About The Team

Jonathan Sun

Mechanical Engineer

Learning Goal: Work on engineering design justification through simulation and hand calculations, refresh my knowledge of basic implementation of machine learning algorithms.

Reflection: I did not get to work on a lot of simulation and design justification, however, I am very satisfied with expanding my knowledge through troubleshooting and working with the electrical and software components of this project.

Liam Fries

Electrical Engineer

Learning Goal: Learn drone control schemes and math via mathematical research and coding and integrate electrically at a systematic level by understanding the entire electrical system.

Reflection: I didn't get to do as much with drone control schemes as I had hoped. Almost all of it was handled by the flight controller. However, I reached an excellent understanding of the entire integrated electrical systems. At the end of the project, I can describe the exact voltage levels and use for every wire in the drone off the top of my head. Electrical and software integration was much easier because of this. Additionally, I learned a lot about drone coding and the mavpylink library as well as the opencv library. I wasn’t expecting to learn this much on the software end, so it was a pleasant surprise. As the electrical systems were finished fairly early on in the project scale, I had a lot of time to work on software. I ended up being the one to integrate all of the separate software systems (cv and drone control), which required a systematic understanding of software as well. I wish I had the opportunity to do more with drone control schemes, although this would probably have resulted in an overscoped project. Overall, I’m very happy with my contributions and the final product.

Trinity Haisch

Mechanical Engineer

Learning Goals: Learn how to collaboratively design mechanical systems. Learn how to CAD complicated systems. Further software skills through implementing computer vision with drone control.

Reflection: I had wanted to do mechanical engineering work since I haven't done much so far, however, a drone is a very software/ electrical heavy project. I was able to design a few components like the landing gear and the cooling vents, where I learned how to utilize onShape more effectively like using offset planes and directional extrusions. I ended up doing a lot of electrical work which was still interesting and I became better at soldering and understanding how electrical systems work. I successfully furthered my software skills by doing some work with the YOLO model. Overall, I learned about integration to a great extent and how each system communicates with each other, as well as how to work collaboratively with other people to design and build a project and am very satisfied with what I’ve learned during this project

Althea Ivins

Electrical Engineer

Learning goals: Advance software learning through implementing computer vision with electrical and mechanical systems.

Reflection: I was able to practice writing the computer vision software and then was also able to transfer to focusing on the website. Both fulfilled my desire to learn more software/programming skills. YOLOv11 was new to me and learning to work with it not only helped me understand the library but also its dependencies and also Python in general. And I also had an extra fun sidequest learning Blender!

Matthew Kwon

Mechanical Engineer

Learning Goal: Learn how to make the proper calculations related to drone balancing and materials. Work on ensuring engineering justifications for every design decision

Reflection: Through a lot of the mechanical design process of making this drone, I was able to work on ensuring engineering justification for designs. I went to great lengths to ensure each of my parts (propeller hub and wing guard) had great reason for how it looked and how it was designed. I was also able to gain a lot of experience in electrical-mechanical integrations with how tight the constraints were in mounting and spacing for electrical components. Overall I am very happy with the work I was able to put into this project and with all of the lessons I learned as I went through the design, integration, and iteration of this project.