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Michael Chen
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Michael Chen

Mechanical Engineering • Northwestern Univ.

I love expressing my creativity through building things with my hands and my mind. I'm currently looking for engineering internship opportunities — feel free to reach out. Here's my resume ↗

Projects
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01
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UNIT.01
UNIT.01 — The QuickLift
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The QuickLift

Designed and prototyped a mechanical lift attachment for manual wheelchairs, enabling independent seat height adjustment up to 6 inches.

Validated models via structural FEA. Utilizes a scissor jack mechanism with a custom U-shaped steel base plate and an extended ergonomic 3D-printed hand crank.

SolidWorks FEA Fabrication Team of 3
quicklift.jpg
⤢ Open
QuickLift scissor jack lift device
02
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UNIT.02
UNIT.02 — Expressive Helmet System
⤢ Open

Expressive Helmet System

Investigated human-machine interaction by designing and fabricating a wearable system featuring motion sensors and a front-facing display.

Developed control software to process and translate raw sensor data into real-time visual outputs, demonstrating multidisciplinary system integration.

C++ Python Sensors Solo Project
helmet.jpg
⤢ Open
Custom-printed housing with the outward-facing display powered on
03
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UNIT.03
UNIT.03 — Automated Robotic Guitar
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Automated Robotic Guitar

Led development of an automated robotic guitar integrating plucking, strumming, and muting mechanisms with a solenoid fretting system.

Spearheaded end-to-end design of a bidirectional strumming subsystem and a selective string-muting mechanism to expand dynamic musical range.

Onshape 3D Printing Mechatronics In Progress Club Team
robotic_guitar.jpg
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CAD drawing of the robotic guitar body and headstock
04
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UNIT.04
UNIT.04 — 3-Axis Soft Metrology Rig
⤢ Open

3-Axis Soft Metrology Rig

Currently Designing a calibration rig to characterize soft sensors at sub-micron precision, generating paired force-input and signal-output datasets under a $1,500 budget cap.

Benchmarked eight actuator technologies — ball screws, voice coils, and three classes of piezoelectric stage — before landing on a Teensy 4.1 driving Thorlabs servo-actuators via low-level hex commands, paired with a Series Elastic Actuator to filter mechanical noise. Created a 0.4mN precise PID force loop.

Metrology Teensy 4.1 Vendor Sourcing In Progress Solo Research
metrology_rig.jpg
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3-Axis Soft Metrology Rig working prototype in the lab
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