Hi, I’m Joey.

I’m a mechanical engineering and economics student at Purdue University. I hate working but I love doing and I’m not afraid to slog through a problem until it’s solved. If you need a do-er and you believe that what you’re working on will benefit humanity, please reach out!

What I’ve Done

I’ve worked on computational economics models and also subterranean autonomous systems. I’ve done robotics from childhood as a hobby starting with FIRST Lego League, VEX IQ, and then FIRST Robotics Challenge when I was in high school. I founded an FRC team my senior year of high school because I was dissatsified with the mentality of my previous team. I ended up fundraising $75K for a team of 5 kids to build a bot that peaked at #20 offensively in the world. In college, I’ve worked on robots to measure soil microbiome emissions for the USDA and presented the results to the head of Ames National Laboratory and have also worked on projects on GPS-denied visual navigation for NASA and real-time controls.

What I’m Doing

As I’ve done more and more, I’ve found that the gaps in my knowledge are larger than I’d like them to be. I’m reading a ton of books and journals to try to rectify that. I’ll drop a list at the bottom and shoot me an email at the first letter of my name @jlruan.me if you have any good recommendations. I’m also designing a new PC case, a rackmount systems chassis for control boards, a underactuated robotic hand (maybe?), and a rocket. Outside of tech, I’m a huge hiker (1000 miles and 125 nights so far) and Eagle Scout and love scuba diving (PADI certified).

Bookshelf

Currently Reading: Atlas Shrugged

To Read: How Will You Measure Your Life, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Principles, Jobs, Measure What Matters, Extreme Ownership, Zero to One, Never Split the Difference, The Lean Startup, The Worlds I See