About
Beijing, then Durham.
I'm a mechanical engineering junior at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, working toward a certificate in aerospace engineering. Before Duke I was at Tsinghua International School in Beijing, where I captained our ISSDC teams and, as a full-time student-athlete, coached middle school volleyball and basketball, ending as head coach of both girls' teams.
At Duke I split my time between research, teaching, and Duke Aero's solid propulsion subteam, which I joined in August 2024.
I got into space through The Martian when I was ten. What stuck with me wasn't the rescue, it was all the hardware that made it possible. Airplanes came from Mayday: Air Crash Investigation, which I'll admit is a strange way to fall in love with them, but every episode took an aircraft apart and explained how it worked. These days the part I enjoy most is watching something I drew turn into a part that works.
Outside engineering, I play trombone in the Duke University Marching Band, and I play volleyball and basketball.
I'm a native speaker of English and Mandarin, and a US citizen.
Experience
- 2026Research InternTurbulent Shear Flow Laboratory, NC State
- 2025–26Student ResearcherDuke MEMS, with Dr. Earl H. Dowell
- 2025–Undergraduate Teaching AssistantEGR 105 and ME 221, Duke
- 2024–Solid Propulsion SubteamDuke Aero, since August 2024
- 2021–24Captain, then Student AdvisorInternational Space Settlement Design Competition
- 2020–24Student CoachTsinghua International School athletics, Beijing
Education
- 2028B.S.E. Mechanical Engineering, Certificate in Aerospace EngineeringDuke University, Pratt School of Engineering · GPA 3.776
Honors
- 2026Bellman Gift Travel Grant, $1,747Duke MEMS
- 2024Dean's List with DistinctionDuke Pratt School of Engineering
- 2023Global ChampionISSDC, Kennedy Space Center
- 2022Best RepresentorISSDC China Finals, 2021–22 season
Skills
- CAD & design
- SolidWorks, Onshape, GD&T (datum reference frames, positional tolerancing, surface finish), engineering drawings, BOMs, DFM/DFA
- Analysis
- SolidWorks Simulation (FEA), hand calculations, tolerance and load path analysis, measurement system design, trade studies, root cause analysis, ANSYS Granta EduPack
- Fabrication
- Lathe, mill, drill press, band saw, CNC (3- and 5-axis), wire EDM, metallographic grinding and polishing, laser cutting, 3D printing, additive friction stir deposition, load cell integration
- Materials testing
- Metallography, fractography, tensile testing, exposure to SEM
- Computing & data
- Python (NumPy, Matplotlib) for test-data processing; DAQ data collection in solid mechanics and dynamics labs
- Standards
- ASME Y14.5, ASME B4.1
- Coursework
- Mechanics of Solids (EGR 201), Structure & Properties of Solids (ME 221), Dynamics (EGR 244: a gravity car whose run time I predicted from a dynamic model, then tested), Thermodynamics (ME 331), Mechatronics, Space Systems Design (ME 490-04); in progress: ME Analysis for Design (ME 321), Fluid Mechanics (ME 336), Aircraft Propulsion (ME 490-05)
- Memberships
- AIAA and ASME student member since 2024