Profile
I am a Ph.D. candidate in aerospace engineering at Pennsylvania State University, University Park (PSU). I am a research assistant in the PSU UAS Research Laboratory (PURL), which is directed by my advisor, Prof. Eric N. Johnson.
My interests include the intersection of computer vision, image processing, and aerospace engineering, particularly in vision techniques for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Autonomy
- Computer Vision & Image Processing
- Machine Learning
- Data Science
- Software Development
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Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, 2019-
Pennsylvania State University, University Park (PSU)
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M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, 2019-2023
Pennsylvania State University, University Park (PSU)
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B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, 2015-2019
University of Maryland, College Park (UMD)
- Co-founded startup dedicated to development of cutting-edge autopilot technology for UAV applications, in areas ranging from firefighting to agriculture
- Recipient of $15,000 grant from 2025 Summer Founders program by Invent PSU at Happy Valley LaunchBox
Built a Python codebase that synthesizes variety of computer vision and machine learning algorithms to:
- Automatically detect and extract geometric and text information from a large dataset of 2D civil engineering plans
- Compile the information into a database that can be relayed to other AI tools in the pipeline
- Check for errors and defects in the plan
- Learned about model-free control
- Simulated the application of a control scheme based on model-free control to building HVAC systems
- Trained neural networks to predict the efficiency of such a control scheme for a given set of environmental parameters (power supply and external temperature)
- Designed system that used controller to automate measurements of flow coefficient for a variety of valves used in Ursa Major’s “Hadley” rocket engine.
- Completed flow quality testing of valves used in rocket engines using digital flowmeters and pressure transducers.
- Created a detailed inventory of files and converted files from paper to digital format.
- Assisted in moving many shelves of files to a new office.
- Under limited resources, developed a new digital organizational system to completely reorganize a large, outdated, and heterogeneous collection of paper records.
- Investigated why test pilot training aircraft were requiring longer distances to land than the distances expected in the corresponding flight manual data.
- Developed MATLAB scripts to calculate and generate time series plots of flight parameters for given descent conditions.
- Applied data analysis techniques (e.g., Tableau visualization and machine learning) to generate insights about a collection of telecom data.
- Used ARIMA modeling, ANOVA, and logistic regression (in R) to analyze influence of rainfall and gold prices on GDP.
- Examined patterns in Dallas crime data through the application of k-means clustering.
Research
I am a graduate research assistant in the PSU UAS Research Laboratory (PURL), which is directed by my advisor, Prof. Eric N. Johnson.
Skills
- Kalman filtering
- Linear systems theory
- Optimal control
- Adaptive control
- System identification
- Computer vision / Image processing
- Collision avoidance
- CUDA
- NVIDIA Jetson
- Raspberry Pi
- Arduino
- Robot Operating System (ROS)
- CMake
- Simulink
- Data visualization
- Neural networks
- Image processing
- Data visualization (
matplotlib) - Mathematics (
numpy) - AI / Machine learning (PyTorch, TensorFlow)
- Computer vision / Image processing (OpenCV)
- React
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Queries
- Maintenance
- Data Visualization (
ggplot2) - “Tidy” Programming (
tidyverse) - Web Scraping
- Siemens NX
- Autodesk Inventor
- Won nationwide competition (C-SPAN StudentCam) for video edited using iMovie
- Calming the Economic Storm: The Bush Tax Cuts
Personal
Activities
Since high school, I have been actively involved in quizbowl, which is an academic trivia competition contested by thousands of players across the country and whose topics range from literature and science to art and geography.
I served as the president of Penn State Quizbowl from 2022 to 2026. While I was at the University of Maryland, I was a member of the Maryland Academic Quiz Team (MAQT) as well.
I have also written questions for tournaments at the high school level (for National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT)) and collegiate level (for the Academic Competition Federation (ACF)). I was one of ACF’s two head editors for the production of the 2025 Regionals question set.
Jordan Brownstein and I co-developed and maintain the Buzzpoints and Playtesting Bot tools used daily by quizbowl writers across the US, UK, and Canada.
Hobbies
I am an avid fan of soccer and cricket, following both sports regularly. In addition, I enjoy playing racquetball and table tennis. I like playing cricket as well as watching it, but unfortunately equipment and fields are hard to come by in the US!
Another personal interest of mine is data analysis and visualization, particularly of soccer statistics. This was originally intended as a fun way to teach myself the programming language , but I enjoyed it so much that I continue to work on soccer statistics projects in my free time now that I am skilled in .