Portfolio
Strengthening American Infrastructure – Research (Bowen Laboratory, Purdue University)
Undergraduate Research Assistant, June – August 2025
This past summer (Summer 2025), I worked as a research assistant in the SAI-R (Strengthening American Infrastructure – Research) project at the Intelligent Infrastructure Systems Laboratory in Bowen Laboratory at Purdue University. The goal of this research project was to identify effective retrofit and repair strategies for nonductile reinforced concrete buildings (NDRCBs), and was achieved through experimental testing performed on large-scale reinforced concrete columns and hybrid simulations. Throughout my work, I gained experience in a broad range of engineering topics, such as MATLAB, finite element analysis, control systems.
As a part of the lab, I:
- Developed a MATLAB application for presenting displacement data, notes, and photos from tests (see details below)
- Conducted data collection from academic dissertations to tune a finite element analysis (FEA) model in OpenSeesPy, and ran material component simulations and helped debug the existing simulation program
- Assisted in instrumentation setup and data collection during large-scale structural testing
- Created comprehensive documentation of post-test damage on concrete specimen
One of my key projects at the lab was designing and developing a presentation tool that consolidated notes, photos, and displacement data into a single, user-friendly format. Tests sometimes lasted over 10 hours and generated a large volume of information; concisely and effectively presenting this data to others was a significant challenge.
The PI’s two main requirements for this tool were ease of use and reusability; it needed to be simple to present and easy for future researchers to use with tests. To accomplish this, I utilized MATLAB App Designer to create an application for the data presentation. I designed the UI (pictured below) to feature a slider to navigate data over time and a dropdown menu to easily switch between tests. To ensure ease of use for future tests, I designed it to automatically handle a variety of data setups and process large test files just once to ensure simple operation.
The app featured an interactive slider to easily view photos, notes, and data from any point during the test.
My contributions to the project proved to be very important to the project’s progress. I was quickly able to adapt to the team and the many nuances of a large-scale structural research project. My programming experience proved to be a valuable asset in this effort, as I regularly assisted the PI with tasks such as data analysis in MATLAB and debugging FEA programs in Python. I was an integral part of the team and my work proved invaluable during the culmination of the three-year project.
Educational Game Design – EPICS WOLF Team (Purdue University)
Team Member, Aug 2024 – May 2025
In this project, we developed an educational and child oriented video game designed to teach players about wild wolf behavior. It was designed for Wolf Park, a local wildlife sanctuary in Battleground, IN. As part of the team, I was responsible for developing the trivia minigame, sound implementation, animations, frame rate optimization, and more.
- Optimized display system to optimize frame rate, leading to a 3x improvement in FPS (<20 to 60)
- Introduced and developed trivia minigame (pictured right), which was utilized as the main educational component
- Added fullscreen capability for optimal gameplay
- Implemented many QoL changes such as transitions between levels, sound implementation, and an objective display box
The goal of this project was simple: Wolf Park was looking for a way to enhance their education center and appeal to young children while staying true to their mission of educating future generations and inspiring them to protect the natural world. We worked alongside the park to ensure that every aspect of the game aligned with their vision. The park administration were very pleased with our delivered product; it was fun and engaging while also providing an enriching educational experience and remaining accessable for many kinds of children. Our contribution to their education center will allow them to expand their reach and promote the park’s mission.
An in-game screenshot from the first level.
Utilized Python and GitHub to collaboratively develop large scale code architecture.