Research

Publication

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, and Alvin Lee

Making resins with various monomer and photoinitiators for conducting different experiments
Work on a couple of projects on CAL 3D printer
- Optical Lenses Printing
  - Printing, post- processing, and evaluating optical components with CAL printer
- Bio-printing
  - Evaluating mechanical properties of a novel hydrogel resins for bio-application
Work on the simulation and design of a new type of 3D Printer to volumetrically print metal parts

Tissue Engineering / Cartilage Bioprinting, 2021 Spring

Professor Grace O'Connell's O'Connell Lab
Mentored by PhD student Gabriel Lopez

Making gels with different formulas and conducting compressional & stress relaxing test
Printing and evaluating hydrogels with a bio fused deposition printer
Conducting print fidelity tests and improve it by alternating print parameters
Analyzing data for mechanical properties and optimization problems

Nanotechnology

Structure Engineering -- 2021 Summer Berkeley SURF-SMART Fellowship

Mentored by PhD Student Yasaman Yavaribajestani

Link to the project description

Computational Imaging

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 -- Air Sanitization, 2020 Spring - Present

UC Berkeley’s Covid-19 Design and Manufacturing Group

White Book of the project
Gained 50K initial grant from CITRIS Institute

COVID19 -- BVF (Bacterial Viral Filter)

UC Berkeley’s Covid-19 Design and Manufacturing Group

White Book of the project

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/.

Created the first website for the project with a third-party platform
Co-led an engineering team to turn sleep apnea machines into usable ventilators
Created CAD model for 3D printing and press release
Built and tested prototype with off-shelf-products and 3D printing parts
Gathered and analyzed data including flow rate, pressure drop, and oxygen concentration
Assisted to start a gofundme campaign for efforts to help Haiti combat coronavirus

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