DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge• Served as Technical Lead for the DARPA SubT Challenge, an international robotics competition in which teams developed technologies to rapidly map, navigate, and search underground environments. • Performed background research, identified technical trends, new concept development, rigorous technical diligence, competition design, proposal reviews, field testing, curation of a cooperative research community, public and media relations, and stakeholder engagement.DARPA Service Academies Swarm Challenge• Served as Technical Lead for the Service Academies Swarm Challenge (SASC), an aerial swarm vs. swarm competition between three of the military service academies. Responsibilities included coordinating a team of ~30 engineers, managing the fabrication of 144 airframes, mentoring the cadets and midshipmen, and executing the final live-fly competition event.Army Research Laboratory• Developed novel research-grade UAVs and payloads to enable state-of-the-art perception research. Responsibilities included building custom airframes, designing custom sensor payloads/gimbals, and integrating flight controls and perception.• Researched sensor and optics phenomenology, designed novel low-cost optical sensors, and demonstrated their ability to detect vibrations and underground activity using non-contact optical methods. Set up experiments and rigorous field testing to collect and analyze performance data.Intern MentorLed and mentored interdisciplinary teams of 6-12 interns each summer. Example projects include:• Pulse: Novel accelerometer sensor suite to detect human heartbeats in shipping containers to prevent human trafficking in maritime shipping. • BlindNav: Navigation aid for the blind that integrates a stereo camera with a custom wearable haptic feedback device. Developed and evaluated prototypes in partnership with the National Federation for the Blind.

Dissertation Title: Series Elasticity in Linearly Actuated Humanoids.Research Focus: Designed, fabricated, and implemented series elastic linear actuation in two full size humanoid robots: THOR and SAFFiR.THOR | Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot• 1.8m tall disaster response robot developed for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, capable of walking over rough terrain, driving vehicles, and using hand tools.SAFFiR | Shipboard Autonomous Fire Fighting Robot• 1.5m tall fire-fighting robot developed for Office of Naval Research, capable of navigating through low visibility fire environments and working with a team of human fire fighters.RoboCup | DARwIn & CHARLI• Member of Team DARwIn (kid-size league) and Team CHARLI (adult-size league) which competed in the 2011 and 2012 RoboCup competitions.• Both teams won the championship in their leagues both years and CHARLI won the Best Humanoid award in 2011.Whole Skin Locomotion• Developed the mechanics of a flexible fluid filled robot which uses an everting motion for propulsion and squeezing through holes.

• Revamped and taught a new controls experiment for a senior level course. Active in training and mentoring undergraduate researchers in RoMeLa/TREC each year.

• Volunteer Staff - Directing strategy and developing leaders for an organization with 60 active members and 10 leaders.

• Participant in the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI), an NSF sponsored program. Performed collaborative research with the HUBO Lab at KAIST on HUBO, a 1.5m tall humanoid robot.

• Along with a teammate I designed and built an autonomous window cleaning robot which won the regional competition.

• Part of a 20+ team which built and competed with an off road race car each year.• Involved in the design and fabrication of many aspects of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 cars. • Served as design judge and event official at the 2008 competitions.

• Various other independent research projects including materials science, nondestructive testing, and fluids research performed at Tennessee Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

• NSF sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.• Developed novel variable stiffness legs for RHex using Shape Deposition Manufacturing.

• Worked on process optimization and quality control in ceramic injection molding.