Building machines that fight, drive, fly, and swim.
Combat robots, an FSAE car, a Mach-1 rocket, and an underwater robot that moves by snapping nitinol tubes. I'm on four teams right now and juggling way too many side projects — which is kind of the point.
I'm Naman — a mechanical engineering student at UC Riverside (3.93 GPA, 2026 BCOE Engineering Scholarship recipient) who is eager to get their feet wet (and I mean very wet). I started with FRC robotics in high school, and at UCR that turned into combat robots, a race car, high-power rockets, and a research lab.
Combat robotics humbled me very quickly. When you think everything you designed is perfect and exceptional, you witness your robot get demolished within thirty seconds and realize that you are far from the 'meta' design. However, I don't give up because of that. That moment has made me always test my robot design early, analyze the failure, and redesign before the next event.
I also care about making it easier for other people to build. I pitched a $20k proposal for a dedicated manufacturing space for Mechanical Engineering senior design teams to 100+ attendees at UCR's 2026 Re:Write, Re:Build Symposium.
Pitching the $20k manufacturing-space proposal to 100+ attendees at UCR's 2026 Re:Write, Re:Build Symposium.Link to proposal pitch ↗
Projects & experience
What I'm building
Underwater snap-through robot
Undergraduate Researcher · Robotics and Medical Systems Lab, UC Riverside
Developing an underwater robot actuated by the snap-through of nested precurved superelastic nitinol tubes — adapting a concentric tube manipulator mechanism from minimally invasive surgical robotics into a propulsion system. Built an Arduino-controlled bench test setup (with N20 gearmotor through a motor driver) to rotate the nested tubes and characterize snap-through. Secured a $1k research mini grant to fund equipment and development.
Working with: nitinol, compliant mechanisms, rapid prototyping
Since this is an ongoing project, details here are limited.
Working on uncertainty quantification for autonomous-vehicle perception:
running the BEVFusion camera–LiDAR detector on the nuScenes dataset and
building a conformal prediction layer that turns raw detections into
prediction sets with statistical coverage guarantees. Running training and
inference on an NSF ACCESS HPC cluster via Slurm.
Working with: Python, nuScenes, BEVFusion, conformal prediction, HPC (Slurm, CUDA)
Vertical spinner combat robots
Executive Board Member · Highlander Combat Robotics
Led three vertical spinner designs that competed at UC Irvine and USC, modeling the weapon assemblies and chassis in Fusion and wiring brushless motors, ESCs, LiPo batteries, and RC receivers into the drivetrain and weapon systems. Designed PLA and PETG chassis & armor components that survived spinner impacts across 10+ matches. Redesigned the drum weapon between events after post-match failure analysis.
Working with: Fusion, brushless drives, LiPo power systems
In the arena — our bot fighting mid-match.Drum weapon chassis modeled in Fusion.
FSAE chassis CAD
Associate Engineer · FSAE Highlander Racing
Modeled SolidWorks assemblies of a V6 engine and the FSAE chassis with tolerancing, and generated 5+ GD&T manufacturing drawings for the chassis subteam's cost report. Improving chassis torsional rigidity test by measuring front & rear toe compliance, wheel rate, and anti-roll bar stiffness. Evaluating torsional stiffness against SolidWorks Simulation models to validate real world constraints.
Working with: SolidWorks, GD&T, FEA
Self-designed FSAE chassis — 3G front-end load case in SolidWorks simulation. Max resultant displacement is 0.017 in (or ≈0.42 mm) at the front hoop. Click to view bigger size.
Mach-1 high-power rocket
Personal Project
Simulating aerodynamic stability and the flight profile in OpenRocket for a Mach-1-capable high-power rocket, working toward NAR Level 1 certification — with fiberglass-laminated fins to mitigate transonic fin flutter.
Working with: OpenRocket, fiberglass composites
OpenRocket simulation of the L1 rocket, validating design — click to view bigger size.CAD model of the L1 rocket.
CAM & machine shop manufacturing
Manufacturing Team · Highlander Space Program
Developed CAM toolpaths to produce hardware for the structures and propulsion subteams, and completed technical training in the ME machine shop running CNC mills and lathes for precision part fabrication.
Working with: CAM, CNC mills & lathes
Competition-winning FRC robot
Officer · Lynbrook Robotics
Co-led the design and fabrication of a competition-winning robot in Autodesk Inventor, integrating 15+ custom FDM-printed pulleys for a belt-driven continuous elevator — 4 finals appearances across 8 events. Oversaw 10+ field elements for realistic testing and trained 40+ members on tools and shop protocols, keeping a zero-incident record through the 2024 build season.
Working with: Autodesk Inventor, FDM printing, CNC mill and router
