Controls

My first introduction to controls was through Waterloo Rocketry. I had the privilege of being mentored by a grad student on the development of a controller for our canard roll control system. I fell in love with the field then and have not looked back since.

I've developed an adaptive gain-scheduled LQR controller for the roll control system using a Kalman filter for online estimation of the canard lift coefficient. This is primarly to prevent catastrophic failure modes such as roll reversal but also serves to improve controller performance through imperfectly modeled aerodynamic regimes.

I've also designed a custom STM32 Nucleo shield as a sensor hub to develop an EKF for an inertial navigation system. I'm hoping to refine this device into an effective and accurate drone attitude and altitude estimation system.

Additionally, I've developed a custom feedforward vehicle steering controller that I tested on simulated driving data, achieving half the tracking error of a well-tuned PID controller. This was my first solo foray into controller design and it was a new experience figuring out how to identify and model unknown plant dynamics and how to tune and refine a controller.

I have dreamed up a couple more (rather ambitious) controls projects that I want to take on during my undergrad, but those shall remain secrets for now.

Robotics

Recently, I've been developing a consumer co-bot in partnership with Hacksmith Industries and Waterloo RoboHub using custom kinematics, motion planning, and closed-loop control. The arm has tracking capability, teach and repeat behavior, and can be easily teleoperated from a gaming controller, keyboard, or haptic device.

I previously developed an autonomous robot chassis with a modular mounting platform, originally intended for the co-bot arm. The chassis can be controlled over bluetooth with a wireless controller or autonomously driven over LAN using feedback from the ZeroKey ultrasonic positioning system.

I also led the development of Team Aphelion's CanSat project, a can-sized prototype lander designed to drill and test a soil sample for the presence of amino acids. I developed custom landing legs, a drilling apparatus with custom tooling, and a sealed chemical testing chamber.

Physics and Math

These two subjects defined much of my identity throughout my teenage years. I was a member of Physics Team Canada in 2024 and won a bronze medal at the European Physics Olympiad. I also had my share of success in math contests including competing in the Canadian Math Olympiad twice and winning the Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest.

I've worked hard to maintain my involvement with the olympiad community, even after graduating. These days, I'm helping run the Canadian Physics Olympiad Program by organizing alumni hosted lectures at camp, composing team selection questions, and, most recently, founding the Canadian Junior Physics Olympiad in order to create opportunities for guidance and mentorship.

I'm also currently the co-director of the Online Physics Olympiad, an international physics contest with over 3000 contestants annually. I love composing creative and unique physics problems and this involvement allows me to give back to a community that has shaped me into who I am today.

Electronics

I have designed several custom PCBs and wired together some non-trivial systems. The highlights of my electronics work certainly include the custom HMI board I made for my friend's essential oil diffuser and the hacked together electrical system of Hacksmith's Fallout Pip-Boy.

As far as medium power electronics system I've worked on, I designed the circuitry of an autonomous robot chassis to include an emergency stop, charging circuit, and other safeguards. Going forward, I'd like to gain more board design experience and also learn about power electronics and high frequency and wireless signals.

Sports

As an over-energetic child, I have always been super into sports and played anything and everything I was able to growing up. The two sports that have stood the test of time for me are skiing and hockey.

I started skating when I was two and played every hockey position (including goalie) at a respectable level. Throughout my later childhood I had to choose between the two and unfortunately stepped away from skiing after covid History. I got back into it at the end of high school after hanging up my skates due to repeated concussions.

Nowadays I ski pretty often (however often I can get up to Whistler, that is) and have recently taken up indoor bouldering and intramural ultimate.

Hobbies

Unsurprisingly, I've picked up a few of the nerdier hobbies over the years. Cubing has always been a fairweather interest of mine and at one point I got my personal best down to 13.9 seconds. I've always favoured the 3x3x3 and found it hard to move onto the larger cubes but I would like to try some day.

During covid I played a lot of chess instead of attending my online classes. I don't play much anymore but I am always open to a game. I also got into scrabble for a bit but I found the amount of memorization required to be proficient at the game a bit of a turnoff.

My most recent escape has been poker (No Limit Hold'em, of course). I think NLH is a fun balance between strategy, guesswork, and luck and I do think that even playing microstakes makes the game more exciting. I'm by no means a winning player at any decent table—I recall playing heads up against a pro once and I didn't win a single hand at showdown—and I hope I am wise enough not to get into real poker.

Travel

Over the last couple years I've had the privilege to travel abroad a lot and it has really changed my perspective on the world. My first time outside of North America was my graduation trip to Europe, hastily cobbled together by me and my friends after we got invited to tour the European Space Agency. We spent about a month having a great time running all over Western Europe before I headed off to the European Physics Olympiad in Georgia.

At the end of 2025 I went on vacation to Taiwan and Macau with my family and it was great to be exposed to proper asian culture for the first time. The food was absolutely delicious (I mostly consumed bubble tea) and it makes me all the more sad at the lack of proper asian cuisine in Waterloo.

Travelling also instills a fire in me to learn languages. When I travelled to Europe I really regretted not taking French more seriously and I felt much the same about Mandarin when I travelled to Taiwan. I want to learn Mandarin again after I dropped it back in high school.

Entertainment

Though my attention span has been ruined by short form content these days, there are a few pieces of media that I have really enjoyed, have inspired a great deal of reflection, or taught me something invaluable.

In no particular order, I would strongly recommend (as in I wish I could re-experience for the first time) the following:

• Frieren
• Ender's Game (the book) by Orson Scott Card
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• 3Blue1Brown on YouTube