Mechanical Engineer | Design | Testing

Amy Hao

Amy Hao is a Master's of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara. They have over 10 years of illustration and design experience and 5 years of robotics research experience.

In June 2024, they graduated with a Master's in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on solid mechanics, materials, and controls.

During summer 2023, they were employed at SeaSpine as a Test Engineering Intern.

Featured Projects

An image of a crutch tip being pressed into an angled white surface. The crutch tip is bending.

Crutch Tip Project (Hawkes Lab)

Current commercial crutch tips are often the cause of slips for crutch users, especially in rainy weather. This ongoing project seeks to develop a better way to design crutches to prevent slipping.

Senior Capstone: Spinal Surgery Trial Instrument

The surgical procedure anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) requires the surgeon to choose the correct implant size for the patient during the surgery. This project involves developing a faster method for trialing implant sizes. It is affiliated with SeaSpine and UCSB.

A hexagonal robot flipping from one side to the next

Photothermal Soft Actuators (Hawkes Lab)

Soft actuators are integral to the field of soft robotics. Here, I worked with Dr. Luke Gockowski to prototype and test sunlight-powered soft actuators for the untethered locomotion of soft robots.