I am a Robotics Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University with a passion for creating novel robotic systems. As a member of the Robomechanics Lab, I am engaged in research with my advisor Professor Aaron Johnson to develop robotic climbing capabilities for planetary rovers. Over the course of this project I have designed, built, and programmed a versatile new climbing robot called LORIS from the ground up while integrating breakthroughs in underactuated mechanism design, force control, and motion planning.
My Ph.D. research has been supported by a NASA-sponsored fellowship, and as part of that collaboration I have had the unique opportunity to work with some of the amazing researchers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a visiting technologist. Over the past several years I have enjoyed taking part in fascinating projects including ballistically launched multirotors, ice-climbing snake robots, and robotic manipulators for building habitats on the moon.
I received my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Olin is where I was first introduced to robotics research and also where I created many of the hand-on engineering projects you can find on this website. In my free time I enjoy playing board games, reading sci-fi and fantasy, and playing the trombone.