Education and Career

Starting at a young age, I have always had an interest in engineering. My teachers noticed my affinity for Mathematics when I was placed an accelerated math program in my elementary school. I followed this accelerated program of mathematics all throughout school, being two years advanced for mathematics in both middle school and high school. I excelled in all aspects of academia, enrolling in all honors and AP classes, up until my last two years of high school when I decided to focus on math, science, and economics exclusively.

As I matured, I found my love for engineering develop as well. I joined an Engineering Club and SeaPerch Robotics Club in my freshman year of high school. While the SeaPerch Robotics Club was disbanded after my freshman year, I continued with Engineering club for all four years of high school. We followed outlines of plans for the projects, and utilized a trial and error method to complete them. I also took on a leadership role as I created a club for Spikeball in my high school. 

One of my proudest feats in the Engineering Club was the creation of a Stirling Engine. The main function of the Stirling Engine is to convert thermal energy to kinetic energy. The heat source (e.g. a candle) is placed underneath the engine. The heat causes the displacer to rise, which is attached to a rod in the power piston. This puts the flywheel axel in motion, which the displacement piston is also attached to. The displacement piston pushes the air back down and the cycle repeats, which makes the flywheel spin. 

Outside of Engineering Club, I was a co-creator of the Spikeball Club at my high school. Our weekly meetings would yield anywhere from 15-35 participants. As the co-creator/co-leader of this club, I was responsible for organizing events and moderators, sending out weekly reminders and status updates, and organizing the location and logistics of each meeting. 

I worked part-time at a few locations throughout high school, including Chick Fil A, Brandon's Candles, DoorDash, and Builder Pros Contractors. I worked as a team member in the front of the house at Chick Fil A. Mainly, I would prepare customer orders, deliver orders to the takeout area, and interact with customers to store their orders in a PoS system. After some time, I decided to find a new job with Brandon's Candles, where packaged and allocated candle wax in bulk to satisfy customer orders. The company started to make investments in real estate, where I was assigned to a demolition crew. I understood that I could take on more responsibilities, so I took on a job as a DoorDash driver that I would work at night. Every winter season throughout high school, I also worked in snow removal for the Malvern Schools. At first, I would only remove snow from sidewalks and walkways, but as time went on I assumed more responsibilities. I was assigned with a company truck equipped with a snow plow and clear snow from parking lots, and I also operated a snow blower for severe snow storms. We were responsible for snow removal in 8 different locations and the tasks needed to be completed before the schools opened in the morning. 

After high school, I decided to enroll in The Pennsylvania State University. The main appeal I found was that the engineering program is considered one of the best in the country. Originally, I had a passion for prosthetic design and creation, so I started out with classes that pertained to Biomedical Engineering. Over time, my occupational interests shifted toward Industrial Engineering, but I still have an interest in bionic prosthetics (See Personal Projects). After my freshman year of college, I went on to work with a small carpentry team of 1 - 3 other team-members in Delaware (See Professional Projects: Builder Pros Contractors). I lived in Rehoboth, Delaware for the summer and commuted to Millsboro, Delaware to frame a house. During my time framing this house, I acquired a variety of soft skills involving collaboration and team work, and hard skills involving carpentry and woodworking. 

During my sophomore year of college, I continued with general engineering classes, still unsure whether I would declare my major to be Biomedical Engineering or Industrial Engineering. I joined a THON organization called Atlas, although I found the organization to be less involved in THON than I preferred. THON is "a student-run philanthropy at Penn State University committed to enhancing the lives of children & families impacted by childhood cancer," (THON.org). I wanted to become more active in THON, so I decided to join a THON committee the following year. After my sophomore year of college, I acquired an Engineering Internship at NESTEC Inc., located in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania (See Professional Projects: NESTEC Inc.). NESTEC Inc. is an original equipment manufacturer of "air pollution control solutions including thermal oxidation systems, wet electrostatic precipitators and wet scrubbers," (NESTECInc.com). Here, I was able to work in the Research & Development department, where I would mainly work to streamline processes in the workshop and assist in the development of new projects involving Regenerative Catalytic Oxidizers and Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers. The commute to work was 1.25 hours, and I also took summer classes during this time. Juggling these roles at the same time was difficult, but I was able to meet my goals through time management skills. The internship provided me with experience in metalwork, welding, warehouse organization, 3D design, and team collaboration.

Before my junior year at Penn State, I declared my major as Industrial Engineering. The driving factor of this decision was my interest in economics and increasing the efficiency of business processes. I started taking classes specific to Industrial Engineering, and I have enjoyed the curriculum since then. I also joined the Special Events THON Committee, where I was a part of a large group of students that helped facilitate fund-raising events throughout the school year to benefit THON and the Four Diamonds fund. My specific role within the committee was to organize events that the group could socialize in and raise money for THON. During the main event of THON, which is the 46 hour dance marathon, I worked within a security detail to ensure that everyone was participating in the event and to remove contraband. Following this school year, I worked in a renovation crew, where we renovated a basement, kitchen, and a deck. The deck was meant to be a short repair, but after the initial inspection we found several structural flaws and hazards such as detached posts, broken and insufficient footings, and rotted wood. This led to the decision of demolishing the entire thing and starting from scratch (See Professional Projects: Builder Pros Contractors). Some new skills I picked up in this role were electrical installation, fixture installation, footing installation, demolition, and communication with clientele, and I was able to further hone my skills in woodworking, demolition, and carpentry.

While my senior year is ongoing, I have been a part of several impressive projects. I was a part of four projects that focused on manufacturing, product allocation based on demand, categorical analysis, and user interface design (See Academic Projects). The manufacturing project focused on the design and creation of a business card holder. We designed and created a minimalistic card holder that could be personalized with lettering on the top. The manufacturing process of the card holder was metal casting. This meant that our design needed to be a part of a system that would adhere to the constraints that are involved with casting metal. We created a runner and in-gate system and modified our design for an adequate sand mold, and poured the metal ourselves to create 10 castings. For the product allocation project, my group was given a large dataset that pertained to items that were requested from two vending machines. We had to analyze this data, then develop the optimal configuration for the products in the vending machines, and predict the frequency of restocks based on item importance, demand, price, and loss of revenue. We then had to create 10 theoretical shifts in demand that would affect our optimal configuration, and explain how we would respond. For the categorical analysis project, my group was given data on several categories, or "clusters". Our responsibilities involved cleaning the data, finding the correlation data between clusters, repurposing the data into new clusters, and interpreting those results. For the user interface project, I created a Health and Wellness AI Assistant that would store inputs from the user and provide feedback based on those records. Once information about the user was provided, the platform would calculate the user's basal metabolic rate and their suggested calorie intake. The platform would provide those readings to the user, and also provide a 5 day meal plan, fitness plan, and sleep insights. There was also a progress dashboard that the user could use to track how well they are meeting their goals, and the platform would interpret those results. 

I will be graduating in May, 2025 and this page will be updated with more information at that time!