About Me
I'm a student at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a BSE in Computer Science. I'm passionate about building technologies of the next generation. Some of my academic interests include applications of Machine Learning in the physical world, particularly in aerospace engineering and robotics.
Outside of school, you can find me at hackathons 💻, flying RC planes ✈️, or watching college football 🏈.
Backend Engineer
PennLabs
Philadelphia, PA | September 2023 - Present
Develop and maintain the Django Penn Courses API, which serves as a tool for thousands of Penn students to plan, search, and compare courses. Integrated schedule solving algorithms into the Penn Course Plan web application.
Embedded Software Engineer
Penn Electric Racing
Philadelphia, PA | September 2023 - Present
Build embedded system codebases for custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) in C++ to control the FSAE vehicle's motor, battery, and other subsystems. Implement popular communication protocols such as CAN, I2C, SPI, and UART to interface with the vehicle's sensors and actuators.
Visiting Researcher
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering
Remote | May 2022 - March 2023
I worked with the Vamvoudakis Lab to study and develop Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms for autonomous flight and optimal control. Completed an independent project in autonomous tracking of aerial objects.
Projects
Lan-DLE: Autonomous Landing of Fixed-Wing Aircraft
PythonPyTorchMachine Learning
A Machine Learning system for robust autonomous landing of fixed-wing aircraft. I trained 10 individual Artificial Neural Networks to learn pilot inputs while landing a plane. To quantify uncertainty, I used the "bagging" method of ensembling to evaluate model safety. Presented at the 2022 International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, GA.
TrackAiR: Tracking Moving Aerial Targets with RL
MATLABReinforcement LearningControl Theory
A Reinforcement Learning algorithm designed for an aerial agent to track a moving target with unknown dynamics. Employed the Actor-Critic algorithm for RL, and a MATLAB simulation was run to test performance in a real-life scenario. Presented at the 2023 International Science and Engineering Fair in Dallas, TX.
Teddy: Cancer Risk Assessment App
JavaScriptReact.jsGoTensorFlow
A full-stack medical app that allows patients to assess their risk of cancer from their genetic history. I was responsible for building the frontend with React, and I also implemented the Deep Learning model with TensorFlow. This was made in a week as part of a 4-person team at the 2021 HudsonAlpha Genomics Tech Challenge, where we won 1st place.
Pencl Testing Platform
JavaScriptVue.jsExpress.jsMongoDB
Looking for a way to host math competitions during the pandemic, I created Pencl, an online testing platform that makes it easy to create and share problems as well as host contests. This app achieved recognition at the 2021 Alabama Governor's Computer Science Summit.
Airspeed, Altitude, Atmosphere 🛫
Made by Daniel Zhao