NASA SEES Research Intern
In Summer 2026, selected from over 3,000 national applicants for the Design & Operation of a Lunar Mission team at the UT Austin Center for Space Research. Responsible for lunar lander design and rocket selection on an Artemis-style mission, adapting to changing mission scenarios alongside a team of student engineers. Featured by NASA SEES and the Center for Space Research as one of five interns highlighting the program. Co-author of the team’s mission architecture, accepted for poster presentation at the American Geophysical Union’s AGU26 Annual Meeting.
⚙ Individually modeled in Fusion 360, a personal contribution to the team's shared lander design.
About
Senior.
Builder.
Always building.
I want to be the engineer who designs things that survive unimaginably harsh conditions.
- Senior at Half Hollow Hills High School West. High Honor Roll every year, grades 9 through 11. STEM Excellence distinction recipient.
- NASA SEES Research Intern, summer 2026, selected from over 3,000 national applicants.
- SURI Research Aligned Mentorship Program at SUNY Farmingdale State College: semiconductor thermal modeling in COMSOL.
- FIRST Robotics since age 6 across every level: FLL Junior, FLL Challenge, FTC, and FRC. FLL Team Captain, now FLL Mentor. CAD and Design Lead, Invicta FTC Robotics.
- Designed a hands-on, outer-space-themed STEM kit for FreedomSTEM, an organization that mails STEM kits to military-connected students.
- Founder and sole operator of a custom 3D-printing business, started at 13.
- Science Olympiad competitor: Helicopter and Materials Science events.
- Trombone in the HHH High School West Jazz Band (Treasurer and Featured Soloist), the American Airpower Museum Concert and Jazz Bands, and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary Band. Tri-M Music Honor Society member.
- Member, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
- Most free time is in the basement workshop.
Skills
Awards
2024: All-County Orchestra (Level 5 solo)
2025: All-County Band (Level 6 solo)
2026: All-County Orchestra (Level 6 solo)
Projects
Project Phoenix
Pictured: Phoenix Inferno (v1.0)
A fire-resistant drone built to fly into burning buildings to locate and rescue victims. Designed, built, and coded in my basement workshop. Uses mmWave radar, stereoscopic vision, active CO2 cooling, and a custom aerogel heat shield developed through computational materials testing. Now on v2.0: a complete redesign with its own patent pending.
- LISEF 2nd Place Grand Award for v1.0, Long Island Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF Affiliated)
- Recreational drone pilot, Edgewood Flyers Club member
Drone Build Log: v1.0
First Design
Initial CAD. Core problem: protect electronics from temperatures that destroy a standard drone in seconds. Started with ceramic coatings, moved to aerogel composites after early thermal tests.
Frame Fabrication
Carbon fiber frame cut and assembled. Hexagonal layout chosen to distribute load and leave room for the CO2 cooling system.
Electronics Integration
mmWave radar and stereoscopic camera array fitted to frame. Wiring routed to keep heat-sensitive components away from the outer shield layer.
Crash. Redesign.
Early heat shield added too much weight and killed flight balance. Full redesign. Final version cut 30% of mass with same insulation performance.
First Full Test Flight
All systems live: radar, vision, cooling. Data from this flight went into the LISEF presentation.
Vestability
A wearable vest and handheld device that converts live music into haptic feedback and synchronized light for Deaf and Hard of Hearing users. Audio frequency maps to distinct haptic zones. Raspberry Pi 5, Sense HAT, custom audio amplifier circuit, USB audio converter, and hand-soldered haptics array in 3D-printed enclosures.
- Innovation Project Award, 1st Place. WAFFLE (WPI Annual FIRST LEGO League Open Invitational Event), 2024
- Expert input from RIT Center for Access Technologies, BOCES, Indiana University, Northeastern University Accessible Creative Technologies Lab, and Deaf and Hard of Hearing students
Inside Vestability
FishFlex
AI-powered citizen science kiosk and mobile app that identifies fish species, measures size, and logs anglers’ catches into a conservation database. Raspberry Pi 5, AI camera, touchscreen, 3D-printed kiosk. Expert input from UMass Dartmouth, Stony Brook SoMAS, Northwest Maritime, and the DEC.
- Object detection identifies and measures each catch
- Data helps fishery managers understand fish populations and make conservation decisions
- Prize drawings reward anglers for reporting
TENTS
Temporary, Electric, Nomadic, Temperature-Controlling Shelter. Solar-charged tent that folds into a backpack using Peltier modules to heat or cool the interior. Designed for unhoused individuals. In the U.S., about 700 people experiencing homelessness die from hypothermia each year, and hundreds more from heat exposure. Research drew on published interviews with unhoused individuals, plus conversations with the directors of Bethany House and LI Coalition for the Homeless.
- Off-grid solar-powered climate control
- Folds into a backpack for portability
SCOUTbot
Autonomous robot that travels ahead of freight trains to detect broken rails, failed welds, and track obstructions. LiDAR, RADAR, GNSS, cameras, ultrasonic sensors, accelerometer. Solar-powered with electromagnetic docking. Global Innovation Award finalist: top 20 teams worldwide out of 40,000+ across 110 countries, final year this award was given.
- Provisional patent filed with USPTO as first named inventor. Valuable early-stage IP experience.
- Collaboration: First Transit USA, Alta Rail Technology, TTCI
Nifty Sifty
A portable, motorized sifting device for archaeology, with an adjustable screen and a gentle nutating motion designed to separate artifacts from sediment without damaging them.
- Designed the nutating mechanism: a 12V geared motor coupled to a ball joint that tilts and oscillates the hopper for gentle, multi-directional agitation of sand or soil.
- Patent pending (2026) as first named inventor, with co-inventors.
FIRST Robotics
Competing in FIRST since age 6 across every level: FLL Junior, FLL Challenge, FTC, FRC. FLL Team Captain, now FLL Mentor. Global Innovation Award finalist: top 20 teams worldwide out of 40,000+ across 110 countries, final year this award was given. CAD and Design Lead at Invicta FTC Robotics.
- FTC Inspire Award 2026
- FIRST Coach Mentor Award 2026
Bio Reactor
Home-scale bioreactor that breaks down PLA plastic using accessible household materials. Industrial composting won't accept PLA. This does. Full operation documented and submitted to the Nat Geo Slingshot Challenge.
- Submitted to National Geographic Slingshot Challenge
Shop Mystic Studio
Custom parts, precisely printed.
Founded and run since age 13: a custom 3D-printing and CAD-design business handling design, production, and fulfillment. Four years on Etsy, 4.9-star rating across 31 reviews. Specializes in custom parts, functional prints, and made-to-spec CAD work.
- Founder and sole operator since age 13
- Commissioned by a tabletop game company for CAD design work, under NDA
- View the shop on Etsy →
SUNY Farmingdale Research Program
Selected for the Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI), part of the Research Aligned Mentorship (RAM) Program at SUNY Farmingdale State College, Summer 2026. Researched thermal management of semiconductor devices using COMSOL Multiphysics.
- SURI High School Scholar
- Validated COMSOL thermal models against infrared thermal imaging, predicting peak temperatures within ~4°C of measured results
Intellectual Property
Music
Featured Soloist
USDAN Summer Program · Birdland NYC
