B.S. Engineering · Class of 2028

Samara Baidwan

Engineering student at Harvey Mudd building sensors, circuit boards, and underwater robots.

Claremont, CA · Wind now Loading
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Fetching the current wind… Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

Work

Research & builds

3D render of the completed ring-shaped LED board, with LEDs mounted around the ring and a connector tab at the base

Industry-sponsored engineering project · Aug 2026–present · In progress

Illumination Electronics for a Bioimaging Platform

LED lighting for a dual-camera fluorescence imaging system: a 14-LED excitation ring I designed from scratch, and a 40-LED white-light array I helped design.

  • 14LEDs in series
  • 700 mAdrive current
  • ~17 Win a lens-sized ring
  • 2board revisions
Read the build

Experimental Engineering course (E80) · Team of 4 · Spring 2026

Basilisk: Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Wind & Solar Surveys

A floating robot that logged wind and sunlight offshore to size up renewable energy. I designed and calibrated its wind sensors.

  • R² = 0.99wind-tunnel calibration
  • 14,000+direction samples
Read the build
CAD model of Crush, MuddSub’s autonomous underwater vehicle

Student robotics team · Co-President, Mechanical · Aug 2025–present · In development

MuddSub: Crush Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Leading the mechanical team as we take our new AUV, Crush, from design into a vehicle we can manufacture, seal, and test. Catch me in the machine shop milling its enclosure!

  • ~23active members mentored
  • 5mechanical subteams
  • 30tracked tasks with owners & dependencies
Read the build
Molten carbon-bronze alloy glowing inside the chamber of a mini arc melter

Research · UNSW Sydney & Harvey Mudd · Summer 2026–present

Lead-Free Carbon-Bronze Alloys

Creating novel copper alloys embedded with graphite to replace the toxic lead that provides lubricity in bushings and bearings. I helped make, heat-treat, and measure 21 experimental compositions.

  • 21alloy compositions made & characterized
  • TMS 2027conference
Read the build
Jan – Dec 2025 Research

Fluorescence Characterization & Instrument Troubleshooting

Making lab measurements trustworthy through calibration troubleshooting and documentation.

As an undergraduate research assistant in Harvey Mudd’s Molecular Engineering Lab, I ran fluorescence experiments and chased down circular-dichroism instrument calibration errors, inspecting hardware and coordinating with the manufacturer to find the cause. I also authored a characterization standard operating procedure. The work sharpened my interest in reliable instrumentation and reproducible experiments.

  • Fluorescence characterization
  • Circular-dichroism instrumentation
  • Calibration troubleshooting
  • Experimental documentation
CAD model of the Lab Helper capper, showing the hinged press above a rack holding a row of tubes

Lab Helper capping a full rack of tubes.

Intro to Engineering Design (E4) · Team of 5 · Fall 2025

Lab Helper — Microcentrifuge Tube Capper

Our client, a biology lab technician, capped tubes by hand every week. We built a hinged press that closes a full row at once, over a 3D-printed rack that survives ethanol sterilization.

  • 4.7×faster than capping by hand
  • 51 sto cap 80 tubes (vs ~4 min)
  • <$30total build cost

I think anyone can become a maker. At the Makerspace and on MuddSub, I take people from zero to building.

More about me

Where I build

Makerspace

Aug 2026 – present Leadership Steward since 2025

Harvey Mudd Makerspace — Head Steward, Coordination

I help run Harvey Mudd’s student makerspace alongside six other departmental stewards, coordinating technical training and onboarding for a 50-plus person steward team across laser cutting, FDM/SLA/SLS 3D printing, waterjet cutting, manual machining, and electronics handling. Right now I’m reworking our training procedures and standardizing our documentation so that a space this busy stays easy to use and safe to run.

1,200+makerspace users served
50+student steward team, training coordination
30+manuals being standardized
  • Laser cutting
  • 3D printing (FDM / SLA / SLS)
  • Waterjet cutting
  • Manual machining
  • Electronics handling
  • Training & onboarding

Let’s build something.

Open to research, internship, and collaboration opportunities.