I was born and raised in Mandi Bahauddin, a small city whose claim to fame is that it is where Alexander The Great famously fought his last major campaign against Raja Porus. 

In 2015, I completed my BS in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan, where I worked on designing the electrical and mechanical components of a wireless surveillance robot. My team and I developed and prototyped a fully operational UGV that provided multi-terrain surveillance. Our project presentation garnered a great deal of interest from industrial partners at our Open House.

The following year, I secured a fully funded MS position in the graduate Mechanical Engineering program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China. As a Research Assistant in the Robotics and Automation Lab under Professor Zhanhua Xiong, I discovered an aptitude for mechanical design. I utilized this newfound talent to build a one-handed, 6-axical robot joystick controller and validated its design through 3-D printing. I presented my novel design at the IEEE/ASME Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics 2018 Conference in Auckland, New Zealand.  

While in Shanghai, I also began to play badminton a bit more seriously. Although I had played badminton competitively before in Pakistan, the quality of the opponents I faced in China honed my ability to a level I had never experienced before. A rather debilitating knee injury slowed down my semi-professional career, but I recovered enough to still win a number of championships and local tournaments.

For the last couple of years, I have been working at Virginia Tech as a graduate student. I have been teaching SolidWorks and other CAD software as part of my teaching assistantships along with my research on instructional methods in engineering. After completing coursework requirements, I am now once again looking forward to pursuing more mechanical design related opportunities. 

Its difficult to describe one's entire life in a handful of words, but I've given it my best shot. Onwards and upwards has been my personal mantra throughout my academic and professional career. Always excited for whatever adventure life sends me on next!