Hydrofoiling Robot 

In the Fall of 2025 I worked as an undergraduate researcher in the MIT AURA Lab working on an autonomous hydrofoiling robot. My specific contribution to the project is using computational fluid dynamics to determine the lift and drag of the hydrofoil at various speeds and angles of attack. The image on the left shows the velocity contours around the hydrofoil mast at a speed of 3.5 m/s and an angle of attack of 0 degrees. 

This was my first time using CFD, and I had to figure out most of the relevant parameters and settings through a mix of trial and error and online tutorials. Since we were running tests on a new geometry, there was no baseline to check the validity of our results. To ensure we were setting up out CFD properly, we ran tests on known geometries such as spheres, cubes, and NACA airfoils, to confirm that we were probably using the software.