Alex Otlacan Robotics Engineering student at the University of Michigan

Research

Soft Robotics Locomotion Modes

Designed, prototyped, and benchmarked soft robotic mechanisms that crawl at speed, jump, and passively locomote to increase endurance and adaptability.

Soft RoboticsFusion 360FDMRapid Prototyping

Zoetic Robotics Lab and Find me in the lab

Wing Sweep, Thickness, and Proportion vs Lift

Wind tunnel study that tested sweep, thickness, and chord proportion on lift.

AP PhysicsCADExperimentResearchAir Foils

Read paper (PDF)

Nerf Darts Range and Accuracy

Center of mass vs range and deviation.

PhysicsBallisticsResearch

Read paper (PDF)

Academic Projects

ROB 330 - MBot Challenges

Four robotics challenges completed with the MBot platform in ROB 330, covering setpoint control, maze escape, SLAM mapping, and vision-based navigation.

RoboticsC++SLAMControlsComputer Vision

Setpoint Challenge · Escape Challenge · SLAM Challenge · Vision Challenge

Nurse Case Study — Autonomous Medication Dispensing Robot

Workflow, UI, and system overview for a hospital medication-dispensing concept. Case study with interviews of nurses focused on burnout and workable robotics support.

UXRoboticsCase Study

Open slides

ROB 311 — Ballbot Balancing Robot

Designed, fabricated, and tuned a ballbot that balances and drives on top of a basketball, built around PID control for a series of balancing and maneuvering challenges.

RoboticsPIDControlsFabrication

Read report (PDF)

Personal Projects

MBathroom: Campus Bathroom Finder

MBathroom helps University of Michigan students pick the right restroom fast with a campus-wide map, per-room reviews, and live accessibility notes.

We shipped the full-stack app in one hackathon weekend and won 1st place for Cloudflare Best AI Application (Prize: Arduino Student Kit) by leaning on Workers AI and D1.

WebAPICloudflareMaps

• Features: interactive OpenStreetMap view, per-room ratings, live sidebar updates.
• Stack: React (Vite) + Leaflet, Cloudflare Workers + D1, Python data helpers.
• Hackathon: learned React on the fly, tuned Workers AI, planning to expand beyond UMich.

Live site · View on GitHub

Team 830 Scouting 2025

Offline friendly scouting web app for match data collection and analysis used at low bandwidth events.

ScriptingWebData

Open app

Gym Discord Bot

Side project to learn scripting and build a Discord bot that responds to commands and uses the Discord API.

ScriptingWebData

View on GitHub

Roof Inspection Robot

Developing an autonomous robot with Walter P Moore for inspecting tensile roofs, using sensors, cameras, and LiDARs. Started August 2026.

RoboticsLiDARAutonomySensors

No public link yet.

NotchApp: Mac Notch Utility

A native macOS app that turns the dead space around the MacBook notch into a hover panel: clipboard history with search and pinning, a drag-and-drop file shelf, recent files, and a screen color picker.

SwiftSwiftUImacOS

No public link yet.

Tracker: Local-First Productivity App

A self-hosted, Notion-style desktop app I use daily for school: one task database viewed as a Table, Board, Calendar, List or Mind map, with wiki pages, spreadsheet-style sheets, subtasks, repeating tasks, reminders, and ICS calendar feeds.

All data lives in a local SQLite file with daily automatic backups, full undo/redo, CSV/ICS import and export, and a terminal CLI.

TauriReactTypeScriptSQLite

No public link yet.

Photographed by Engineers

Photo album site with logins and moderation, built on a Cloudflare Worker with D1 for albums and users and R2 for photo storage.

WebCloudflareD1R2

No public link yet.

I Love You More Tomorrow

My first book. A look at the first year of my relationship, what it felt like, and what we learned.

WritingNon-fictionLove

View on Amazon

I Love You More Today

My second book. A look at the second year of my relationship, what it felt like, and what we learned.

WritingNon-fictionLove

View on Amazon

CAD

FIRST Robotics

Highlights

• Einstein Field, FIRST Championship. 2023 Curie Division.
• Top ranking in Michigan — Rank 4 in 2023, Rank 51 in 2022.
• Rebuilding years from 2019 to 2020 after COVID with a big focus on rebranding and getting students’ skills ready for upcoming seasons.
• Became lead scout. Built and ran the first offline scouting system for low bandwidth events.
• Watch our Behind the Bumpers from the 2023 season.
• Since 2023, mentor FRC 830 the RatPack out of Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, volunteering my time as much as I can throughout the school year.
• Support students with mechanical design, CAD, and build strategy during build season and events.

ScoutingDataCADLeadership

Gallery

Michigan Marching Band

Highlights

• Proud member of the Alto Saxophones in a 400+ member band. Game day at the Big House is a favorite.
• Perform for over 100,000 live viewers every halftime show and millions more through live streams online.
• Part of Michigan’s alumni network, the largest university alumni network in the world.
• Rose Bowl trip when Michigan won the NCAA Football Championship in 2023–2024. Rehearsed on USC’s field and marched the New Year’s parade.
• Performed at national events, including the Rose Bowl, in front of over 500 million spectators.
• Performed at Band-O-Rama 2025 alongside Chad Smith, drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• Played live at the Big House alongside cellist Yo-Yo Ma for a concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings.
• Check me out on the news: WXYZ Detroit on the Lord of the Rings halftime show with Yo-Yo Ma
• Performed at Ford Field for a Detroit Lions Half-time show in 2025.
• Traveled to the Cheez-It Bowl in 2025 to support the team in post-season games.
• Active in Michigan Basketball Band to support the team every home game and travel on playoff trips spanning LA, Georgia, Chicago, and more.
• Check more of the band: Michigan Marching Band on YouTube

As of the 2026–2027 season, I am the Section Leader of the Alto Saxophones, leading a section of 28 through sectionals, office hours, and advice.

PerformanceLogisticsTeamworkMusicAlto SaxophoneNCAA Championship

Photos

Summers

Experience

1. Jan 2026 to Present · Ann Arbor, MI

   Undergraduate Research Assistant · EMBiR Lab

   • Designing a soft robot that uses solenoids in a pressurized system paired with magnets to generate locomotion.
   • Developing supporting hardware and mathematical models to validate it.

   • Soft Robotics
   • Solenoids
   • Modeling
   • Hardware
2. Oct 2025 to Present · Ann Arbor, MI

   Undergraduate Research Assistant Zoetic Robotics Lab

   • Designed, prototyped, and benchmarked soft robotic mechanisms enabling crawling, jumping, and passive mobility.
   • Designed and iterated shell geometry in Fusion 360 to optimize performance across FDM and SLA printing.
   • Built rapid prototypes with FDM 3D printing for microcontroller integration on ESP32C3.

   • Soft Robotics
   • Fusion 360
   • FDM/SLA Printing
   • ESP32C3
   • Rapid Prototyping
3. Oct 2024 to Present · Ann Arbor, MI

   Computer Consultant Fellowship · Duderstadt Ground Connection

   • Certified on 8+ machines, including Bantam CNC, Epilog laser engraver, Bambu Lab A1 mini and P1S, Prusa Mk4s, BigRep Studio G2, Stratasys J850 and Formlabs Form 3.
   • Gave design feedback and quotes on 100+ customer projects, advising on part specs, materials, resolution, and cost trade-offs.
   • Assist with fabrication and troubleshooting to reduce downtime.

   • CNC
   • Laser
   • FDM
   • SLA
4. Jan 2024 to Present · Ann Arbor, MI

   Mechanical and Design Mentor · FRC RatPack Robotics

   • Mentored 30+ students through a two-month FRC build season to a functional competition robot.
   • Trained students on CNC mills and 3D printers, cutting assembly and manufacturing time by 50% with custom aluminum brackets and frames in Fusion 360 and OnShape.
   • Optimized motion profiles and PID controllers, improving robot precision and responsiveness by over 100%.
   • Excel and VBA match analytics to improve strategy.

   • Mentoring
   • CNC
   • 3D Printing
   • PID
5. Aug 2023 to Apr 2027 · Ann Arbor, MI

   University of Michigan · B.S.E. Robotics Engineering, Human Robot Interaction concentration, Music minor

   • GPA: 3.775
   • Courses: Computational Linear Algebra, Human-Robot Systems, Programming and Intro Data Structures, Multivariable and Vector Calculus, Intro to Logic Design, Robot Dynamics and Simulation, SLAM and Navigation, How to Build Robots and Make Them Move, Intro to Robot Control*, Human Evaluation of Robots*, Human-Computer Interaction*. (* in progress)

   • Robotics
   • Music
6. Aug 2021 to Apr 2023

   Macomb Community College · Dual Enrollment

   • STEM
7. Oct 2019 to Jun 2023 · Warren, MI

   Lead Scout and Design · FRC Steel Armadillos

   • Built the team’s offline scouting system for low bandwidth events for FRC matches that I helped modify from an Open-Source project.
   • Created a machining training device to raise proficiency.

   • Scouting
   • Data
   • CAD
8. 2019 to 2023

   MMSTC and Warren Mott High School

   • Leadership: Lead Scout and Design, Drum Major of the Warren Mott Marching Band, National Honor Society, Camp Restore Detroit tutor.

   • Honors
   • FIRST
   • Band

Skills

Languages

Robotics and simulation

CAD and design

Fabrication

Web and cloud

Other tools

AI tools

Machines

Contact

Open to full-time roles, summer internships, and research opportunities. Please feel free to reach out.

• School [email protected]
• Personal [email protected]
• LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/aotlacan
• GitHub github.com/aotlacan

Resume

Download resume (PDF)