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My Research

Publication

Student Journal / Competition 
  • Sun, X., Deng, B., Zhang, J., Kelly, M., Alam, R., & Makiharju, S. (2021). Reimagining Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Charging Stations with Wave Energy. Berkeley Scientific Journal, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.5070/BS325254504

CAL (Computed Axial Lithography), 2020 Spring - Present

Professor Hayden Taylor's Design for Nanomanufacturing Lab 
Mentored by PhD students Joseph Toombs, Nicole Luk, Alvin Lee, and Taylro Waddell ​
  • ​Regularly reviewing literature, proposing research ideas, and helping with grant writing
  • Attending group meetings, workshops and conferences in relevant fields
  • Making organic / bio photo-resin with various monomer and photoinitiators for conducting different experiments, including discovering novel materials
  • Conducting various bio-related projects for exploring the advantages of volumetric light patterning
  • Designing and executing experiments to print, post- process, and evaluate optical components with Computed Axial Lithography (CAL) printer
  • Building a theoretical model to optimize post-processing
  • Leading a team to build an open-sourced CAL printer
  • Improving optical performance of the CAL system by further developing projection generation code
  • Evaluating mechanical properties of novel hydrogels and fabricate tools for tissue engineering and contact lenses printing
  • Leading a collaboration with O’Connell Lab on creating cartilage tissue with CAL printer using a mixture of agarose, alginate, and PEGDA gels
  • Assisted to upgrade the CAL printer for multi-wavelength printing and applying it to bioprinting in collaboration with a Stanford team
  • Built a theoretical simulation for volumetric 3D printing with metal powder in ultrasonic field

Tissue Engineering / Cartilage Bioprinting, 2021 Spring - Present

Professor Grace O'Connell's O'Connell Lab
Mentored by PhD student Gabriel Lopez
  • Constantly reviewing literature and propose new research ideas
  • Preparing bovine meniscus samples
  • Making agarose, alginate, PEGDA, GelMA, and collagen gels with different formulas and conducting biocompatibility (using chondrocytes) compressional & stress relaxing test with casted samples
  • Printing and evaluating hydrogels with a bio fused deposition printer (Allevi 2)
  • Conducting print fidelity tests and improve the print fidelity by alternating print parameters: successfully printed soft 3D structures with overhang parts
  • Meeting with graduate student mentor weekly and presenting final research result to the group every semester

Structure Engineering -- 2021 Summer Berkeley SURF-SMART Fellowship

Mentored by PhD Student Yasaman Yavaribajestani

Link to the project description

Biped Robot Control 

Mentored by Professor Zhenyu Gan in Syracuse University, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department
  • Investigating into an alternation of the SLIP (Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum) model

COVID19 -- Bear Air (Air Purification), 2020 Spring - Present

UC Berkeley’s Covid-19 Design and Manufacturing Group
  • Co-leading a team in a COVID air purification project that gained 130K initial fund from the CITRIS Institution: Literature reviewing, planning and executing experiments, data analysis and product designing, paper and grant writing, communication with research partners
  • White Book of the project
  • Gained 130K initial grant from CITRIS Institute 

COVID19 -- BVF (Bacterial Viral Filter)

UC Berkeley’s Covid-19 Design and Manufacturing Group
  • White Book of the project
  • Co-leading a team in a COVID air purification project that gained 130K initial fund from the CITRIS Institution: Literature reviewing, planning and executing experiments, data analysis and product designing, paper and grant writing, communication with research partners

COVID19 -- VentilatorSOS, 2020 Spring

VentilatorSOS is a project dedicated to help with the current pandemic. The project was initiated in March, 2020 by Professor Grace O'Connell in the Mechanical Engineering Department and Cal Alumni Bryan Martel. I was the first student joining the team and later became one of the leads in the project. I dedicated long hours of working during the first month of the outbreak in the hope that the project can quickly employed and help save lives in the horrible pandemic. Our team was one of the first teams in the world to figure out how to convert CPAP/BiPAP machines into ventilators that can be used to treat COVID patients. I helped build CAD model for engineering the product and raising business founding. I also led the testing group to collect data at our lab. The project Website can be found here: https://ventilatorsos.org/.
  • Repurposed CPAP and BiPAP machines as ventilators for supplementary medical devices
  • Created CAD model for 3D printing and press release
  • Built and Tested prototype with off-shelf-products and 3D printing parts
  • Created the fist website and started a gofundme campaign  for efforts to help Haiti combat coronavirus
  • Gathered and analyzed data including flow rate, pressure drop, and oxygen concentration
  • The VentilatorSOS team distributed thousands of machines across the world
Media Coverage:
ABC7 News , KNTV/NBC News, KRON4 News, Wired, San Francisco Chronicle, TechCrunch, SF Business Times, SFGate, Forbes, FierceHealthcare, FierceElectronics, Yahoo Finance!,  PBS NewsHour , LA Times, KTVU News, KRXQ Radio, KCBS Radio, The Union, PharmaIntelligence, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
  • Cal Light the Way

Ocean Engineering, 2019 Fall - 2021 Spring 

Professor Reza Alam's Theoretical & Applied Fluid Dynamics Lab
​
Mentored by ShuangJiy Fu
  • Operate apparatus around a large scale wave tank in O 'Brien Hall at UC Berkeley campus.
  • Assisted calibrate wave gauges and force cells 
UC Berkeley Marine Energy Collegiate Team, 2019-2020
  • One of the Universities selected to participate the first year Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC) competition held by Department of Energy
  • Initiated by Michael Kelly in the TAF Lab
  • The team strives to develop an underwater docking station that can store energy generated by currents, tides, and waves to recharge underwater unmanned vehicles (UUVs), automated underwater vehicles (AUVs), and even manned underwater vehicles. The docking station could also serve as an intermediate data repository so that underwater vehicles can spend longer time underwater, thus reducing costs. The team will also propose business models to demonstrate the value of underwater docking stations.
  • You can check our work here
  • Our paper has been accepted and will be published by the Berkeley Scientific Journal
UC Berkeley Marine Energy Collegiate Team, 2020-2021
  • Wave energy based microgrids for isolated communities
  • Taught courses about marine energy in Splash Berkeley
  • You can check our work here
  • Our poster is also being show in the 2021 Advanced Energy Conference 
Picture

High Altitude Balloon, 2020 Spring - 2021 Spring

STAC (Space Technology at California)​
  • Work on the mechanical control system and design & manufacturing of payload box 
  • A paper that the team published before I joined

Inspirational Figures 

“I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.”
-- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World 
EMAIL CONTACT: sunx.23@berkeley.edu
Curriculum vitae
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  • To Myself