Zach Tam Email & Phone Number

Boston, Ma, Us

Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

Robotics research working with Professor Ken Goldberg. Current projects are related to optimized motion planning in C++ for industrial pick-and-place. Past work includes AVPLUG, a policy for finding and extracting target objects from clutter by moving a camera mounted behind a unicontact suction gripper, and SLAX-RAY, a policy for efficiently finding objects in the back of a shelf by moving around occluding objects (including stacking and destacking objects). Helped design a novel “bluction” tool, which has imaging, suction, and pushing capabilities.

Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

Developed an optimization-based inverse kinematics solver in C++, used on the Stretch robot to find full body (arm and cameras) poses for capturing clear images. Reduced human intervention rate and increased productivity (cases moved per hour). Tested this work on robot, integrated it into the full code base, and created developer tools for future extensions.

Lexington, Massachusetts, United States

Developed a sensor package for an autonomous UAV to evaluate the viability of removing LiDAR and using a smaller airframe. Led all development steps: programmed tests in simulation; researched sensors and airframes; CAD-modeled, 3D-printed, and assembled several design iterations; organized field tests; analyzed and presented collected data.

Part of a teaching team for Code in Place, offered by Stanford for a second year during COVID-19 pandemic. 12,000 global students and 1100 volunteer teachers participating from around the world.Prepared and taught a weekly discussion section of 10-12 students to supplement professors’ lectures in a 5-week introductory online Python programming course based on material from the first half of Stanford’s introductory programming course, CS106A.

Part of a teaching team for Code in Place, offered by Stanford during COVID-19 pandemic, with 10,000 global students and 900 volunteer teachers participating from around the world.Prepared and taught a weekly discussion section of 10-12 students to supplement professors’ lectures in a 5-week introductory online Python programming course based on material from the first half of Stanford’s introductory programming course, CS106A.

Greater Boston Area

Greater Boston Area

Research with Professor Robert Platt to design and program a new gripper that utilizes both parallel jaws and suction to enable grasping of flat and tightly packed objects (e.g. books, credit cards, cereal boxes) for the disabled and elderly.

Bachelor'S Degree, Highest Honors In Electrical Engineering And Computer Sciences, Minor In Mechanical Engineering

High School Diploma