About me
I am Charles Xiao, a PhD mechanical engineer, who specializes in novel mechanism design and radiative heat transfer. I like working on interesting things, especially things with neat physics.
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Most recently, I worked at WindBorne Systems where I was an R&D mechanical engineer. At WindBorne Systems, I mostly worked on decreasing thermal biases on meteorological sensors and passively heating electronics at stratospheric altitudes. Notable achievements include bringing a new humidity solar shield and Earth infrared harvester into production. I was responsible for nearly everything on these projects from initial design to flight testing to sourcing to the manufacturing. These designs are manufactured in the thousands and have flown on thousands of flights.
Prior to that, I was PhD candidate/postdoc in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). I was advised by Professor Elliot Hawkes and was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2020. Broadly speaking, my research focused on designing energy efficient mechanisms; I worked on soft robotic actuators, heat switches, and jumping mechanisms. A comprehensive list of my publications can be found on my Google Scholar.
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Prior to UCSB, I majored in mechanical engineering and minored in physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). While there, I conducted undergraduate research in robo-physics with Professor Daniel Goldman and became interested in soft robotics through a class project on designing a gripper for fruit picking. In addition, I completed internships at Kickr Design and SoftWear Automation.
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Outside of engineering, I like to listening to narrative essay, news, economics, and science podcasts. I also enjoy endurance running and cycling. In 2019, I finished Paris-Brest-Paris, a 1200 km cycling event, and in 2022 ran the Marin Ultra Challenge 50 miler. I am also an Eagle Scout.