PORTFOLIO / 2026COLUMBIA ENGINEERING · NEW YORK

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING · ROBOTICS · PRODUCT DESIGN

Ethan
Zhang.

I design, build, and test robotic and mechanical systems using CAD, FEA, embedded control, computer vision, and physical prototyping.

01 — 6-DOF ROBOTIC ARM + DIGITAL TWINMECHANICAL · EMBEDDED · VISION · UNITYSCROLL TO EXPLORE ↓
01 / SELECTED WORK

Built, tested,
and iterated.

Robotics, simulation, fabrication, aerodynamics, and control.

03FEA Displacement
03SOFT ROBOTICS / MATERIALS / TESTING

Soft Robotic Finger

Developed a TPU-and-silicone robotic finger with adjustable stiffness, flex sensing, pressure-displacement testing, and finite element analysis.

Soft RoboticsMechanical DesignTPUSilicone
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05Target-Distance Run
05MECHATRONICS / VEHICLE DESIGN / CONTROLS

Electric Vehicle

Built a Science Olympiad electric vehicle using encoder feedback and stopping-distance compensation to stop at a specified distance.

Arduino UnoEncoder FeedbackMotor ControlMechanical Design
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06FIRST Robot
06ROBOTICS / MANUFACTURING / LEADERSHIP

FIRST Robotics

Designed, fabricated, and tested competition robots with FIRST Robotics Competition Team 461, contributing strategy and technical leadership.

RoboticsMechanical DesignManufacturingPrototyping
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WORK IN PROGRESS
02 / EXPERIENCE

Engineering
in practice.

Research and team engineering across AI, soft robotics, and competition robotics.

01

Research Intern

Computer Systems Lab · Yale University

Developed a Python AI agent for medical report generation using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic PDF parsing, preprocessing, and user-facing tools.

02

Research Assistant

C3RL · Purdue University

Developed and experimentally validated a variable-stiffness soft robotic finger through CAD, finite element modeling, TPU fabrication, and pressure-displacement testing.

03

FIRST Robotics Competition Team 461

Designed, prototyped, fabricated, and assembled competition intake mechanisms and swerve drivetrains through rapid build cycles using manual and CNC machining, laser cutting, FDM printing, power tools, and general shop tools.

03
ABOUT

Curious about
how
things move.

Mechanical engineering student focused on robotics, controls, computer vision, and physical systems.

At Columbia Engineering, I develop systems through fabrication, measurement, and hardware testing.

Outside engineering, I swim, train Sanda, cook Italian food, play Black Myth: Wukong, and design and resin-print miniatures.

Ethan Zhang at NVIDIA GTC