-yo of
our own design for the final project. This class focused
on techniques of manufacturing from SLA for prototyping to
machining and injection molding techniques for mass-production.
My team designed a yo-yo based on yodeling. This yo-yo consisted
of a glow-in-the-dark moon face, a dark blue "night-time" body, and a bright
red "yodeler" as seen in the images above. Our yo-yo stood atop a green mountain
base that we thermoformed.
Figures: The molds we created to make the parts of our yo-yo and
all of the injection molded parts for 50 yo-yos - ready for assembly
My team: The Yo-Yodelers at the final presentation
More about our process can be found on the
website we made for the class.
Design & Manufacturing I: The Inchworm
This is the first robot I designed and built on my own.
It was made to inch up a wooden rod for my Design & Manufacturing I (2.007) class.
The "Inchworm" had two clamps made from ABS that was softened and molded around a cylindrical rod.
These clamps were then lined with rubber to enhance the robot's grip.
The robot was designed to inch up the pole by alternating clamps, using a lead screw and slots.
The final robot ended up being heavier with the addition of guides and that
moved the robot's center of gravity further from the pole, making it more
difficult to sustain its grip as it moved up the pole. In the end, the robot was
able to grip the pole but the pivoting during climbing made it difficult to
continuously climb up the pole.
At the end of the class, it was dubbed one of the most complex robot designs of the class.
Other aspects of the class included working with Arduinos, power and torque measurements,
prototyping and machining.
Virtual Reality System for Mice
My collegiate research journey started in Dr. Ed
Boyden’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group in the McGovern
Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Media Lab. For
my research project, I designed and built an updated mouse
virtual reality system for recording in vivo neural-activity
in mice. I also analyzed the performance of mice in a virtual
reality system that was used to record neural activity in
vivo to retrieve new data to be included in grants and
publications.
It was through my research experience
in this lab that I discovered my love for mechanical design.
I learned the avenue by which one ventures from research to
fabrication.
Figures: CAD of old (smaller) and new (larger) virtual reality systems (my first time using SOLIDWORKS) and
updated mouse virtual reality system
These systems allow neuroscientists to perform in vivo neural recordings.
Such recordings were used to monitor the physiological progression of neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Mice were trained and observed on
a virtual reality system.
This VR system for mice consists of a spherical treadmill,
head-plate support system and a display system. The spherical
treadmill design was initially provided by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's
Janelia Research Center. The spherical treadmill consisted of a light,
foam ball that floats on 10 Ping-pong ball air cannons supported by an
acrylic base. I built all parts of the system from scratch aside from the foam ball
and projection system.
Figures: Ping-pong air cannons clamped to a skeletal acrylic frame and
final updated mouse VR design with head plates and screen projecting track
Along with building a new VR system,
I also worked to assess the ability for mice to carry out complex
tasks in virtual reality. I used a lickometer to characterize the ability for mice to learn more
complex tasks such as licking at particular points in a virtual maze.
MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week
Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week at MIT is a week
in March dedicated to building connections among
members of the MIT community. During the spring
semester of my freshman year, my friend Cory and
I were talking about the need to bring some more
forms of upliftment to MIT. In the beginning of our
sophomore year, the Mind+Hand+Heart Initiative created
the Innovation Fund, which funded community and mental
health related ideas. Through this fund as well as
funding from the MIT Baker Foundation, the Office of
Minority Education, the Office of Graduate Education
and the MIT Large Event Fund, we were able to make our
idea a reality.
The idea morphed into RAK Week -
a week dedicated to forming connections and starting
conversations around campus. Now, RAK Week has become an
annual event at MIT.
Here are some of the articles written about MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week:
Two sophomores champion MIT’s first Random Acts of Kindness Week
RAK Week connects people across campus
A Random Act of Kindness in the Infinite Corridor
Class Awareness, Support and Equality
At the beginning of my junior year, I was speaking to some of my
friends about experiences with not being able to afford food in college.
After these discussions, I decided that it was an issue that needed to
be addressed. I reached out to some friends who were working with the
CASE (Class Awareness, Support and Equality) student group and found
that they had sent out a survey that inquired about financial issues to
the undergraduate population. They found that over 10% of undergraduates
have experienced food insecurity while at MIT. After seeing how wide-spread
this problem was, I decided to join CASE and became the head of the group's
food insecurity team in my senior year.
Through funding from the MIT Women's League, we began the first program
to aid undergraduate students who experience food insecurity in January
2018. Students were able to sign up to receive Free Food Care Packages.
The package program contained fresh groceries for students to eat during
the Intermediate Activities Period. This program continued in summer 2018
and was expanded to include graduate students, as well. Along with the care
package, we included the tips and recipes below - which corresponded to some
of the items in the packages.
Along with the fresh food package program, we started in-dorm food pantries,
blogs and tips for affordable eating and advised representatives from the MIT
Division of Student Life as they sought to open a low-cost market on campus.
In addition to creating in-dorm food pantries in all of the undergraduate dorms
without dining halls, we started a program for collecting and recycling unopened,
non-perishable foods from students at the end of the year to restock the food pantries.
Undergrad Making & Hacking
MakeMIT 2016
The first "hack-a-thon" I attended was MakeMIT.
This make-a-thon focused on hardware projects.
My team worked to create a motion sensor device
that allows you to take pictures with friends in
the Infinite Corridor. After these pictures were
taken, the computer would loop through them -
providing viewers with "snapshots" from other people's
days. We used a raspberry pi to encode the motion sensor
and camera. It didn’t end up completely working,
but it was still fun :)
Figures: Images of our MakeMIT project
Breaking the Mold: Hacking Unconscious Bias 2017
2017 was the first time the Breaking the Mold Hackathon
was held. This hackathon focused on unconscious bias
in the workplace. My team focused on the topic of accent
bias during the hiring process. We sought to develop
a program that would identify the accent biases of
hiring managers and use these bias test results to
normalize the results from their employee recruitment.
My friend Samantha and I were the only undergraduates
on our team, but we were the lead programmers. Our
idea was based off of Harvard's Project Implicit
tests. We used the voices of our teammates with
accents and those without (according to the Northeastern
region of the U.S.) to create the audio clips.
Some Fun Experiences!
Huawei Seeds for the Future
During the summer of 2016, I spent some time in China as a participant of the
inaugural US Huawei Seeds for the Future program. I was given the opportunity
to practice my Mandarin at 北京语言大学 (Beijing Language and Culture University)
and immerse myself in Chinese culture with 19 other American students. After
Beijing, we headed to Shenzhen and stayed at the Huawei campus. While there, we
learned about Huawei’s telecommunication technology and network as well as future
innovations and work toward the Internet of Things and 5G. Finally, we received technical training at Huawei facilities for operating machines responsible for 2G, 3G, LTE and landline connections.
Videography
Professor Approachability
I have taken a couple of jobs as a videographer.
I also enjoy shooting and editing videos in my spare time.
The first experience I had with videography was during my freshman year.
A couple of friends and I wanted to create a video for students to watch
during freshman orientation. We wanted to aid in breaking down the barrier
between students and their professors, so we made a video about professor
approachability sponsored by the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming
(UAAP) Office. We played the role of the directors and interviewers of the video
and the MIT Audio-Visual Services handled the video shooting and editing. You can
view the final video here.
Passion Projects
Institute for Engineering Equity (IEE)
Quantifying Power
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
My Podcast (Coming Soon)
Undergraduate Projects
Technical Work
Passion Projects
High-Temperature Electrothermal Probe
Figures show two iterations of the probe design
Over the first two and a half years of graduate school, I created an electrothermal
probe capable of withstanding high temperatures (>600°C). Along with going through
the various iterations of this probe’s design, I worked on the sensitivity, data
and error analysis needed for gathering thermophysical properties from the
probe. The goal of the probe was
to measure high-temperature fluidized heat transfer media
(HTM) - particularly molten chloride salts - for the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (Gen3CSP) Initiative.
A concentrating solar power plant (click image to enlarge) is composed of a
field of "mirrors" known as heliostats that direct
sunlight towards a receiver. Heat transfer media (HTM) flows past that receiver and
stores thermal energy from sunlight. This HTM is then transported to a heat exchanger
and used to generate electricity via a power cycle.
In 2018, the Department of Energy began the Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power
(Gen3CSP) Initiative, which sought to create a concentrating
solar power plant so efficient that it could compete with the
cost of electricity generated by non-renewable resources. In order to ensure the
desired efficiency is reached, this plant will operate at higher temperatures
than its predecessors. Due to this new higher temperature range, there is a lack
of thermophysical information about the plant’s potential HTM options. The probe
I designed was made for characterizing high-temperature heat transfer media for
use in energy systems like the Gen3CSP plant.
Using the 3𝜔 technique, this probe finds the thermal conductivity and heat capacity
of the heat transfer medium of interest. The 3𝜔 technique uses a thin (nanoscale) metallic
sensor, or heater line, to propagate heat at a given frequency into the specimen.
The local change in temperature of the specimen is then measured by the same sensor
and recorded. This data is plotted for various frequencies and fit to a model – in my
case, the multi-layered radial heat transfer model. That fitting gives the thermal
conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of the HTM.
The final image gives an overview of the 3𝜔 technique and the models used for analysis.
References can be found in the bottom right corner of the image (click image to enlarge).
I’m currently working on finishing this project and publishing a
journal article on it.
EmboSight Tactile Display
As we rely more on screen-based technologies like cellphones
and tablets, for everything from work to entertainment and
spend more and more time on these devices, they have become
integral parts of the modern American’s life. Along with electronic
screens, various flat surfaces have risen in popularity to communicate
information on devices such as electronic stoves, scanners and washing
machines. Such surfaces contain vital visual information that are often
indistinguishable for people who are visually impaired and blind.
For our Designing Open Engineering Systems course, my partner and I
designed a tactile interface for users with visual impairments to interact
with images.
We used a vibration-based motor-screw matrix for actuating pins in
the display due to its manufacturability and the fact that its accompanying
tactile interface tested the best with clients. The vibration-induced
pin matrix was inspired by this Master’s thesis.
The final design is composed of a smooth plastic enclosure, a large power
button at the front of the device, a power jack, USB port and over 700 pins.
In the final version of the device, the plastic enclosure will be made using
injection molding. The side of the device has a USB port and power jack that
can easily be accessed by the user. The top of the device has the 3-mm round
tops of the pins exposed. The section with the pins is 5” x 5” and the device
is 10.3”x10.3” with a total height of 4.40”.
The device is designed to raise the pins by about 3-4mm - creating distinct
“raised” and “lowered” binary positions. In the case of impact, pins are
protected using the raised top of the device. The cover is made to completely
enclose the internal actuation mechanisms of the device from every angle.
Future iterations of the device may incorporate items such as a flexible elastic
sheet to cover the pins to make for more contiguous contours or a more advanced
gear train that takes advantage of the need for opposite facing preload axles to
be synchronized. Such a gear train may require only one stepper motor to control
all preload axles. Initial prototypes are expected to be more costly to manufacture
and include more parts than our final mass-manufacturable design which will require
injection molding and optimized tooling for placing parts such as the set screws and
pins during device assembly.
An Upgraded Composting System
Bioplastics have become commonly used in many everyday plastic goods.
For my first graduate design course, my team and I sought
to fulfill this need by designing a functional, effective,
and inexpensive composting solution for food courts,
restaurants, and eateries to implement in their facilities.
Figure 1: Initial sketch of our device with the major components labeled
Figure 2: 3D renderings of our device showing the (a)
front, (b) top, (c) trimetric and (d) back views
The design included a leadscrew that automatically that
has temperature controls that mixes the pile to mix and
heats the compost, shredder that breaks down plastics
into smaller pieces, removable bin, separate food and
bioplastics chutes, user-control panel, a solar panel,
and an IR sorter to reject non-bioplastics to the general waste bin.
The unit will be supplied to users with a mixture of 6
bacteria (bacillus licheniformi, bacillus smithii,
bacillus brevis, geobacillus thermocatenulatus, and paenibacillus
amylolyticus) that will aid in microbial degradation of PLA.
Additionally, it will have controls for optimal hydrolytic
degradation of PLA at 60ºC, 80%RH.
Figure 3: (a) Sketch of the improved design and (b)
3D rendering of the second iteration of the design
Figure 4: Views of (a) the top of the device and its
solar panel, (b) the back of the device with the information
panel, (c) the side of the device with labels, (d) the front
of the device with the control panel that consists of a
touchscreen, the on/off button and shredder speed knob.
Equitable Energy Technologies
In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,
“We are the first generation to be able to end poverty,
and the last generation that can take steps to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change." As we create new sustainable
energy technologies, a need still exists for us to better engineer
them to serve everyone; therefore, I am pursing research at the
intersection of energy, design and equity.
Overall, I seek to use my knowledge of emerging sustainable energy
technologies to create frameworks for equitable energy system design.
Although many solutions to energy inequity are typically viewed at the
policy level, I am seeking to understand and address these inequities
starting further upstream in the process – from the viewpoint of mechanical
design. My overarching research question is: “How can design methodologies
be used to guide and assess the equitable application of energy technologies?”
I started this project in January 2021, so more information will
be added as the project progresses.
Institute for Engineering Equity
I sought to create a place within the Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE)
that could house equity-focused research like mine. So,
I proposed the creation of an Institute for Engineering Equity under the CoE through
its Student Innovation Competition - Promoting Equity and Access (SICPEA) in
February 2021.
There are three main issues that the application sought to address:
- The underrepresentation of racial and gender minority graduate students in the College of
Engineering
- The lack of opportunity, resources and encouragement for underrepresented graduate
students who seek to do research that impacts their communities
- The lack of an institutionalized way to work on research projects at the intersection of
engineering and equity
The IEE would address these issues by creating a fellowship and
providing students with an opportunity to pursue graduate engineering
research to aid disenfranchised populations.
You can view the whole proposal here:
Institute for Engineering Equity Proposal
Quantifying Political Power
I learned R in a 6-week “Open Data With R” introductory
course. For the final project, I sought to take the
first steps in a thought experiment I’ve been working
on – quantifying political power - by looking at PAC
donor data.
Abstract
In a quest to quantify power within the United States, I took a preliminary view into Political Action Committee (PAC) donors, their estimated wealth, the most popular PACs and the political parties they are donating to. Due to the limited time for this project, only data sets from 2018 were used. Donors who gave to the top 20 PACs by amount in 2018 and paid at least $200 were observed as well as 2018 IRS data and 2018 PAC contributions to political parties view the OpenSecrets website. More data analysis is needed to form conclusions on the correlation between wealth and PAC contributions, but from preliminary analysis, the higher one is in income, the more likely it is that they will donate to a PAC - with majority of donations coming from the top ̃30% of incomes and exponentially decreasing with lowering income range. This preliminary view provides a framework by which I can begin the larger project of quantifying political power in the United States by observing more factors - financial or otherwise - contributing to an individual’s or institution’s power in our society.
You can view the final paper I wrote for the course using RMarkdown here:
Open Data With R Final Paper
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon was a 36-hour virtual
hackathon dedicated to designing policy proposals that
aim to solve today's most pressing economic challenges.
Over the course of the weekend, we drafted policy memos as
groups under public health, trade and immigration, firms
and workers, and financial policy.
My group was part of the firms and workers track and
we looked at creating a new upskilling program for the
city of Seattle to better assist lower-income workers.
You can view the memo from the hackathon here:
Final Covid-19 Policy Hackathon Memo
The Before It's Too Late Podcast
After participating in ComSciCon Atlanta (a multi-day
science communication workshop) in 2020, I decided to
further explore my passion for science communication through
a podcast. The Before It’s Too Late (BITL) podcast
focuses on the ethical questions and conversations around
emerging science and technology.
You can listen to the podcast introduction below.
Listen to the BITL Intro:
MIT Senior Thesis Project
About 2.1 billion people worldwide, majority of whom are of the
poorest income quintile, lack access to safe, readily available
drinking water in their homes. In the paper
Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem, the xylem from
the sapwood of coniferous trees was found to be an effective and
low-cost water filter. For my undergraduate senior thesis, I sought to create a convenient
and effective method for carrying out quality control tests during the manufacturing process of these xylem filters.
My senior thesis in Dr. Rohit Karnik’s Microfluidics & Nanofluidics Research
Laboratory allowed me to utilize my backgrounds in both biology and
mechanical engineering. I created a protocol for failure testing of the xylem filter
and instrumentation to affordably and efficiently test these filters by hand
using particulates seeded in fluid.
Figures: Setup for Water Testing and Setup for Air Testing
The goal of my thesis was to create the criteria, design the system, and identify
the materials and hardware that could be used to create a simple, consistent
and easy-to-use testing setup. To reduce costs, the testing was also to be done
by hand. The ultimate goal was to create a device that would
identify the permeability and rejection of the filter.
Figures: Design of water-based testing system and Simplified CAD of Air Testing Setup
For destructive testing, I used a syringe design in which the user could use dye,
seeded particles like tumeric and provide pressure through the filter by pressing
the water through the syringe and collecting filtrate.
For non-destructive testing, I used an asthma inhaler as a model for the
design because an inhaler allows the user to deliver a pre-determined amount
of air containing particles that will function as ther "contaminants". The
inhaler-based design contains both the inhaler and a slotted base to allow
manufacturers easy access to the filter.
My senior thesis can be found here:
Senior Thesis
Design & Manufacturing II: The Yo-Yodeler
In my Design and Manufacturing II class,
we formed teams of about 5-6 students and created a yo-yo of
our own design for the final project. This class focused
on techniques of manufacturing from SLA for prototyping to
machining and injection molding techniques for mass-production.
My team designed a yo-yo based on yodeling. This yo-yo consisted
of a glow-in-the-dark moon face, a dark blue "night-time" body, and a bright
red "yodeler" as seen in the images above. Our yo-yo stood atop a green mountain
base that we thermoformed.
Figures: The molds we created to make the parts of our yo-yo and
all of the injection molded parts for 50 yo-yos - ready for assembly
My team: The Yo-Yodelers at the final presentation
More about our process can be found on the
website we made for the class.
Design & Manufacturing I: The Inchworm
This is the first robot I designed and built on my own.
It was made to inch up a wooden rod for my Design & Manufacturing I (2.007) class.
The "Inchworm" had two clamps made from ABS that was softened and molded around a cylindrical rod.
These clamps were then lined with rubber to enhance the robot's grip.
The robot was designed to inch up the pole by alternating clamps, using a lead screw and slots.
The final robot ended up being heavier with the addition of guides and that
moved the robot's center of gravity further from the pole, making it more
difficult to sustain its grip as it moved up the pole. In the end, the robot was
able to grip the pole but the pivoting during climbing made it difficult to
continuously climb up the pole.
At the end of the class, it was dubbed one of the most complex robot designs of the class.
Other aspects of the class included working with Arduinos, power and torque measurements,
prototyping and machining.
Virtual Reality System for Mice
My collegiate research journey started in Dr. Ed
Boyden’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group in the McGovern
Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Media Lab. For
my research project, I designed and built an updated mouse
virtual reality system for recording in vivo neural-activity
in mice. I also analyzed the performance of mice in a virtual
reality system that was used to record neural activity in
vivo to retrieve new data to be included in grants and
publications.
It was through my research experience
in this lab that I discovered my love for mechanical design.
I learned the avenue by which one ventures from research to
fabrication.
Figures: CAD of old (smaller) and new (larger) virtual reality systems (my first time using SOLIDWORKS) and
updated mouse virtual reality system
These systems allow neuroscientists to perform in vivo neural recordings.
Such recordings were used to monitor the physiological progression of neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Mice were trained and observed on
a virtual reality system.
This VR system for mice consists of a spherical treadmill,
head-plate support system and a display system. The spherical
treadmill design was initially provided by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's
Janelia Research Center. The spherical treadmill consisted of a light,
foam ball that floats on 10 Ping-pong ball air cannons supported by an
acrylic base. I built all parts of the system from scratch aside from the foam ball
and projection system.
Figures: Ping-pong air cannons clamped to a skeletal acrylic frame and
final updated mouse VR design with head plates and screen projecting track
Along with building a new VR system,
I also worked to assess the ability for mice to carry out complex
tasks in virtual reality. I used a lickometer to characterize the ability for mice to learn more
complex tasks such as licking at particular points in a virtual maze.
MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week
Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week at MIT is a week
in March dedicated to building connections among
members of the MIT community. During the spring
semester of my freshman year, my friend Cory and
I were talking about the need to bring some more
forms of upliftment to MIT. In the beginning of our
sophomore year, the Mind+Hand+Heart Initiative created
the Innovation Fund, which funded community and mental
health related ideas. Through this fund as well as
funding from the MIT Baker Foundation, the Office of
Minority Education, the Office of Graduate Education
and the MIT Large Event Fund, we were able to make our
idea a reality.
The idea morphed into RAK Week -
a week dedicated to forming connections and starting
conversations around campus. Now, RAK Week has become an
annual event at MIT.
Here are some of the articles written about MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week:
Two sophomores champion MIT’s first Random Acts of Kindness Week
RAK Week connects people across campus
A Random Act of Kindness in the Infinite Corridor
Class Awareness, Support and Equality
At the beginning of my junior year, I was speaking to some of my
friends about experiences with not being able to afford food in college.
After these discussions, I decided that it was an issue that needed to
be addressed. I reached out to some friends who were working with the
CASE (Class Awareness, Support and Equality) student group and found
that they had sent out a survey that inquired about financial issues to
the undergraduate population. They found that over 10% of undergraduates
have experienced food insecurity while at MIT. After seeing how wide-spread
this problem was, I decided to join CASE and became the head of the group's
food insecurity team in my senior year.
Through funding from the MIT Women's League, we began the first program
to aid undergraduate students who experience food insecurity in January
2018. Students were able to sign up to receive Free Food Care Packages.
The package program contained fresh groceries for students to eat during
the Intermediate Activities Period. This program continued in summer 2018
and was expanded to include graduate students, as well. Along with the care
package, we included the tips and recipes below - which corresponded to some
of the items in the packages.
Along with the fresh food package program, we started in-dorm food pantries,
blogs and tips for affordable eating and advised representatives from the MIT
Division of Student Life as they sought to open a low-cost market on campus.
In addition to creating in-dorm food pantries in all of the undergraduate dorms
without dining halls, we started a program for collecting and recycling unopened,
non-perishable foods from students at the end of the year to restock the food pantries.
Undergrad Making & Hacking
MakeMIT 2016
The first "hack-a-thon" I attended was MakeMIT.
This make-a-thon focused on hardware projects.
My team worked to create a motion sensor device
that allows you to take pictures with friends in
the Infinite Corridor. After these pictures were
taken, the computer would loop through them -
providing viewers with "snapshots" from other people's
days. We used a raspberry pi to encode the motion sensor
and camera. It didn’t end up completely working,
but it was still fun :)
Figures: Images of our MakeMIT project
Breaking the Mold: Hacking Unconscious Bias 2017
2017 was the first time the Breaking the Mold Hackathon
was held. This hackathon focused on unconscious bias
in the workplace. My team focused on the topic of accent
bias during the hiring process. We sought to develop
a program that would identify the accent biases of
hiring managers and use these bias test results to
normalize the results from their employee recruitment.
My friend Samantha and I were the only undergraduates
on our team, but we were the lead programmers. Our
idea was based off of Harvard's Project Implicit
tests. We used the voices of our teammates with
accents and those without (according to the Northeastern
region of the U.S.) to create the audio clips.
Some Fun Experiences!
Huawei Seeds for the Future
During the summer of 2016, I spent some time in China as a participant of the
inaugural US Huawei Seeds for the Future program. I was given the opportunity
to practice my Mandarin at 北京语言大学 (Beijing Language and Culture University)
and immerse myself in Chinese culture with 19 other American students. After
Beijing, we headed to Shenzhen and stayed at the Huawei campus. While there, we
learned about Huawei’s telecommunication technology and network as well as future
innovations and work toward the Internet of Things and 5G. Finally, we received technical training at Huawei facilities for operating machines responsible for 2G, 3G, LTE and landline connections.
Videography
Professor Approachability
I have taken a couple of jobs as a videographer.
I also enjoy shooting and editing videos in my spare time.
The first experience I had with videography was during my freshman year.
A couple of friends and I wanted to create a video for students to watch
during freshman orientation. We wanted to aid in breaking down the barrier
between students and their professors, so we made a video about professor
approachability sponsored by the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming
(UAAP) Office. We played the role of the directors and interviewers of the video
and the MIT Audio-Visual Services handled the video shooting and editing. You can
view the final video here.
Undergraduate Projects
Technical Work
Passion Projects
High-Temperature Electrothermal Probe
Figures show two iterations of the probe design
Over the first two and a half years of graduate school, I created an electrothermal
probe capable of withstanding high temperatures (>600°C). Along with going through
the various iterations of this probe’s design, I worked on the sensitivity, data
and error analysis needed for gathering thermophysical properties from the
probe. The goal of the probe was
to measure high-temperature fluidized heat transfer media
(HTM) - particularly molten chloride salts - for the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (Gen3CSP) Initiative.
A concentrating solar power plant (click image to enlarge) is composed of a
field of "mirrors" known as heliostats that direct
sunlight towards a receiver. Heat transfer media (HTM) flows past that receiver and
stores thermal energy from sunlight. This HTM is then transported to a heat exchanger
and used to generate electricity via a power cycle.
In 2018, the Department of Energy began the Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power
(Gen3CSP) Initiative, which sought to create a concentrating
solar power plant so efficient that it could compete with the
cost of electricity generated by non-renewable resources. In order to ensure the
desired efficiency is reached, this plant will operate at higher temperatures
than its predecessors. Due to this new higher temperature range, there is a lack
of thermophysical information about the plant’s potential HTM options. The probe
I designed was made for characterizing high-temperature heat transfer media for
use in energy systems like the Gen3CSP plant.
Using the 3𝜔 technique, this probe finds the thermal conductivity and heat capacity
of the heat transfer medium of interest. The 3𝜔 technique uses a thin (nanoscale) metallic
sensor, or heater line, to propagate heat at a given frequency into the specimen.
The local change in temperature of the specimen is then measured by the same sensor
and recorded. This data is plotted for various frequencies and fit to a model – in my
case, the multi-layered radial heat transfer model. That fitting gives the thermal
conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of the HTM.
The final image gives an overview of the 3𝜔 technique and the models used for analysis.
References can be found in the bottom right corner of the image (click image to enlarge).
I’m currently working on finishing this project and publishing a
journal article on it.
EmboSight Tactile Display
As we rely more on screen-based technologies like cellphones
and tablets, for everything from work to entertainment and
spend more and more time on these devices, they have become
integral parts of the modern American’s life. Along with electronic
screens, various flat surfaces have risen in popularity to communicate
information on devices such as electronic stoves, scanners and washing
machines. Such surfaces contain vital visual information that are often
indistinguishable for people who are visually impaired and blind.
For our Designing Open Engineering Systems course, my partner and I
designed a tactile interface for users with visual impairments to interact
with images.
We used a vibration-based motor-screw matrix for actuating pins in
the display due to its manufacturability and the fact that its accompanying
tactile interface tested the best with clients. The vibration-induced
pin matrix was inspired by this Master’s thesis.
The final design is composed of a smooth plastic enclosure, a large power
button at the front of the device, a power jack, USB port and over 700 pins.
In the final version of the device, the plastic enclosure will be made using
injection molding. The side of the device has a USB port and power jack that
can easily be accessed by the user. The top of the device has the 3-mm round
tops of the pins exposed. The section with the pins is 5” x 5” and the device
is 10.3”x10.3” with a total height of 4.40”.
The device is designed to raise the pins by about 3-4mm - creating distinct
“raised” and “lowered” binary positions. In the case of impact, pins are
protected using the raised top of the device. The cover is made to completely
enclose the internal actuation mechanisms of the device from every angle.
Future iterations of the device may incorporate items such as a flexible elastic
sheet to cover the pins to make for more contiguous contours or a more advanced
gear train that takes advantage of the need for opposite facing preload axles to
be synchronized. Such a gear train may require only one stepper motor to control
all preload axles. Initial prototypes are expected to be more costly to manufacture
and include more parts than our final mass-manufacturable design which will require
injection molding and optimized tooling for placing parts such as the set screws and
pins during device assembly.
An Upgraded Composting System
Bioplastics have become commonly used in many everyday plastic goods.
For my first graduate design course, my team and I sought
to fulfill this need by designing a functional, effective,
and inexpensive composting solution for food courts,
restaurants, and eateries to implement in their facilities.
Figure 1: Initial sketch of our device with the major components labeled
Figure 2: 3D renderings of our device showing the (a)
front, (b) top, (c) trimetric and (d) back views
The design included a leadscrew that automatically that
has temperature controls that mixes the pile to mix and
heats the compost, shredder that breaks down plastics
into smaller pieces, removable bin, separate food and
bioplastics chutes, user-control panel, a solar panel,
and an IR sorter to reject non-bioplastics to the general waste bin.
The unit will be supplied to users with a mixture of 6
bacteria (bacillus licheniformi, bacillus smithii,
bacillus brevis, geobacillus thermocatenulatus, and paenibacillus
amylolyticus) that will aid in microbial degradation of PLA.
Additionally, it will have controls for optimal hydrolytic
degradation of PLA at 60ºC, 80%RH.
Figure 3: (a) Sketch of the improved design and (b)
3D rendering of the second iteration of the design
Figure 4: Views of (a) the top of the device and its
solar panel, (b) the back of the device with the information
panel, (c) the side of the device with labels, (d) the front
of the device with the control panel that consists of a
touchscreen, the on/off button and shredder speed knob.
Equitable Energy Technologies
In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,
“We are the first generation to be able to end poverty,
and the last generation that can take steps to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change." As we create new sustainable
energy technologies, a need still exists for us to better engineer
them to serve everyone; therefore, I am pursing research at the
intersection of energy, design and equity.
Overall, I seek to use my knowledge of emerging sustainable energy
technologies to create frameworks for equitable energy system design.
Although many solutions to energy inequity are typically viewed at the
policy level, I am seeking to understand and address these inequities
starting further upstream in the process – from the viewpoint of mechanical
design. My overarching research question is: “How can design methodologies
be used to guide and assess the equitable application of energy technologies?”
I started this project in January 2021, so more information will
be added as the project progresses.
Institute for Engineering Equity
I sought to create a place within the Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE)
that could house equity-focused research like mine. So,
I proposed the creation of an Institute for Engineering Equity under the CoE through
its Student Innovation Competition - Promoting Equity and Access (SICPEA) in
February 2021.
There are three main issues that the application sought to address:
- The underrepresentation of racial and gender minority graduate students in the College of
Engineering
- The lack of opportunity, resources and encouragement for underrepresented graduate
students who seek to do research that impacts their communities
- The lack of an institutionalized way to work on research projects at the intersection of
engineering and equity
The IEE would address these issues by creating a fellowship and
providing students with an opportunity to pursue graduate engineering
research to aid disenfranchised populations.
You can view the whole proposal here:
Institute for Engineering Equity Proposal
Quantifying Political Power
I learned R in a 6-week “Open Data With R” introductory
course. For the final project, I sought to take the
first steps in a thought experiment I’ve been working
on – quantifying political power - by looking at PAC
donor data.
Abstract
In a quest to quantify power within the United States, I took a preliminary view into Political Action Committee (PAC) donors, their estimated wealth, the most popular PACs and the political parties they are donating to. Due to the limited time for this project, only data sets from 2018 were used. Donors who gave to the top 20 PACs by amount in 2018 and paid at least $200 were observed as well as 2018 IRS data and 2018 PAC contributions to political parties view the OpenSecrets website. More data analysis is needed to form conclusions on the correlation between wealth and PAC contributions, but from preliminary analysis, the higher one is in income, the more likely it is that they will donate to a PAC - with majority of donations coming from the top ̃30% of incomes and exponentially decreasing with lowering income range. This preliminary view provides a framework by which I can begin the larger project of quantifying political power in the United States by observing more factors - financial or otherwise - contributing to an individual’s or institution’s power in our society.
You can view the final paper I wrote for the course using RMarkdown here:
Open Data With R Final Paper
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon was a 36-hour virtual
hackathon dedicated to designing policy proposals that
aim to solve today's most pressing economic challenges.
Over the course of the weekend, we drafted policy memos as
groups under public health, trade and immigration, firms
and workers, and financial policy.
My group was part of the firms and workers track and
we looked at creating a new upskilling program for the
city of Seattle to better assist lower-income workers.
You can view the memo from the hackathon here:
Final Covid-19 Policy Hackathon Memo
The Before It's Too Late Podcast
After participating in ComSciCon Atlanta (a multi-day
science communication workshop) in 2020, I decided to
further explore my passion for science communication through
a podcast. The Before It’s Too Late (BITL) podcast
focuses on the ethical questions and conversations around
emerging science and technology.
You can listen to the podcast introduction below.
Listen to the BITL Intro:
MIT Senior Thesis Project
About 2.1 billion people worldwide, majority of whom are of the
poorest income quintile, lack access to safe, readily available
drinking water in their homes. In the paper
Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem, the xylem from
the sapwood of coniferous trees was found to be an effective and
low-cost water filter. For my undergraduate senior thesis, I sought to create a convenient
and effective method for carrying out quality control tests during the manufacturing process of these xylem filters.
My senior thesis in Dr. Rohit Karnik’s Microfluidics & Nanofluidics Research
Laboratory allowed me to utilize my backgrounds in both biology and
mechanical engineering. I created a protocol for failure testing of the xylem filter
and instrumentation to affordably and efficiently test these filters by hand
using particulates seeded in fluid.
Figures: Setup for Water Testing and Setup for Air Testing
The goal of my thesis was to create the criteria, design the system, and identify
the materials and hardware that could be used to create a simple, consistent
and easy-to-use testing setup. To reduce costs, the testing was also to be done
by hand. The ultimate goal was to create a device that would
identify the permeability and rejection of the filter.
Figures: Design of water-based testing system and Simplified CAD of Air Testing Setup
For destructive testing, I used a syringe design in which the user could use dye,
seeded particles like tumeric and provide pressure through the filter by pressing
the water through the syringe and collecting filtrate.
For non-destructive testing, I used an asthma inhaler as a model for the
design because an inhaler allows the user to deliver a pre-determined amount
of air containing particles that will function as ther "contaminants". The
inhaler-based design contains both the inhaler and a slotted base to allow
manufacturers easy access to the filter.
My senior thesis can be found here:
Senior Thesis
Design & Manufacturing II: The Yo-Yodeler
In my Design and Manufacturing II class,
we formed teams of about 5-6 students and created a yo-yo of
our own design for the final project. This class focused
on techniques of manufacturing from SLA for prototyping to
machining and injection molding techniques for mass-production.
My team designed a yo-yo based on yodeling. This yo-yo consisted
of a glow-in-the-dark moon face, a dark blue "night-time" body, and a bright
red "yodeler" as seen in the images above. Our yo-yo stood atop a green mountain
base that we thermoformed.
Figures: The molds we created to make the parts of our yo-yo and
all of the injection molded parts for 50 yo-yos - ready for assembly
My team: The Yo-Yodelers at the final presentation
More about our process can be found on the
website we made for the class.
Design & Manufacturing I: The Inchworm
This is the first robot I designed and built on my own.
It was made to inch up a wooden rod for my Design & Manufacturing I (2.007) class.
The "Inchworm" had two clamps made from ABS that was softened and molded around a cylindrical rod.
These clamps were then lined with rubber to enhance the robot's grip.
The robot was designed to inch up the pole by alternating clamps, using a lead screw and slots.
The final robot ended up being heavier with the addition of guides and that
moved the robot's center of gravity further from the pole, making it more
difficult to sustain its grip as it moved up the pole. In the end, the robot was
able to grip the pole but the pivoting during climbing made it difficult to
continuously climb up the pole.
At the end of the class, it was dubbed one of the most complex robot designs of the class.
Other aspects of the class included working with Arduinos, power and torque measurements,
prototyping and machining.
Virtual Reality System for Mice
My collegiate research journey started in Dr. Ed
Boyden’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group in the McGovern
Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Media Lab. For
my research project, I designed and built an updated mouse
virtual reality system for recording in vivo neural-activity
in mice. I also analyzed the performance of mice in a virtual
reality system that was used to record neural activity in
vivo to retrieve new data to be included in grants and
publications.
It was through my research experience
in this lab that I discovered my love for mechanical design.
I learned the avenue by which one ventures from research to
fabrication.
Figures: CAD of old (smaller) and new (larger) virtual reality systems (my first time using SOLIDWORKS) and
updated mouse virtual reality system
These systems allow neuroscientists to perform in vivo neural recordings.
Such recordings were used to monitor the physiological progression of neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Mice were trained and observed on
a virtual reality system.
This VR system for mice consists of a spherical treadmill,
head-plate support system and a display system. The spherical
treadmill design was initially provided by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's
Janelia Research Center. The spherical treadmill consisted of a light,
foam ball that floats on 10 Ping-pong ball air cannons supported by an
acrylic base. I built all parts of the system from scratch aside from the foam ball
and projection system.
Figures: Ping-pong air cannons clamped to a skeletal acrylic frame and
final updated mouse VR design with head plates and screen projecting track
Along with building a new VR system,
I also worked to assess the ability for mice to carry out complex
tasks in virtual reality. I used a lickometer to characterize the ability for mice to learn more
complex tasks such as licking at particular points in a virtual maze.
MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week
Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week at MIT is a week
in March dedicated to building connections among
members of the MIT community. During the spring
semester of my freshman year, my friend Cory and
I were talking about the need to bring some more
forms of upliftment to MIT. In the beginning of our
sophomore year, the Mind+Hand+Heart Initiative created
the Innovation Fund, which funded community and mental
health related ideas. Through this fund as well as
funding from the MIT Baker Foundation, the Office of
Minority Education, the Office of Graduate Education
and the MIT Large Event Fund, we were able to make our
idea a reality.
The idea morphed into RAK Week -
a week dedicated to forming connections and starting
conversations around campus. Now, RAK Week has become an
annual event at MIT.
Here are some of the articles written about MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week:
Two sophomores champion MIT’s first Random Acts of Kindness Week
RAK Week connects people across campus
A Random Act of Kindness in the Infinite Corridor
Class Awareness, Support and Equality
At the beginning of my junior year, I was speaking to some of my
friends about experiences with not being able to afford food in college.
After these discussions, I decided that it was an issue that needed to
be addressed. I reached out to some friends who were working with the
CASE (Class Awareness, Support and Equality) student group and found
that they had sent out a survey that inquired about financial issues to
the undergraduate population. They found that over 10% of undergraduates
have experienced food insecurity while at MIT. After seeing how wide-spread
this problem was, I decided to join CASE and became the head of the group's
food insecurity team in my senior year.
Through funding from the MIT Women's League, we began the first program
to aid undergraduate students who experience food insecurity in January
2018. Students were able to sign up to receive Free Food Care Packages.
The package program contained fresh groceries for students to eat during
the Intermediate Activities Period. This program continued in summer 2018
and was expanded to include graduate students, as well. Along with the care
package, we included the tips and recipes below - which corresponded to some
of the items in the packages.
Along with the fresh food package program, we started in-dorm food pantries,
blogs and tips for affordable eating and advised representatives from the MIT
Division of Student Life as they sought to open a low-cost market on campus.
In addition to creating in-dorm food pantries in all of the undergraduate dorms
without dining halls, we started a program for collecting and recycling unopened,
non-perishable foods from students at the end of the year to restock the food pantries.
Undergrad Making & Hacking
MakeMIT 2016
The first "hack-a-thon" I attended was MakeMIT.
This make-a-thon focused on hardware projects.
My team worked to create a motion sensor device
that allows you to take pictures with friends in
the Infinite Corridor. After these pictures were
taken, the computer would loop through them -
providing viewers with "snapshots" from other people's
days. We used a raspberry pi to encode the motion sensor
and camera. It didn’t end up completely working,
but it was still fun :)
Figures: Images of our MakeMIT project
Breaking the Mold: Hacking Unconscious Bias 2017
2017 was the first time the Breaking the Mold Hackathon
was held. This hackathon focused on unconscious bias
in the workplace. My team focused on the topic of accent
bias during the hiring process. We sought to develop
a program that would identify the accent biases of
hiring managers and use these bias test results to
normalize the results from their employee recruitment.
My friend Samantha and I were the only undergraduates
on our team, but we were the lead programmers. Our
idea was based off of Harvard's Project Implicit
tests. We used the voices of our teammates with
accents and those without (according to the Northeastern
region of the U.S.) to create the audio clips.
Some Fun Experiences!
Huawei Seeds for the Future
During the summer of 2016, I spent some time in China as a participant of the
inaugural US Huawei Seeds for the Future program. I was given the opportunity
to practice my Mandarin at 北京语言大学 (Beijing Language and Culture University)
and immerse myself in Chinese culture with 19 other American students. After
Beijing, we headed to Shenzhen and stayed at the Huawei campus. While there, we
learned about Huawei’s telecommunication technology and network as well as future
innovations and work toward the Internet of Things and 5G. Finally, we received technical training at Huawei facilities for operating machines responsible for 2G, 3G, LTE and landline connections.
Videography
Professor Approachability
I have taken a couple of jobs as a videographer.
I also enjoy shooting and editing videos in my spare time.
The first experience I had with videography was during my freshman year.
A couple of friends and I wanted to create a video for students to watch
during freshman orientation. We wanted to aid in breaking down the barrier
between students and their professors, so we made a video about professor
approachability sponsored by the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming
(UAAP) Office. We played the role of the directors and interviewers of the video
and the MIT Audio-Visual Services handled the video shooting and editing. You can
view the final video here.
Passion Projects
High-Temperature Electrothermal Probe
Figures show two iterations of the probe design
Over the first two and a half years of graduate school, I created an electrothermal
probe capable of withstanding high temperatures (>600°C). Along with going through
the various iterations of this probe’s design, I worked on the sensitivity, data
and error analysis needed for gathering thermophysical properties from the
probe. The goal of the probe was
to measure high-temperature fluidized heat transfer media
(HTM) - particularly molten chloride salts - for the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (Gen3CSP) Initiative.
A concentrating solar power plant (click image to enlarge) is composed of a
field of "mirrors" known as heliostats that direct
sunlight towards a receiver. Heat transfer media (HTM) flows past that receiver and
stores thermal energy from sunlight. This HTM is then transported to a heat exchanger
and used to generate electricity via a power cycle.
In 2018, the Department of Energy began the Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power
(Gen3CSP) Initiative, which sought to create a concentrating
solar power plant so efficient that it could compete with the
cost of electricity generated by non-renewable resources. In order to ensure the
desired efficiency is reached, this plant will operate at higher temperatures
than its predecessors. Due to this new higher temperature range, there is a lack
of thermophysical information about the plant’s potential HTM options. The probe
I designed was made for characterizing high-temperature heat transfer media for
use in energy systems like the Gen3CSP plant.
Using the 3𝜔 technique, this probe finds the thermal conductivity and heat capacity
of the heat transfer medium of interest. The 3𝜔 technique uses a thin (nanoscale) metallic
sensor, or heater line, to propagate heat at a given frequency into the specimen.
The local change in temperature of the specimen is then measured by the same sensor
and recorded. This data is plotted for various frequencies and fit to a model – in my
case, the multi-layered radial heat transfer model. That fitting gives the thermal
conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of the HTM.
The final image gives an overview of the 3𝜔 technique and the models used for analysis.
References can be found in the bottom right corner of the image (click image to enlarge).
I’m currently working on finishing this project and publishing a
journal article on it.
EmboSight Tactile Display
As we rely more on screen-based technologies like cellphones
and tablets, for everything from work to entertainment and
spend more and more time on these devices, they have become
integral parts of the modern American’s life. Along with electronic
screens, various flat surfaces have risen in popularity to communicate
information on devices such as electronic stoves, scanners and washing
machines. Such surfaces contain vital visual information that are often
indistinguishable for people who are visually impaired and blind.
For our Designing Open Engineering Systems course, my partner and I
designed a tactile interface for users with visual impairments to interact
with images.
We used a vibration-based motor-screw matrix for actuating pins in
the display due to its manufacturability and the fact that its accompanying
tactile interface tested the best with clients. The vibration-induced
pin matrix was inspired by this Master’s thesis.
The final design is composed of a smooth plastic enclosure, a large power
button at the front of the device, a power jack, USB port and over 700 pins.
In the final version of the device, the plastic enclosure will be made using
injection molding. The side of the device has a USB port and power jack that
can easily be accessed by the user. The top of the device has the 3-mm round
tops of the pins exposed. The section with the pins is 5” x 5” and the device
is 10.3”x10.3” with a total height of 4.40”.
The device is designed to raise the pins by about 3-4mm - creating distinct
“raised” and “lowered” binary positions. In the case of impact, pins are
protected using the raised top of the device. The cover is made to completely
enclose the internal actuation mechanisms of the device from every angle.
Future iterations of the device may incorporate items such as a flexible elastic
sheet to cover the pins to make for more contiguous contours or a more advanced
gear train that takes advantage of the need for opposite facing preload axles to
be synchronized. Such a gear train may require only one stepper motor to control
all preload axles. Initial prototypes are expected to be more costly to manufacture
and include more parts than our final mass-manufacturable design which will require
injection molding and optimized tooling for placing parts such as the set screws and
pins during device assembly.
An Upgraded Composting System
Bioplastics have become commonly used in many everyday plastic goods.
For my first graduate design course, my team and I sought
to fulfill this need by designing a functional, effective,
and inexpensive composting solution for food courts,
restaurants, and eateries to implement in their facilities.
Figure 1: Initial sketch of our device with the major components labeled
Figure 2: 3D renderings of our device showing the (a)
front, (b) top, (c) trimetric and (d) back views
The design included a leadscrew that automatically that
has temperature controls that mixes the pile to mix and
heats the compost, shredder that breaks down plastics
into smaller pieces, removable bin, separate food and
bioplastics chutes, user-control panel, a solar panel,
and an IR sorter to reject non-bioplastics to the general waste bin.
The unit will be supplied to users with a mixture of 6
bacteria (bacillus licheniformi, bacillus smithii,
bacillus brevis, geobacillus thermocatenulatus, and paenibacillus
amylolyticus) that will aid in microbial degradation of PLA.
Additionally, it will have controls for optimal hydrolytic
degradation of PLA at 60ºC, 80%RH.
Figure 3: (a) Sketch of the improved design and (b)
3D rendering of the second iteration of the design
Figure 4: Views of (a) the top of the device and its
solar panel, (b) the back of the device with the information
panel, (c) the side of the device with labels, (d) the front
of the device with the control panel that consists of a
touchscreen, the on/off button and shredder speed knob.
Equitable Energy Technologies
In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,
“We are the first generation to be able to end poverty,
and the last generation that can take steps to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change." As we create new sustainable
energy technologies, a need still exists for us to better engineer
them to serve everyone; therefore, I am pursing research at the
intersection of energy, design and equity.
Overall, I seek to use my knowledge of emerging sustainable energy
technologies to create frameworks for equitable energy system design.
Although many solutions to energy inequity are typically viewed at the
policy level, I am seeking to understand and address these inequities
starting further upstream in the process – from the viewpoint of mechanical
design. My overarching research question is: “How can design methodologies
be used to guide and assess the equitable application of energy technologies?”
I started this project in January 2021, so more information will
be added as the project progresses.
Institute for Engineering Equity
I sought to create a place within the Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE)
that could house equity-focused research like mine. So,
I proposed the creation of an Institute for Engineering Equity under the CoE through
its Student Innovation Competition - Promoting Equity and Access (SICPEA) in
February 2021.
There are three main issues that the application sought to address:
- The underrepresentation of racial and gender minority graduate students in the College of
Engineering
- The lack of opportunity, resources and encouragement for underrepresented graduate
students who seek to do research that impacts their communities
- The lack of an institutionalized way to work on research projects at the intersection of
engineering and equity
The IEE would address these issues by creating a fellowship and
providing students with an opportunity to pursue graduate engineering
research to aid disenfranchised populations.
You can view the whole proposal here:
Institute for Engineering Equity Proposal
Quantifying Political Power
I learned R in a 6-week “Open Data With R” introductory
course. For the final project, I sought to take the
first steps in a thought experiment I’ve been working
on – quantifying political power - by looking at PAC
donor data.
Abstract
In a quest to quantify power within the United States, I took a preliminary view into Political Action Committee (PAC) donors, their estimated wealth, the most popular PACs and the political parties they are donating to. Due to the limited time for this project, only data sets from 2018 were used. Donors who gave to the top 20 PACs by amount in 2018 and paid at least $200 were observed as well as 2018 IRS data and 2018 PAC contributions to political parties view the OpenSecrets website. More data analysis is needed to form conclusions on the correlation between wealth and PAC contributions, but from preliminary analysis, the higher one is in income, the more likely it is that they will donate to a PAC - with majority of donations coming from the top ̃30% of incomes and exponentially decreasing with lowering income range. This preliminary view provides a framework by which I can begin the larger project of quantifying political power in the United States by observing more factors - financial or otherwise - contributing to an individual’s or institution’s power in our society.
You can view the final paper I wrote for the course using RMarkdown here:
Open Data With R Final Paper
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon was a 36-hour virtual
hackathon dedicated to designing policy proposals that
aim to solve today's most pressing economic challenges.
Over the course of the weekend, we drafted policy memos as
groups under public health, trade and immigration, firms
and workers, and financial policy.
My group was part of the firms and workers track and
we looked at creating a new upskilling program for the
city of Seattle to better assist lower-income workers.
You can view the memo from the hackathon here:
Final Covid-19 Policy Hackathon Memo
The Before It's Too Late Podcast
After participating in ComSciCon Atlanta (a multi-day
science communication workshop) in 2020, I decided to
further explore my passion for science communication through
a podcast. The Before It’s Too Late (BITL) podcast
focuses on the ethical questions and conversations around
emerging science and technology.
You can listen to the podcast introduction below.
Listen to the BITL Intro:
MIT Senior Thesis Project
About 2.1 billion people worldwide, majority of whom are of the
poorest income quintile, lack access to safe, readily available
drinking water in their homes. In the paper
Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem, the xylem from
the sapwood of coniferous trees was found to be an effective and
low-cost water filter. For my undergraduate senior thesis, I sought to create a convenient
and effective method for carrying out quality control tests during the manufacturing process of these xylem filters.
My senior thesis in Dr. Rohit Karnik’s Microfluidics & Nanofluidics Research
Laboratory allowed me to utilize my backgrounds in both biology and
mechanical engineering. I created a protocol for failure testing of the xylem filter
and instrumentation to affordably and efficiently test these filters by hand
using particulates seeded in fluid.
Figures: Setup for Water Testing and Setup for Air Testing
The goal of my thesis was to create the criteria, design the system, and identify
the materials and hardware that could be used to create a simple, consistent
and easy-to-use testing setup. To reduce costs, the testing was also to be done
by hand. The ultimate goal was to create a device that would
identify the permeability and rejection of the filter.
Figures: Design of water-based testing system and Simplified CAD of Air Testing Setup
For destructive testing, I used a syringe design in which the user could use dye,
seeded particles like tumeric and provide pressure through the filter by pressing
the water through the syringe and collecting filtrate.
For non-destructive testing, I used an asthma inhaler as a model for the
design because an inhaler allows the user to deliver a pre-determined amount
of air containing particles that will function as ther "contaminants". The
inhaler-based design contains both the inhaler and a slotted base to allow
manufacturers easy access to the filter.
My senior thesis can be found here:
Senior Thesis
Design & Manufacturing II: The Yo-Yodeler
In my Design and Manufacturing II class,
we formed teams of about 5-6 students and created a yo-yo of
our own design for the final project. This class focused
on techniques of manufacturing from SLA for prototyping to
machining and injection molding techniques for mass-production.
My team designed a yo-yo based on yodeling. This yo-yo consisted
of a glow-in-the-dark moon face, a dark blue "night-time" body, and a bright
red "yodeler" as seen in the images above. Our yo-yo stood atop a green mountain
base that we thermoformed.
Figures: The molds we created to make the parts of our yo-yo and
all of the injection molded parts for 50 yo-yos - ready for assembly
My team: The Yo-Yodelers at the final presentation
More about our process can be found on the
website we made for the class.
Design & Manufacturing I: The Inchworm
This is the first robot I designed and built on my own.
It was made to inch up a wooden rod for my Design & Manufacturing I (2.007) class.
The "Inchworm" had two clamps made from ABS that was softened and molded around a cylindrical rod.
These clamps were then lined with rubber to enhance the robot's grip.
The robot was designed to inch up the pole by alternating clamps, using a lead screw and slots.
The final robot ended up being heavier with the addition of guides and that
moved the robot's center of gravity further from the pole, making it more
difficult to sustain its grip as it moved up the pole. In the end, the robot was
able to grip the pole but the pivoting during climbing made it difficult to
continuously climb up the pole.
At the end of the class, it was dubbed one of the most complex robot designs of the class.
Other aspects of the class included working with Arduinos, power and torque measurements,
prototyping and machining.
Virtual Reality System for Mice
My collegiate research journey started in Dr. Ed
Boyden’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group in the McGovern
Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Media Lab. For
my research project, I designed and built an updated mouse
virtual reality system for recording in vivo neural-activity
in mice. I also analyzed the performance of mice in a virtual
reality system that was used to record neural activity in
vivo to retrieve new data to be included in grants and
publications.
It was through my research experience
in this lab that I discovered my love for mechanical design.
I learned the avenue by which one ventures from research to
fabrication.
Figures: CAD of old (smaller) and new (larger) virtual reality systems (my first time using SOLIDWORKS) and
updated mouse virtual reality system
These systems allow neuroscientists to perform in vivo neural recordings.
Such recordings were used to monitor the physiological progression of neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Mice were trained and observed on
a virtual reality system.
This VR system for mice consists of a spherical treadmill,
head-plate support system and a display system. The spherical
treadmill design was initially provided by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's
Janelia Research Center. The spherical treadmill consisted of a light,
foam ball that floats on 10 Ping-pong ball air cannons supported by an
acrylic base. I built all parts of the system from scratch aside from the foam ball
and projection system.
Figures: Ping-pong air cannons clamped to a skeletal acrylic frame and
final updated mouse VR design with head plates and screen projecting track
Along with building a new VR system,
I also worked to assess the ability for mice to carry out complex
tasks in virtual reality. I used a lickometer to characterize the ability for mice to learn more
complex tasks such as licking at particular points in a virtual maze.
MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week
Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week at MIT is a week
in March dedicated to building connections among
members of the MIT community. During the spring
semester of my freshman year, my friend Cory and
I were talking about the need to bring some more
forms of upliftment to MIT. In the beginning of our
sophomore year, the Mind+Hand+Heart Initiative created
the Innovation Fund, which funded community and mental
health related ideas. Through this fund as well as
funding from the MIT Baker Foundation, the Office of
Minority Education, the Office of Graduate Education
and the MIT Large Event Fund, we were able to make our
idea a reality.
The idea morphed into RAK Week -
a week dedicated to forming connections and starting
conversations around campus. Now, RAK Week has become an
annual event at MIT.
Here are some of the articles written about MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week:
Two sophomores champion MIT’s first Random Acts of Kindness Week
RAK Week connects people across campus
A Random Act of Kindness in the Infinite Corridor
Class Awareness, Support and Equality
At the beginning of my junior year, I was speaking to some of my
friends about experiences with not being able to afford food in college.
After these discussions, I decided that it was an issue that needed to
be addressed. I reached out to some friends who were working with the
CASE (Class Awareness, Support and Equality) student group and found
that they had sent out a survey that inquired about financial issues to
the undergraduate population. They found that over 10% of undergraduates
have experienced food insecurity while at MIT. After seeing how wide-spread
this problem was, I decided to join CASE and became the head of the group's
food insecurity team in my senior year.
Through funding from the MIT Women's League, we began the first program
to aid undergraduate students who experience food insecurity in January
2018. Students were able to sign up to receive Free Food Care Packages.
The package program contained fresh groceries for students to eat during
the Intermediate Activities Period. This program continued in summer 2018
and was expanded to include graduate students, as well. Along with the care
package, we included the tips and recipes below - which corresponded to some
of the items in the packages.
Along with the fresh food package program, we started in-dorm food pantries,
blogs and tips for affordable eating and advised representatives from the MIT
Division of Student Life as they sought to open a low-cost market on campus.
In addition to creating in-dorm food pantries in all of the undergraduate dorms
without dining halls, we started a program for collecting and recycling unopened,
non-perishable foods from students at the end of the year to restock the food pantries.
Undergrad Making & Hacking
MakeMIT 2016
The first "hack-a-thon" I attended was MakeMIT.
This make-a-thon focused on hardware projects.
My team worked to create a motion sensor device
that allows you to take pictures with friends in
the Infinite Corridor. After these pictures were
taken, the computer would loop through them -
providing viewers with "snapshots" from other people's
days. We used a raspberry pi to encode the motion sensor
and camera. It didn’t end up completely working,
but it was still fun :)
Figures: Images of our MakeMIT project
Breaking the Mold: Hacking Unconscious Bias 2017
2017 was the first time the Breaking the Mold Hackathon
was held. This hackathon focused on unconscious bias
in the workplace. My team focused on the topic of accent
bias during the hiring process. We sought to develop
a program that would identify the accent biases of
hiring managers and use these bias test results to
normalize the results from their employee recruitment.
My friend Samantha and I were the only undergraduates
on our team, but we were the lead programmers. Our
idea was based off of Harvard's Project Implicit
tests. We used the voices of our teammates with
accents and those without (according to the Northeastern
region of the U.S.) to create the audio clips.
Some Fun Experiences!
Huawei Seeds for the Future
During the summer of 2016, I spent some time in China as a participant of the
inaugural US Huawei Seeds for the Future program. I was given the opportunity
to practice my Mandarin at 北京语言大学 (Beijing Language and Culture University)
and immerse myself in Chinese culture with 19 other American students. After
Beijing, we headed to Shenzhen and stayed at the Huawei campus. While there, we
learned about Huawei’s telecommunication technology and network as well as future
innovations and work toward the Internet of Things and 5G. Finally, we received technical training at Huawei facilities for operating machines responsible for 2G, 3G, LTE and landline connections.
Videography
Professor Approachability
I have taken a couple of jobs as a videographer.
I also enjoy shooting and editing videos in my spare time.
The first experience I had with videography was during my freshman year.
A couple of friends and I wanted to create a video for students to watch
during freshman orientation. We wanted to aid in breaking down the barrier
between students and their professors, so we made a video about professor
approachability sponsored by the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming
(UAAP) Office. We played the role of the directors and interviewers of the video
and the MIT Audio-Visual Services handled the video shooting and editing. You can
view the final video here.
High-Temperature Electrothermal Probe
Figures show two iterations of the probe design
Over the first two and a half years of graduate school, I created an electrothermal probe capable of withstanding high temperatures (>600°C). Along with going through the various iterations of this probe’s design, I worked on the sensitivity, data and error analysis needed for gathering thermophysical properties from the probe. The goal of the probe was to measure high-temperature fluidized heat transfer media (HTM) - particularly molten chloride salts - for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (Gen3CSP) Initiative.
A concentrating solar power plant (click image to enlarge) is composed of a
field of "mirrors" known as heliostats that direct
sunlight towards a receiver. Heat transfer media (HTM) flows past that receiver and
stores thermal energy from sunlight. This HTM is then transported to a heat exchanger
and used to generate electricity via a power cycle.
In 2018, the Department of Energy began the Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (Gen3CSP) Initiative, which sought to create a concentrating solar power plant so efficient that it could compete with the cost of electricity generated by non-renewable resources. In order to ensure the desired efficiency is reached, this plant will operate at higher temperatures than its predecessors. Due to this new higher temperature range, there is a lack of thermophysical information about the plant’s potential HTM options. The probe I designed was made for characterizing high-temperature heat transfer media for use in energy systems like the Gen3CSP plant.
Using the 3𝜔 technique, this probe finds the thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the heat transfer medium of interest. The 3𝜔 technique uses a thin (nanoscale) metallic sensor, or heater line, to propagate heat at a given frequency into the specimen. The local change in temperature of the specimen is then measured by the same sensor and recorded. This data is plotted for various frequencies and fit to a model – in my case, the multi-layered radial heat transfer model. That fitting gives the thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of the HTM.
The final image gives an overview of the 3𝜔 technique and the models used for analysis. References can be found in the bottom right corner of the image (click image to enlarge).
I’m currently working on finishing this project and publishing a journal article on it.
EmboSight Tactile Display
As we rely more on screen-based technologies like cellphones
and tablets, for everything from work to entertainment and
spend more and more time on these devices, they have become
integral parts of the modern American’s life. Along with electronic
screens, various flat surfaces have risen in popularity to communicate
information on devices such as electronic stoves, scanners and washing
machines. Such surfaces contain vital visual information that are often
indistinguishable for people who are visually impaired and blind.
For our Designing Open Engineering Systems course, my partner and I
designed a tactile interface for users with visual impairments to interact
with images.
We used a vibration-based motor-screw matrix for actuating pins in
the display due to its manufacturability and the fact that its accompanying
tactile interface tested the best with clients. The vibration-induced
pin matrix was inspired by this Master’s thesis.
The final design is composed of a smooth plastic enclosure, a large power
button at the front of the device, a power jack, USB port and over 700 pins.
In the final version of the device, the plastic enclosure will be made using
injection molding. The side of the device has a USB port and power jack that
can easily be accessed by the user. The top of the device has the 3-mm round
tops of the pins exposed. The section with the pins is 5” x 5” and the device
is 10.3”x10.3” with a total height of 4.40”.
The device is designed to raise the pins by about 3-4mm - creating distinct
“raised” and “lowered” binary positions. In the case of impact, pins are
protected using the raised top of the device. The cover is made to completely
enclose the internal actuation mechanisms of the device from every angle.
Future iterations of the device may incorporate items such as a flexible elastic
sheet to cover the pins to make for more contiguous contours or a more advanced
gear train that takes advantage of the need for opposite facing preload axles to
be synchronized. Such a gear train may require only one stepper motor to control
all preload axles. Initial prototypes are expected to be more costly to manufacture
and include more parts than our final mass-manufacturable design which will require
injection molding and optimized tooling for placing parts such as the set screws and
pins during device assembly.
An Upgraded Composting System
Bioplastics have become commonly used in many everyday plastic goods.
For my first graduate design course, my team and I sought
to fulfill this need by designing a functional, effective,
and inexpensive composting solution for food courts,
restaurants, and eateries to implement in their facilities.
Figure 1: Initial sketch of our device with the major components labeled
Figure 2: 3D renderings of our device showing the (a)
front, (b) top, (c) trimetric and (d) back views
The design included a leadscrew that automatically that
has temperature controls that mixes the pile to mix and
heats the compost, shredder that breaks down plastics
into smaller pieces, removable bin, separate food and
bioplastics chutes, user-control panel, a solar panel,
and an IR sorter to reject non-bioplastics to the general waste bin.
The unit will be supplied to users with a mixture of 6
bacteria (bacillus licheniformi, bacillus smithii,
bacillus brevis, geobacillus thermocatenulatus, and paenibacillus
amylolyticus) that will aid in microbial degradation of PLA.
Additionally, it will have controls for optimal hydrolytic
degradation of PLA at 60ºC, 80%RH.
Figure 3: (a) Sketch of the improved design and (b)
3D rendering of the second iteration of the design
Figure 4: Views of (a) the top of the device and its
solar panel, (b) the back of the device with the information
panel, (c) the side of the device with labels, (d) the front
of the device with the control panel that consists of a
touchscreen, the on/off button and shredder speed knob.
Equitable Energy Technologies
In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,
“We are the first generation to be able to end poverty,
and the last generation that can take steps to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change." As we create new sustainable
energy technologies, a need still exists for us to better engineer
them to serve everyone; therefore, I am pursing research at the
intersection of energy, design and equity.
Overall, I seek to use my knowledge of emerging sustainable energy
technologies to create frameworks for equitable energy system design.
Although many solutions to energy inequity are typically viewed at the
policy level, I am seeking to understand and address these inequities
starting further upstream in the process – from the viewpoint of mechanical
design. My overarching research question is: “How can design methodologies
be used to guide and assess the equitable application of energy technologies?”
I started this project in January 2021, so more information will
be added as the project progresses.
Institute for Engineering Equity
I sought to create a place within the Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE)
that could house equity-focused research like mine. So,
I proposed the creation of an Institute for Engineering Equity under the CoE through
its Student Innovation Competition - Promoting Equity and Access (SICPEA) in
February 2021.
There are three main issues that the application sought to address:
- The underrepresentation of racial and gender minority graduate students in the College of Engineering
- The lack of opportunity, resources and encouragement for underrepresented graduate students who seek to do research that impacts their communities
- The lack of an institutionalized way to work on research projects at the intersection of engineering and equity
The IEE would address these issues by creating a fellowship and providing students with an opportunity to pursue graduate engineering research to aid disenfranchised populations.
You can view the whole proposal here: Institute for Engineering Equity Proposal
Quantifying Political Power
I learned R in a 6-week “Open Data With R” introductory
course. For the final project, I sought to take the
first steps in a thought experiment I’ve been working
on – quantifying political power - by looking at PAC
donor data.
Abstract
In a quest to quantify power within the United States, I took a preliminary view into Political Action Committee (PAC) donors, their estimated wealth, the most popular PACs and the political parties they are donating to. Due to the limited time for this project, only data sets from 2018 were used. Donors who gave to the top 20 PACs by amount in 2018 and paid at least $200 were observed as well as 2018 IRS data and 2018 PAC contributions to political parties view the OpenSecrets website. More data analysis is needed to form conclusions on the correlation between wealth and PAC contributions, but from preliminary analysis, the higher one is in income, the more likely it is that they will donate to a PAC - with majority of donations coming from the top ̃30% of incomes and exponentially decreasing with lowering income range. This preliminary view provides a framework by which I can begin the larger project of quantifying political power in the United States by observing more factors - financial or otherwise - contributing to an individual’s or institution’s power in our society.
You can view the final paper I wrote for the course using RMarkdown here: Open Data With R Final Paper
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon
The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon was a 36-hour virtual
hackathon dedicated to designing policy proposals that
aim to solve today's most pressing economic challenges.
Over the course of the weekend, we drafted policy memos as
groups under public health, trade and immigration, firms
and workers, and financial policy.
My group was part of the firms and workers track and
we looked at creating a new upskilling program for the
city of Seattle to better assist lower-income workers.
You can view the memo from the hackathon here:
Final Covid-19 Policy Hackathon Memo
The Before It's Too Late Podcast
After participating in ComSciCon Atlanta (a multi-day
science communication workshop) in 2020, I decided to
further explore my passion for science communication through
a podcast. The Before It’s Too Late (BITL) podcast
focuses on the ethical questions and conversations around
emerging science and technology.
You can listen to the podcast introduction below.
Listen to the BITL Intro:
MIT Senior Thesis Project
About 2.1 billion people worldwide, majority of whom are of the
poorest income quintile, lack access to safe, readily available
drinking water in their homes. In the paper
Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem, the xylem from
the sapwood of coniferous trees was found to be an effective and
low-cost water filter. For my undergraduate senior thesis, I sought to create a convenient
and effective method for carrying out quality control tests during the manufacturing process of these xylem filters.
My senior thesis in Dr. Rohit Karnik’s Microfluidics & Nanofluidics Research
Laboratory allowed me to utilize my backgrounds in both biology and
mechanical engineering. I created a protocol for failure testing of the xylem filter
and instrumentation to affordably and efficiently test these filters by hand
using particulates seeded in fluid.
Figures: Setup for Water Testing and Setup for Air Testing
The goal of my thesis was to create the criteria, design the system, and identify
the materials and hardware that could be used to create a simple, consistent
and easy-to-use testing setup. To reduce costs, the testing was also to be done
by hand. The ultimate goal was to create a device that would
identify the permeability and rejection of the filter.
Figures: Design of water-based testing system and Simplified CAD of Air Testing Setup
For destructive testing, I used a syringe design in which the user could use dye,
seeded particles like tumeric and provide pressure through the filter by pressing
the water through the syringe and collecting filtrate.
For non-destructive testing, I used an asthma inhaler as a model for the
design because an inhaler allows the user to deliver a pre-determined amount
of air containing particles that will function as ther "contaminants". The
inhaler-based design contains both the inhaler and a slotted base to allow
manufacturers easy access to the filter.
My senior thesis can be found here:
Senior Thesis
Design & Manufacturing II: The Yo-Yodeler
In my Design and Manufacturing II class,
we formed teams of about 5-6 students and created a yo-yo of
our own design for the final project. This class focused
on techniques of manufacturing from SLA for prototyping to
machining and injection molding techniques for mass-production.
My team designed a yo-yo based on yodeling. This yo-yo consisted
of a glow-in-the-dark moon face, a dark blue "night-time" body, and a bright
red "yodeler" as seen in the images above. Our yo-yo stood atop a green mountain
base that we thermoformed.
Figures: The molds we created to make the parts of our yo-yo and
all of the injection molded parts for 50 yo-yos - ready for assembly
My team: The Yo-Yodelers at the final presentation
More about our process can be found on the
website we made for the class.
Design & Manufacturing I: The Inchworm
This is the first robot I designed and built on my own.
It was made to inch up a wooden rod for my Design & Manufacturing I (2.007) class.
The "Inchworm" had two clamps made from ABS that was softened and molded around a cylindrical rod.
These clamps were then lined with rubber to enhance the robot's grip.
The robot was designed to inch up the pole by alternating clamps, using a lead screw and slots.
The final robot ended up being heavier with the addition of guides and that
moved the robot's center of gravity further from the pole, making it more
difficult to sustain its grip as it moved up the pole. In the end, the robot was
able to grip the pole but the pivoting during climbing made it difficult to
continuously climb up the pole.
At the end of the class, it was dubbed one of the most complex robot designs of the class.
Other aspects of the class included working with Arduinos, power and torque measurements,
prototyping and machining.
Virtual Reality System for Mice
My collegiate research journey started in Dr. Ed
Boyden’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group in the McGovern
Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Media Lab. For
my research project, I designed and built an updated mouse
virtual reality system for recording in vivo neural-activity
in mice. I also analyzed the performance of mice in a virtual
reality system that was used to record neural activity in
vivo to retrieve new data to be included in grants and
publications.
It was through my research experience
in this lab that I discovered my love for mechanical design.
I learned the avenue by which one ventures from research to
fabrication.
Figures: CAD of old (smaller) and new (larger) virtual reality systems (my first time using SOLIDWORKS) and
updated mouse virtual reality system
These systems allow neuroscientists to perform in vivo neural recordings.
Such recordings were used to monitor the physiological progression of neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Mice were trained and observed on
a virtual reality system.
This VR system for mice consists of a spherical treadmill,
head-plate support system and a display system. The spherical
treadmill design was initially provided by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's
Janelia Research Center. The spherical treadmill consisted of a light,
foam ball that floats on 10 Ping-pong ball air cannons supported by an
acrylic base. I built all parts of the system from scratch aside from the foam ball
and projection system.
Figures: Ping-pong air cannons clamped to a skeletal acrylic frame and
final updated mouse VR design with head plates and screen projecting track
Along with building a new VR system,
I also worked to assess the ability for mice to carry out complex
tasks in virtual reality. I used a lickometer to characterize the ability for mice to learn more
complex tasks such as licking at particular points in a virtual maze.
MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week
Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week at MIT is a week
in March dedicated to building connections among
members of the MIT community. During the spring
semester of my freshman year, my friend Cory and
I were talking about the need to bring some more
forms of upliftment to MIT. In the beginning of our
sophomore year, the Mind+Hand+Heart Initiative created
the Innovation Fund, which funded community and mental
health related ideas. Through this fund as well as
funding from the MIT Baker Foundation, the Office of
Minority Education, the Office of Graduate Education
and the MIT Large Event Fund, we were able to make our
idea a reality.
The idea morphed into RAK Week -
a week dedicated to forming connections and starting
conversations around campus. Now, RAK Week has become an
annual event at MIT.
Here are some of the articles written about MIT Random Acts of Kindness Week:
Two sophomores champion MIT’s first Random Acts of Kindness Week
RAK Week connects people across campus
A Random Act of Kindness in the Infinite Corridor
Class Awareness, Support and Equality
At the beginning of my junior year, I was speaking to some of my
friends about experiences with not being able to afford food in college.
After these discussions, I decided that it was an issue that needed to
be addressed. I reached out to some friends who were working with the
CASE (Class Awareness, Support and Equality) student group and found
that they had sent out a survey that inquired about financial issues to
the undergraduate population. They found that over 10% of undergraduates
have experienced food insecurity while at MIT. After seeing how wide-spread
this problem was, I decided to join CASE and became the head of the group's
food insecurity team in my senior year.
Through funding from the MIT Women's League, we began the first program
to aid undergraduate students who experience food insecurity in January
2018. Students were able to sign up to receive Free Food Care Packages.
The package program contained fresh groceries for students to eat during
the Intermediate Activities Period. This program continued in summer 2018
and was expanded to include graduate students, as well. Along with the care
package, we included the tips and recipes below - which corresponded to some
of the items in the packages.
Along with the fresh food package program, we started in-dorm food pantries,
blogs and tips for affordable eating and advised representatives from the MIT
Division of Student Life as they sought to open a low-cost market on campus.
In addition to creating in-dorm food pantries in all of the undergraduate dorms
without dining halls, we started a program for collecting and recycling unopened,
non-perishable foods from students at the end of the year to restock the food pantries.
Undergrad Making & Hacking
MakeMIT 2016
The first "hack-a-thon" I attended was MakeMIT. This make-a-thon focused on hardware projects. My team worked to create a motion sensor device that allows you to take pictures with friends in the Infinite Corridor. After these pictures were taken, the computer would loop through them - providing viewers with "snapshots" from other people's days. We used a raspberry pi to encode the motion sensor and camera. It didn’t end up completely working, but it was still fun :)
Figures: Images of our MakeMIT project
Breaking the Mold: Hacking Unconscious Bias 2017
2017 was the first time the Breaking the Mold Hackathon was held. This hackathon focused on unconscious bias in the workplace. My team focused on the topic of accent bias during the hiring process. We sought to develop a program that would identify the accent biases of hiring managers and use these bias test results to normalize the results from their employee recruitment. My friend Samantha and I were the only undergraduates on our team, but we were the lead programmers. Our idea was based off of Harvard's Project Implicit tests. We used the voices of our teammates with accents and those without (according to the Northeastern region of the U.S.) to create the audio clips.
Some Fun Experiences!
Huawei Seeds for the Future
During the summer of 2016, I spent some time in China as a participant of the inaugural US Huawei Seeds for the Future program. I was given the opportunity to practice my Mandarin at 北京语言大学 (Beijing Language and Culture University) and immerse myself in Chinese culture with 19 other American students. After Beijing, we headed to Shenzhen and stayed at the Huawei campus. While there, we learned about Huawei’s telecommunication technology and network as well as future innovations and work toward the Internet of Things and 5G. Finally, we received technical training at Huawei facilities for operating machines responsible for 2G, 3G, LTE and landline connections.
Videography
Professor Approachability
I have taken a couple of jobs as a videographer.
I also enjoy shooting and editing videos in my spare time.
The first experience I had with videography was during my freshman year.
A couple of friends and I wanted to create a video for students to watch
during freshman orientation. We wanted to aid in breaking down the barrier
between students and their professors, so we made a video about professor
approachability sponsored by the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming
(UAAP) Office. We played the role of the directors and interviewers of the video
and the MIT Audio-Visual Services handled the video shooting and editing. You can
view the final video here.
Professor Approachability
I have taken a couple of jobs as a videographer. I also enjoy shooting and editing videos in my spare time. The first experience I had with videography was during my freshman year. A couple of friends and I wanted to create a video for students to watch during freshman orientation. We wanted to aid in breaking down the barrier between students and their professors, so we made a video about professor approachability sponsored by the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming (UAAP) Office. We played the role of the directors and interviewers of the video and the MIT Audio-Visual Services handled the video shooting and editing. You can view the final video here.