Shail D
- Research Program Mentor

Industry expert at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC)

Expertise

Semiconductors, Manufacturing, Mathematics, 3D modeling / Design, CAD, Prototyping, Quantum Dots, Display Technology

Bio

Academically, I am passionate about design and engineering as well as learning new things about them. I enjoy design for manufacturability as well as prototyping and rapid design concepts in relation to mechanical design. In addition, I enjoy applying mathematical concepts and real-world applications to design and making logical decisions when modeling. Personally, I enjoy cooking, traveling, and hiking. I like being active and playing sports such as tennis, golf, and road biking. Also, during COVID, I get really into woodworking, specifically making custom artisan live-edge furniture.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Design Project

You are an engineer that enjoys cooking in your free time. You want to share your passion with your grandfather; however, he has severe arthritis and cannot use a knife without severe pain. The constant force of the knife hitting the board or the sawing motion while tightly gripping the knife are especially difficult. As an engineer, you want to think of a solution to this problem where he can cut vegetables and feel part of the cooking experience with you. Design a mechanical device, utilizing a 4-bar-linkage mechanism that can solve this problem. Constraints/Deliverables: must use CAD, 4-bar-linkage design, knife must be attachable/removable from device, designed for manufacturability and 3D printing, force analysis on linkages, operate with 1 hand, fit inside shoe-box

Coding skills

MatLab

Languages I know

Gujarati - fluent

Teaching experience

I have privately tutored multiple students at grade levels 4-Collegiate for 8 years. These sessions involved 1-on-1 private lessons multiple times a week on subjects ranging from basic math, SAT/AP test prep, freshman engineering concepts, and 3D modeling. I also mentored a design team at a startup that worked on novel medical devices.