Who?

Currently, I'm a robotics engineer at Hadrian Automation, working on manufacturing automation. Ever since moving out to the LA area, I've worked on many things at many places: including autonomous EV battery dismantling at Universe Energy, robotic workcells to support metal 3d-printing at 3DEO, end-effectors and prototypes for healthcare at UBTech Robotics, and proof-of-concept robotics at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

I received my PhD in 2016 from Yale University, where as a graduate researcher in the Yale Grab Lab, I studied methods and designs for dexterous manipulation with compliant, underactuated hands. While at Yale, I developed (or got tasked with the development of) the Yale OpenHand Project, an online repository of open-source hand designs based on Yale Grab Lab's work in rapidly prototyped flexure-based grippers. In parallel with my thesis work, I've also modified RepRap-style 3D-printers (back when we built our 3d-printers uphill, both ways) and experimented with various rapid-prototyping techniques. I previously graduated from MIT in 2010 with a BS in Computer Science and a BS in Mechanical Engineering with focus on Robotics. Usually answers to "Ray". Have been known to also answer to "crazyray," "toothpickguy," and "hey you."

My research interests include all things robotics-related, rapid prototyping/manufacturing, data visualization, and telepresence. I'm a strong believer that the robot apocalypse won't have much of a chance until robotic interfaces with the physical world are as adept as their connections to the digital one. Hopefully our future robot overlords will reward me for my contribution. Luckily for human sustainability, my day-to-day in the lab through grad school mostly involved making pretty plots and snagging obscure code from various corners of the internet to make small widgets work long enough for experiments and video demos.

I hail from deep in the heart of Texas suburbia, which is just about as exciting and exotic as it sounds. Despite previous pit stops in Ohio, Alabama, Boston, and New Haven, the Dallas Mavericks and Longhorns are my teams of choice. The Cowboys, not so much. Still undecided on how I feel about the Lakers and Clippers, but keep in mind that neither had super-teams until I got here (you're welcome).

Away from work, I fulfill the asian graduate student stereotype by being atrocious at sports and defy it by being equally inept at Starcraft.