About Me
Hi there, I'm Amir! 👋
I'm currently a graduate student in the UC Berkeley MEng program studying Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Control of Robotic and Autonomous Systems.
I recently graduated from UC Irvine, receiving my BS in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Design of Mechanical Systems and a Minor in Information and Computer Science.
In my free time, I love spreading my passion for engineering with others. While at UCI, I was the Team Captain for the UCI Cargo Plane Senior Design Team after being the Structures Subteam Lead and Head Engineer the year prior. For that project, I lead my team of 30 undergraduate students to design, model, build, and fly an 18' cargo airplane to compete in the SAE Aero Design competition.
I'm also a strong sailor, and was the President of the Sailing Club at UCI. We compete in the PCCSC, racing against teams up and down the West Coast.
I'm currently designing a robot that will be able to balance on two wheels as a personal project.
In the past, I worked for LTA Research as a Mechanical Engineering Intern. There, I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects designing ground equipment, tooling, and flight hardware in SolidWorks.
Additionally, I worked at the Stanford REx Lab designing and building quadcopters for trajectory optimization research.
This website gives a general overview about me and what I've accomplished. You can find out more about my specific positions and accomplishments on my LinkedIn or on my resume.
Projects
Automatic Angle-Adjusting Golf Ball Launcher (GBL)
For this project, my team was tasked with designing a GBL that could accurately land a golf ball in a bucket from a random range between 5 to 10ft. I was responsible for designing our catapults structure, the circuit design, and programming our control logic. For our GBL, my team designed a catapult with several unique features:
- A 4-bar linkage allowing low-effort launch actuation
- An adjustable stopper with a gear ratio of 1/8 facilitating precise launch angle adjustment and strong shock absorption
- An accelerometer/gyroscope (MPU6050) enabling accurate and consistent launch velocity reporting
- A lightweight and durable structure capable of withstanding launch forces while maintaining ease of access to core components
- A complete MATLAB simulation outputting launch parameters given initial height and desired launch distance
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)
In my first graduate level course, my team of 3 was tasked with designing, modeling, and building an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that could track and approach a target object. We used a set of 4 motors for complete maneuverability and an array of sensors, including a camera module (Pixy2) to track our target, an accelerometer/gyroscope (MPU6050) for stability control, and a pressure sensor (LPS33HW) for depth control. All of these electrical components were controlled using an Arduino Nano and a custom PCB.
UCI Cargo Airplane Project
Cargo Plane is a senior design team representing UCI in the SAE Aero Design competition to build the best low speed, high-lift aircraft. Last year I was the Structures Team Lead on the UCI Cargo Plane Project. While I held that position, I was in charge of designing and managing the SolidWorks model of our airplane. Below is the complete interactive model of our aircraft; check it out!
Autonomous Pneumatic Cart
For this competition, we began with a set of pneumatic and electrical components and were tasked with designing and programming a cart that successfully navigated a course. I was in charge of designing our cart's chassis, drivetrain, and steering assembly. I also implemented a PID controller, which enabled our Arduino to take in a compass signal and properly steer to follow a course.
Stanford Robotic Exploration (REx) Lab
While at the REx Lab, I was tasked with designing and assembling a fleet of 5 quadcopters for use by graduate researchers.
SafeCycle - ESP-32 Based IoT Sport Tracker
SafeCycle is an ESP32 based internet enabled sports tracker that will track bike data and report it on a web page to be viewed later. Additionally, we use a 6DoF IMU to sense any collisions or sudden impacts and begin a 10second count down. If there is no response from the user after 10 seconds, emergency services will be contacted. Here is our working prototype!
Certifications
