ECE · UC BERKELEY · CLASS OF 2030

A collection of my work.

Hi! I'm John, an incoming freshman studying Electrical & Computer Engineering at UC Berkeley. I build robots, model and run simulations in Blender, and shoot photos at night.

// BUILD LOG

Projects

A running log going back to 2022 — mechanical builds, embedded sensing, robotics, and developer tooling. Filter by topic.

Showing all 15 projects

COMPETITION
2025–2026

Dugtrio

My robot for the DECODE season and my fourth and final FTC build. Took the Overall Inspire Award at the Chesapeake Championship, then a Division Inspire Award at the World Championship — 1st in the US, top 6 of 10,000+ teams globally.

FTCMechanical designCAD
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IN PROGRESS
2026

Contactless Vitals Monitor

An mmWave radar system (Seeed MR60BHA2) for contactless vitals tracking, aimed at CPAP sleep monitoring. Validated with real-world users outside the lab.

mmWave radarPythonSignal processing
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SHIPPED
2026

Dev Typing Analyzer

A VS Code extension that captures keystroke timing — bigrams, heatmaps, WPM over time, mistype tracking — surfaced through a live dashboard. Packaged as a distributable .vsix.

TypeScriptNode.jsChart.js
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SHIPPED
2026

Fat Tails: A Backtest Post-Mortem

Built a statistical arbitrage backtester on BTC/ETH and hit a 74–77% win rate — that still lost money. A study in how a high hit rate and a profitable strategy are not the same thing.

PythonpandasStatistics
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SHIPPED
2025

Wheelchair w/ Electromagnetic Suspension

Replacing passive spring-damper hardware with electromagnetic actuators on a wheelchair chassis, allowing damping response to be tuned in real time to the terrain.

ElectromagneticsMechanical designControls
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BUILT
2025

JarvisSort

An AI-driven robotic sorting gantry built through UMD's Cyber-Physical Systems program — vision-guided pick-and-place applied outside a competition setting.

Computer visionRoboticsGantry control
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COMPETITION
2024–2025

Blastoise

My robot for the INTO THE DEEP season. Took 3rd place for the Innovate Award and served as 8th alliance captain through playoffs at the World Championship.

FTCMechanical designCAD
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WRITE-UP
2024–2025

CNC Documentation

Documentation covering CNC machining workflow — setup, tooling, and process notes built up across a season of fabrication so the knowledge outlived the build.

CNCCAMTechnical writing
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BUILT
2024–2025

Ocean Pollution Monitor

A sensing platform for water-quality monitoring, logging pollution measurements over time for analysis.

EmbeddedSensorsData logging
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BUILT
2023

CV Joints

Design and fabrication of constant-velocity joints to transmit power through articulating drivetrain geometry without velocity fluctuation.

Mechanical designMachiningCAD
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BUILT
2024

Electromagnetic Suspension Module

A suspension module using magnetic actuation for active damping in place of conventional spring-and-damper hardware — the prototype the wheelchair work grew out of.

ElectromagneticsMechanical designPrototyping
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COMPETITION
2023–2024

Dru

My robot for the CENTERSTAGE season, finishing as Grand Finalist at the Chesapeake regional.

FTCMechanical designCAD
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BUILT
2023

Beta Stirling Engine

A beta-configuration Stirling engine converting a temperature differential into mechanical work, with displacer and power piston sharing a single cylinder.

ThermodynamicsMachiningMechanical design
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COMPETITION
2022–2023

Nutmeg

My robot for the POWERPLAY season, campaigned across three regions — Chesapeake, New Mexico, and Alabama.

FTCMechanical designCAD
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SHIPPED
2022

Auction Sniping Bot

A bot that places bids in the closing seconds of online auctions, timing submissions to land after competing bidders have stopped responding.

PythonAutomationWeb scraping
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// RENDER QUEUE

Renders

Stylized 3D work in Blender — car models, environment studies, and animation tests. Also posted to TikTok.

City Street

CyclesEnvironment

City Street — Early Pass

BlockingLighting test

Scene Build

BlenderProcess

McLaren — Front

CyclesClay

BMW M8

CyclesStudio

McLaren — Detail

CyclesClay

Procedural Particle Study

Particle systemProcedural scatter
// A LOOK THROUGH MY EYES

Photography

A glimpse at some of my favorite pieces.

// swap these gradient tiles for your own a6700 shots — same frame/EXIF treatment carries over.

// SPEC SHEET

About

SCHOOLUC Berkeley
MAJORElectrical & Computer Engineering
CLASS2030
HOMETOWNPotomac, MD
FOCUSRobotics + Embedded Systems + 3D
CAMERASony α6700
3D TOOLSBlender 5.2.0 + Onshape + SolidWorks
2026
UC BerkeleyIncoming freshman
2026
YC Startup School
2022—2026
Winston Churchill High SchoolGraduated — 16 AP exams, 1550 SAT (750 RW | 800 M), 4.9 WGPA
2026
FTC World Championship1st in the US, top 6/10,000+ globally
Division Inspire Award — 1st place
2026
FTC Chesapeake ChampionshipOverall Inspire Award - 1st place

Let's talk

Open to conversations about hardware, 3D work, robotics, startups, or good photography.