Mergen Ulziibayar

NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Mechanical engineering, robotics, and validation. Research assistant at the CUSP IgNYte Lab. New York, NY.

Mergen Ulziibayar

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 2027

NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Brooklyn, New York

I am a mechanical engineering student at NYU Tandon working across robotics, mechanisms, and research tooling. I build the test that decides the design: simulation, CAD, software, and physical prototypes are connected through explicit acceptance criteria, then the result is used to revise the design or stop it before the expensive mistake.

Current work includes a LiDAR-mast redesign and vehicle identification for an F1TENTH-scale car, release-recovery dynamics for a guarded micro-UAV, a simulation study of soft-actuator recalibration, and an outdoor air-quality sensor enclosure deployed with the CUSP IgNYte Lab. Every case study states its evidence level: a simulation is a prediction, a synthetic test validates tooling, and a prototype test supports only the condition that was measured.

I also fabricate with NYU Formula SAE and the RoboMaster UltraViolet team: tube fit-up fixtures, weld preparation, and launcher packaging. My CV has the one-page version.

news

Sep 9, 2026Adaptive-Gripper repository created: a manual two-finger gripper with interchangeable rigid and compliant printed fingers, and a preregistered 60-trial pickup comparison. Repository.
Sep 9, 2026Parametric CAD generators with geometry checks in CI added for the LiDAR mast and the micro-UAV motor envelope. Mast generator.
Sep 6, 2026Soft-actuator study: a methods correction to the archived v1.3 manuscript was filed and publication placed on hold pending author review. Correction notice.
Sep 3, 2026Two research-design repositories created: segmented-shroud-aeromechanics (seam and clearance effects on rotor-shroud performance) and uav-failsafe-composition (native UAV recovery after command loss). Both are measurement-first designs with no results yet. Shroud repository.
Aug 31, 2026Soft-actuator recalibration study: preprint v1.3 published as a frozen GitHub release. Release.
Aug 10, 2026informal-road-mapping repository created with the Sentinel-2 corridor extractor and a known-truth synthetic demonstration (5/5 scenes). Case study.
Aug 6, 2026autonomous-racing-systems published on GitHub: bicycle-model identification on held-out simulator telemetry, pure pursuit / LQR / MPC / EKF comparison, a ROS 2 telemetry bridge, and the LiDAR-mast redesign (174.7 Hz baseline to 285.5 Hz converged FEA) with a frozen physical-test protocol. Case study.
Aug 5, 2026MechAudit benchmark results documented: 17 of 17 committed cases matched their annotated failure modes. Benchmark report.
Jul 17, 2026Micro-UAV: measured-authority gate frozen. Static thrust on the propulsion bench, not simulation, decides whether fabrication continues. Gate contract.
Jul 8, 2026Soft-actuator study: preprint v1.3 tagged with the P-V loop-area health indicator (r = 0.885 on held-out actuators) and the recalibration-policy comparison. Case study.
Jul 2, 2026MechAudit v1.0.0: batch evaluation CI gate, stated limitations, and claim discipline for the LLM calculation verifier. Repository.
Jun 25, 2026Micro-UAV: closed-loop 6-DoF release-to-stabilization simulation and recovery-envelope figure committed. Enclosure: first-order solar self-heating model added the same day. Case study.
Jun 24, 2026Soft-actuator study: P-V loop-area indicator and triggered-recalibration study completed on a 2,000-trace actuator-split dataset; preprint draft v1 written. Repository.
Jun 20, 2026Micro-UAV Stage 1 BOM locked at 135.7 g (T/W 3.59) after the 36.8 A four-motor current screen rejected the 450 mAh pack. Repository.
Jun 18, 2026soft-actuator-recalibration repository created: pneumatic, fatigue, and sensing simulators for pressure-only soft-gripper proprioception. Repository.
Jun 12, 2026sensor-enclosure-thermal-design repository created with a 26-source literature matrix, PI deliverables, and manuscript v1 for the outdoor air-quality enclosure. Repository.
Jun 1, 2026MechAudit v0.1.0: minimal synthetic benchmark verifier that recomputes mechanics independently of the model's answer. Repository.
May 27, 2026MechAudit repository created: a CLI and benchmark for checking LLM-generated mechanical-engineering calculations. Case study.
May 12, 2026Nomad repository created: a Next.js app that maps an engineering query to ranked papers, researchers, and project directions from OpenAlex. Case study.
May 6, 2026multirotor-recovery-dynamics repository created for the guarded micro-UAV release-recovery study. Repository.
Apr 20, 2026Air-quality enclosure placed outdoors for a provisional 22-day unattended run (95.7% upload success, no recorded brownouts in the window; dates inferred from the log's temperature signature). Case study.
Feb 2026Joined NYU Formula SAE (suspension and steering manufacturing) and the NYU RoboMaster UltraViolet gimbal sub-team. Launcher case study.
Dec 2025Started as an undergraduate research assistant at the NYU CUSP IgNYte Lab, owning the outdoor air-quality sensor enclosure. Case study.
Apr 2025V-Aid Climbing tactile pin array showcased as a functional prototype after four printed generations; supported by a $2,000 NYU Prototyping Fund award. Case study.
Jan 2025V-Aid Climbing started: a 12 x 12 tactile pin array that converts a climbing-route image into a raised pattern for blind climbers. Case study.

selected projects

soft-actuator-recalibration

A 2,000-trace, actuator-split simulation study that tests P-V loop area as a recalibration signal and preserves the negative lead-time result.

2026 · Actuator-split simulation

autonomous-racing-systems

A traceable simulation and mechanical-design study whose mast baseline failed its own modal guard before a redesigned, converged FEA passed.

2026 · Converged FEA; physical test pending

V-Aid Climbing Tactile Pin Array

A 12 x 12 tactile pin array that converts a climbing-route image into a raised pattern a blind climber can read by hand.

2025 · Physical functional testing

All case studies, grouped by evidence type →