Slappybot
SlappyBot is a 6’4 mannequin that I animated and turned into a remote-controlled robot. He was created to encourage kids to explore STEM fields, and he visits many local festivals. Slappybot has been through three main versions as I added more features, and is over three years old. He is supposed to be a “uncanny valley” design without scaring people. Slappybot has participated in dozens of large public events and parades, where he is loved by all the children there. He has inspired thousands of kids and shown them the creativity of engineering.
The Deodorant Alarm
The Deodorant Alarm was a product design and prototype I developed for the Greater San Diego Science Fair in 8th grade. It used a pressure plate and a state machine to alert the user to not forget to use their deodorant. This project was a Grand Award recipient and also recognized by Broadcom Masters, General Atomics, Lemelson, the US Air Force, and the Society of Women Engineers. Working on this product extended my human centered design practices and included CAD (Onshape), CAM (3D printing), and Arduino electronics (C programming) for prototype development.
Lockers For Change
During my Junior year in High School, I led a small team of two friends and developed “Lockers for Change”. To start this project we identified and researched a real problem that unhoused people face in San Diego: safe storage of their belongings. Next we developed and iterated our solution concepts, and then worked with various non-profits and city governments to advance the project. Our solution was chosen out of dozens as “Most Implementable” at the prestigious Design4SanDiego international conference hosted by the Design Lab at UCSD. We were the only group of high school students to win an award at the event. Our school also awarded us additional seed capital with the Torrey Explorers Fund, an investment fund designed to identify and empower high school level entrepreneurship.
FIRST FTC Aircraft Carrier Robot Design
For the 24-25 FIRST robotics season, I led my robotics team through a design process to create the paneling for our aircraft carrier design following the Into The Deep theme. Our robot was much more than looks though, and took us to the World Championship in Houston, where we were ranked in the top 10 of teams worldwide. I created a promotional YouTube video to highlight our robot’s capabilities:
Water Game
In 2024, my robotics team and I started the annual Water Game robotics competition, where FIRST robotics teams and students new to engineering could design and build water ready robots. Our competition was hosted by La Jolla Country Day School and we had over 75 students compete. This served as a great way to get more kids into STEM. Below is a recap video showing the event: