Ameet Rao

I’m Ameet, a 17-year-old high school student who loves building things that fly, move, and think. I have experience in aerospace systems, hardware, & AI-robotics research.

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Ameet Rao

Worked With

  • NASA TechRise Challenge
  • Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering
  • Samsung Electronics
  • UC Berkeley
  • MuseEngine Platform
  • FIRST Robotics Competition
  • Temple University
  • DNREC Agency

Experience

  1. Jan 2024 — Present

    NASA Research; Protective Polymers for Solar Cells

    Team Lead & Proposal Author

    • Lead electrical design and component selection for NASA flight payloads
    • Evaluate power, mass, and system requirements for high-altitude balloon experiment.
    • Selected as 1 of 60 winning teams nationwide
    • Awarded $1,500 in NASA funding through the TechRise program
    • Received recognition from Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester
    • Launching experiments to 95,000 ft aboard World View balloons
    See more
  2. 2025

    AI/Robotics Research with UC Berkeley mentor

    AI Researcher & Author of Paper

    • Co-author of AI research applying a novel vision-language model framework with applications for robotics
    • Processed NExtQA dataset videos into formats for Gemini and ChatGPT
    • Ran object detection and scene context experiments, with and without reasoning
    • Demonstrated performance gains up to +9% in LLM-Match accuracy
    • 1 of 17 papers accepted worldwide to VLM4RWD (NeurIPS 2025), presented in Mexico City in November 2025
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  3. 2025 — Present

    Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

    Inventor & Team Lead — HydroScan

    • Partnered with DNREC environmental engineers to co-design HydroScan, a rapid water-quality testing device
    • Developed a rapid water-quality testing device
    • Advanced to Samsung Solve for Tomorrow semifinals
    • Awarded $10,000 in funding
    • Ranked among the Top 100 teams nationally
    • Top 0.369% out of 27,250 entries nationwide
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  4. Aug 2023 — Present

    FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics

    Hardware Lead

    • Lead robot hardware development and CAD design for our FIRST Tech Challenge competition team
    • Designed custom intake systems and fabricated mechanical components
    • Conduct testing, failure analysis, and design reviews
    • Mentored 22 underclassmen and helped start 2 additional teams
    • Team ranked in the top 4% globally in 2024
    • Delaware State Design Award - FTC Robotics
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  5. Oct 2023 — Apr 2024

    MuseEngine

    Engineering Intern

    • Built Python control software for hardware systems
    • Integrated Arduino firmware and electronics prototypes
    • Modeled actuator performance and magnetic field behavior
    • Collaborated directly with executive leadership
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ENGINEERING PROJECTS

HydroScan

Rapid environmental water-testing platform developed alongside DNREC environmental engineers to improve accessibility and speed of water quality monitoring. Our proposal was awarded $10,000 to Charter School of Wilmington through Samsung SFT Challenge.

PhonoVis

Wearable assistive wristband for the hearing impaired. Detects alarms, loud sounds, and important spoken keywords. Designed circuitry, wiring architecture, & soldered electronics. Currently exploring partnerships with local deaf organizations.

NASA Payload Systems

Built flight-ready aerospace payloads developed through the NASA TechRise program. Receieved $1,500 grant & NASA engineer support.

Awards

  • National STEM Festival Finalist (1 of 344 nationwide)
  • NASA TechRise Winner (1 of 60 nationwide)
  • Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Semifinalist ($10,000 award)
  • Delaware State Design Award - FTC Robotics
  • IRO + Algoverse AI Scholarship — 3rd Place / 150

Skills

Engineering
Electrical Design, Soldering, Hardware Prototyping, Systems Engineering, Wiring Organization
CAD
Onshape, Fusion360, SOLIDWORKS
Software
Python, Arduino
Simulation
SimScale, OpenRocket