Internship at Purdue University

In the summer of 2023, I visited Purdue University for the first time, where Professor Xingyu Li introduced me to the emerging field of digital twins. Our project, titled “Wall-Following Warehouse Robot,” focused on developing a virtual warehouse robot using the Webots simulation platform. The primary goal was to simulate and program the robot’s route planning in a complex warehouse environment using Python. I also mentored a high school student visiting from China, guiding them through the Python code despite their lack of prior programming experience. Together, we completed the project and presented our final results to Professor Ragu Athinarayanan, former Dean of the School of Engineering Technology. He remarked, “It’s incredible to see such advanced research being explored at this age,” and extended an invitation for me to return for an internship in 2024.

Thus, during the following summer, I naturally returned to this lab, a place driven by intellectual curiosity, where I integrated my academic focus with interdisciplinary exploration. I conducted a literature review on the application of digital twins in manufacturing, with a particular emphasis on their use in semiconductor packaging, assembly, and testing processes, culminating in a formal presentation of my findings. This rigorous research experience greatly enhanced my understanding, and I am now likely to participate in a collaborative project with a German university, enabling me to pursue further in-depth research into the full potential of digital twins.

Internship at Tennessee State University

This internship in 2023 focused on control systems, where I worked at Middle Tennessee State University under the guidance of Professor Hongbo Zhang in the electromechanical engineering lab. Funded by the National Ministry of Agriculture, I participated in two internships focused on laser-weeding robots. In the first internship phase, I contributed to the control system of the lab’s second-generation weeding robot, developing an ESP32-based module integrated with a GPS positioning system for remote path planning and implementing data transmission.

During the second phase, I collaborated with Bereket and Manav, then senior students, on developing the early control systems for a new laser-weeding robot platform. Quickly mastering key design and control functions, I enhanced the control code using Python and adapted the data transmission protocol to IBus, given the larger size of the new generation robot. Additionally, I tested its hardware configuration and motor control. I also contributed to designing the mobile laser motor unit, which focuses multiple lasers onto a maneuverable lens for precise weeding. This internship marked a significant step forward in my interdisciplinary educational journey.

Internship at Wayne State University

My first internship occurred in 2022 at Wayne State University, where I collaborated with CARLAB, a group within Professor Shi’s team, on reinforcement learning. Here, I honed my coding abilities and developed a foundational knowledge of ROS2. Our “Donkey Car Autonomous Driving Upgrade” project focused on enhancing an open-source autonomous vehicle platform for remote-controlled cars. My responsibilities involved laying the groundwork for building an autonomous driving car. Alongside Erfan, I spent the summer configuring and testing a scaled, remote-controlled vehicle, including hardware setup, motor control testing, 4G camera transmission, and integration of automatic control and wireless communication by deploying Ubuntu, ROS, and VESC-driven Raspberry Pi. This experience provided me with a robust foundation in motor control systems.