I am a third-year Electrical Engineering student at UC San Diego. I am currently a project lead for UCSD Engineers 4 Exploration(E4E), which is a research group focused on developing autonomous survey platforms. The survey platforms we design are used in collaboration with the San Diego Zoo, National Geographic, and Scripps Institute for Oceanography, among other collaborators. We focus on doing ecological and archaeological surveys, which will permit ecologists, biologists, and archaeologists the ability to survey larger areas more effectively and efficiently, enabling them to do more researched in a more focused manner. E4E works closely with UCSD Qualcomm Institute/CALIT2 and CISA3 to do the visualization of the data gathered from these platforms.

I am currently working on two projects: the BeagleBone Black Stabilized Aerial Camera Platform, and the TunnelBot. The first is a balloon based camera platform intended for persistent large area survey, using a DSLR or comparable camera on a servo-driven stabilization platform to provide visual imagery to the user. We plan to expand this project to incorporate large field-of-view sensors (probably a large array of cameras with their imagery stitched together in realtime) with a pan capable zoom camera to provide close-up imagery without loosing situational awareness. The second project is a small tethered rover intended for remote exploration of hard to reach areas, such as rabbit warrens, tortoise dens, or crawlspaces under Albert Lin's house. This platform is intended to provide minimally invasive access to otherwise difficult to reach or even dangerous environments.