MIT · Mechanical Engineering · Course 2

Building the machines that build things.

PhD student at MIT working on wire arc additive manufacturing, robotics, and the agentic systems that are starting to automate scientific discovery itself.

View the work About me

Research focus

Three problems, one through-line.

Metal Additive Manufacturing

Wire arc deposition of marine alloys, nickel aluminum bronze and Inconel 625 — how process parameters, thermal history, and external vibration set the microstructure and the residual stress locked into a finished part.

Robotics & Automation

Making industrial arms do useful work: RAPID and Python control of ABB robots for automated deposition, kinematics, and manipulator design from space robotics to walking machines.

Agentic & Automated Discovery

Generative models that propose materials and graph networks that predict how they will behave — wired into agentic workflows that can run the design-experiment-learn loop themselves.

0.0

MIT graduate GPA

out of 5.0

Years in CAD

and additive manufacturing

Engineers led

satellite ADCS subsystem

Engineering roles

research and industry

Selected work

Projects worth the detail.

01MIT Mechanosynthesis Laboratory · 2024 — present

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Printing marine-grade metal with an industrial robot

I automate metal deposition on an ABB IRB 2600ID and study how process parameters and external vibration set the microstructure and residual stress of marine alloys — nickel aluminum bronze, the metal ship propellers are cast in, and Inconel 625. Measuring that stress means getting inside the bulk of the part: I was awarded 2026 neutron scattering beam time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor to characterize it.

Role: Graduate researcher
Alloys: Nickel aluminum bronze, Inconel 625
Focus: Process → microstructure → stress

02Dalhousie Dynamics & Control Laboratory · 2023 — 2024

Hexapod for Gait Research

A six-legged platform built for reinforcement learning

I led a team of four mechanical engineers building a biomimicking hexapod robot for reinforcement-learning gait research. Eighteen motors across six legs meant the hard problems were communication protocol and control architecture, in addition to optimal kinematic mechanisms. It was named 2024 Best Capstone Project in Mechanical Engineering.

Role: Project lead, team of 4
Award: 2024 Best Capstone Project
Degrees of freedom: 18

Experience

Five years of co-ops, three labs.

2025 —
MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing
AI Researcher
Co-authored a study of how agentic AI is actually being adopted in engineering and manufacturing, built on 30+ interviews across large enterprises, small and medium firms, AI developers, and CAD/CAM/CAE vendors. Published as arXiv:2604.09633.
2024 —
MIT Mechanosynthesis Laboratory
Graduate Researcher
Wire arc additive manufacturing, robot automation, and residual stress characterization for marine applications.
2025
MIT — Dr. Eric So Lab
Research Assistant, AI & Behavioral Finance
Built NLP pipelines processing 600,000+ documents with recursive chunking and transformer embeddings, then correlation algorithms over the results.
2023
Bombardier Recreational Products
Automotive Design & FEA Co-op
Steering stability analysis and topology-optimized brackets for the Ryker three-wheel motorcycle; chassis, engine mount, and seat FEA for Ski-Doo. Presented results in French.
2023
Dalhousie IDPM Laboratory
Research Engineering Co-op
Deep neural network and random forest pipelines for optimizing binder-jet metal printing, and novel copper alloy development on an ExOne Innovent+.
2023
B Medical Systems
R&D Engineering Co-op
Adsorption CFD in Ansys Fluent for vaccine cold-chain refrigeration in power-constrained regions, supporting a World Health Organization initiative.
2022
Tesla
Mechanical Design Engineering Co-op
Injection-molded wire harness guides and sheet metal brackets for the Cybertruck and Semi, with fatigue and structural FEA. Presented design work to a panel of 30+ engineers.
2021
Enginuity
Mechanical Engineering Co-op
Machine learning pipelines that raised the accuracy of a lobster quality-grading device by up to 30%, plus structural FEA on a 53-foot trailer.
2021
Lockheed Martin
Mechanical & Thermal Analysis Co-op
Air wake heat analysis for the Canadian Surface Combatant and design work on new mast options for the customer.
2020
MDA
Robotics & Mission Systems Co-op
Co-developed the vision system for training Canadarm3's AI and built a 7-DOF ground analogue of Canadarm2.
2018 — 20
Conceptualiz
3D Printing Engineering Student
Full-scale anatomical models with surgeons at the QEII and Dartmouth General hospitals, and prototype face shields during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publications

Edwards, K. M., Bauer, M., Jacquillat, C., Hart, A. J., Ahmed, F. “Agentic AI in Engineering and Manufacturing: Industry Perspectives on Utility, Adoption, Challenges, and Opportunities.”
arXiv:2604.09633
2026
Popp, N., Krishnan, V., Vautour, E., Bauer, M., Wailand, A., Newton, A., Eastwood, S., Chandrasekaran, S., Bauer, R. “Multi-shaft reaction wheel design for a 2U CubeSat.”
Progress in Canadian Mechanical Engineering, Volume 4 — CSME International Congress, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada
2021
Co-authored conference paper on the AI training system developed for Canadarm3 vision work at MDA. Accepted to the congress; not formally published, as the event was disrupted by COVID-19.
72nd International Astronautical Congress, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
accepted 2021

Recognition

2026Neutron scattering beam time, Oak Ridge National Laboratory HFIR
2026MIT GrandHack — 1st Place InterSystems Award, 2nd Place Rehabilitation
2025Autodesk Research Residency Program
2025MIT Grand Hackathon — Google Prize, bio-acoustic wearable sensing
2024CSME Gold Medal — highest GPA in the graduating class
2024Best Capstone Project, Mechanical Engineering
2024Thomas W. Folger Fellowship for graduate studies at MIT
2019Schulich Leader Scholarship — top 25 of 300,000+ applicants in Canada

The workshop

Things built for their own sake.

420cc Go-Kart

2023

Designed, simulated, fabricated, and assembled from scratch. Taught myself flux-core MIG welding to build the frame, and ran the whole chassis through FEA before cutting steel.

Ducted-Fan Jetboat

2022 — 23

A SolidWorks-designed RC boat, second iteration of an earlier airboat build. Ansys CFD on the hull, and winter testing footage to prove it moves fast.

Lattice-Optimized Bracket

2023

Built in nTopology for the Dalhousie metal 3D printing lab — complex lattice geometry that only makes sense to manufacture additively.

F-35 Surface Model

2020

An accurate surface model of the airframe, built in SolidWorks purely to get better at surfacing. Compound curvature is unforgiving practice.

Contact

Let’s build something.

Working on something at the intersection of hardware and autonomy? I’d like to hear about it.

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