Ali Mdaihly.
I design and build mechanical systems that move — robotic arms, self-balancing robots, vision-guided carts, and race-winning boats and aircraft. Scroll down — my first-place plane flies escort, and the assistant in the corner can answer questions about anything you see.

About
01 / ProfileI'm a mechanical engineering student at the American University of Beirut, graduating in 2027 with a 3.86 GPA. My work sits where mechanical design meets control systems and embedded software — I'm most at home taking a system from calculation and CAD through fabrication, instrumentation, and tuning until it performs on the bench, in the water, or in the air.
Recent work spans a full kinematics-and-dynamics pipeline for a 6-DOF Dobot CR10 arm, a self-balancing robot tuned live over Bluetooth, a vision-guided cart running real-time YOLO detection, and a CNC-machined fiberglass RC boat that won its race. Alongside coursework I've interned on hospital biomedical equipment, farm automation and PLC systems, and gas and steam turbines — and I lead the ASME team building Lebanon's first human-powered submarine.
Project Hub
02 / Rotor DialA 12-sector rotor — one blade per project. Hover a sector and its photo appears in the hub; click it (or any item in the picture list) to open the full project. ★ marks first-place builds.
3D Lab
03 / Interactive★ marks my real SolidWorks CAD, exported straight from the assemblies I designed — spin the actual self-balancing robot, wheelchair, and drying cabinet. The rest are stylized recreations of machines I work on. Drag to rotate · scroll/pinch to zoom.
Engineering Playground
04 / Try It YourselfThese aren't animations — they're live simulations running the same physics and control math from my projects. Move the sliders and break things.
MOTOR 0.0
STATUS FALLING
UPTIME 0.0s · BEST 0.0s
Inverted Pendulum · PID
ERROR 0.00 mm
ITERS 0
Inverse Kinematics · DLS Solver
POWER 0.0 kW
TIP SPEED 0 m/s
Cl 0.00 \u00b7 attached
Wind Turbine \u00b7 BEM & Airfoil
Experience
05 / TimelineRotated through key hospital departments — Biomedical, Emergency, ICU, Operating Theater, Radiology, and NICU — assisting the biomedical team with inspecting, troubleshooting, and performing preventive and corrective maintenance on monitoring, diagnostic, and therapeutic medical equipment. Gained hands-on experience in installation, calibration, safety testing, incident-reporting procedures, and quality control of medical equipment. Completed as the GEP Medizintechnik Praktikum with Brünstlmedizin Healthcare (Munich).
Developed automation and mechanical-engineering solutions to reduce manual labor across the company's farm and carob-processing operations. Designed a solar tent dryer for carob and a PLC-based zone smart-irrigation system for the 15-hectare organic farm, and created an automation concept for the factory's processing line. Also evaluated seed-separation technologies, assessed new processing equipment, and proposed weeding-robot and agricultural-drone programs — delivering a phased, cost-justified automation roadmap.
Completed a Power and Control training program in the Mechanical Department's Operation & Maintenance division. Took part in daily maintenance — monitoring, inspection, and testing of gas and steam turbines, condensers, pumps, and firefighting systems — and worked across chlorination, desalination, and demineralization operations, plus filter cleaning, leak repair, and lubrication of machines and winches.
Contributed to locomotion development for the Unitree Go1 quadruped robot within AUB's Vertically Integrated Projects program. Worked on gait planning, balance, and stability by designing and adjusting Bézier-curve-based foot trajectories to control leg motion, improve step coordination, and achieve smoother walking — running and modifying the locomotion framework at both high- and low-level control layers on real robotic hardware.
Contributed to the study and preliminary development of a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system for building heating. Analyzed international BTES case studies (Meyrin, Switzerland and Kerava, Finland), conducted on-site measurements of the proposed AUB drilling area, mapped physical obstacles such as trees and underground services, and built a basic 3D SolidWorks model of the building and borehole field. Also investigated methods for producing tight U-bends in copper heat-exchanger tubes, analyzed sunlight direction, and calculated a suitable solar-panel tilt angle.
Delivered academic support to engineering students across multiple courses. Led large-group review sessions (50+ students) for MECH 201 (CAD Design) and provided one-on-one tutoring in MECH 310 (Thermodynamics), helping students strengthen their grasp of core thermodynamic concepts and analysis.
Served as a primary point of contact between students and the department, assisting with course registration, capacity requests, scheduling, and graduation requirements, and directing inquiries to the appropriate faculty or staff for clear, timely communication.
Technical Skills
06 / ToolsetLeadership & Honors
07 / Beyond the BenchOff the Clock
08 / HobbiesFootball
I've played competitively for most of my life — abroad with Tyre Football Academy in Sweden and Barcelona, and with the AUB varsity team in Greece and Turkey, plus tournaments in France, Monaco, and Italy. It taught me the thing engineering teams run on: you win as a unit or not at all. MVP of AUB's Societies' League in 2024.
Gaming
Where a lot of my interest in systems, feedback loops, and problem-solving under pressure started. Good games are just well-tuned control systems — read the state, adapt, and iterate faster than the problem does.
Gym & Cooking
The gym is my reset button — consistent progress from consistent inputs, which is the same discipline that gets a project across the line. And I genuinely love to cook and eat: a recipe is just a process spec with better rewards. 😄
Ask Me Anything
10 / ConsoleA portfolio assistant built into this page. Ask about any project, my skills, wins, or experience — it answers instantly and can open the project for you. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Let's build something that works.
Open to internships, research collaborations, and full-time roles in robotics, controls, and mechanical design. The fastest way to reach me is email.




