Flight Vehicles & Systems
Aircraft and launch vehicles, from structural design to hardware integration and flight testing.
Design · Analysis · Build · Test
Quadcopter Design and Optimization
CFD-informed loading, topology-guided redesign, and complete flight-system integration - 33% lower frame volume, with both the baseline and redesigned aircraft built and successfully flown.
NUStars · IREC 2026
NUStars Fiberglass Composite Airframe
In-house manufactured fiberglass airframe and Von Karman nose cone through six vacuum-bagged layup iterations, validated with ANSYS FEA and CFD aerodynamic analysis.
NUStars · NASA Student Launch 2025
NUStars Onboard Video System
Aerodynamic camera housing developed from PDR through a competition flight at Huntsville, AL - capturing in-flight footage that confirmed active drag system actuation for the first time.
Independent Build
L1 Rocket
Solo design, build, and launch of a 3" fiberglass H-motor rocket - plus a custom altimeter system and 3D-printed nose cone mount added on top of the base kit to record real flight data.
Analysis & Simulation
Aerodynamics, structural response, and mission performance explored through computational models.
F1 Active Rear Wing Analysis
Transient sliding-mesh CFD comparing a conventional DRS flap against Ferrari's 230° "Macarena" mechanism - revealing an aerodynamic airbrake spike during actuation invisible to steady-state analysis alone.
Aircraft Wing Structural Analysis & Rib Layout Trade Study
FEA and analytical validation of a Cessna 172 wing - combining ANSYS simulation with Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Rayleigh-Ritz method to validate tip deflection and stress.
Mars Rover EDL Fuel Optimization
Constrained nonlinear optimization of entry, descent, and landing fuel consumption across normal and modified atmospheric conditions using COBYLA and SLSQP in Python.
Dragonfly Rotorcraft Hover Power Analysis
Momentum theory and CFD blade-drag analysis of NASA's Dragonfly octocopter, computing the true hover power needed to fly on Titan and explaining why the mission has to be "charge and hop."
Mechanical Design & Manufacturing
Mechanical systems developed through design, analysis, fabrication, and testing.
Bicycle Brake Caliper - Full Product Development Cycle
Full product development cycle from needs analysis through topology-optimized FEA, 3D printing in Nylon 12, and ISO 4210 compliance testing across two design iterations.
Two-Stage Gearbox Design
Full AGMA-based design of a 70 kW two-stage spur gearbox - three shafts, four gears, six bearings - each sized with a calculated, traceable margin against fatigue and static failure.
Modular Binder-Jetted Heat Sink
Wavy-fin modular heat sink in 316L stainless steel designed for binder-jet printing, achieving a 7°C average temperature reduction over a conventional straight-fin baseline.
Bicycle Rim Radial Vibration Analysis
A finite element beam model validated to under 1% error, combined with acoustic hammer-strike testing, to measure real radial bending stiffness - proving a double-wall rim is roughly 2x stiffer than a single-wall one.
Independent Design
Marley Floor Roller
Purpose-built mechanical device for rolling and storing Marley dance floor - plywood frame, PVC roller, crank mechanism, and locking caster wheel system.
Jack-in-a-Box Multi-Body Dynamics Simulation
Multi-body rigid body dynamics simulation with Euler-Lagrange formulation, impact constraints via Lagrange multipliers, and Hamiltonian energy conservation in Python/Plotly.