Nancy Ouyang
Hi, I'm Nancy Ouyang. About

MIT MechE · Harvard CS PhD · Boston, MA

Hi! I'm Nancy — a roboticist and engineer who builds things that are useful, weird, or both. Below are projects spanning robotics research, hardware and mechatronics, community leadership, and assorted fun. Use the tabs, search, and year filters above to explore.

Research and Software

Published research and software — papers, graduate coursework, NLP, motion planning, and tools built from scratch.

9 projects
PhD Thesis: NLP for Uncovering the Illicit Massage Industry ★

PhD Thesis: NLP for Uncovering the Illicit Massage Industry

PhD thesis (Harvard, Sep 2023) applying NLP and finetuned BERT models to classify online massage parlor reviews, enabling geographic analysis of illicit activity to support counter-trafficking research.
2023
arXiv Slides Video
Digger Finger: GelSight Tactile Sensor ★

Digger Finger: GelSight Tactile Sensor

A miniature wedge-shaped GelSight visual-tactile sensor specialized for identifying objects buried in granular media. Published at ISER 2020. Featured on MIT News.
2020
arXiv Site Press
ICRA Paper: Six-Axis Force-Torque Sensor ★

ICRA Paper: Six-Axis Force-Torque Sensor

My paper on designing an inexpensive six-axis force-torque sensor was accepted to ICRA 2020. 🎉
2020
Site
Extracting Cognitive SLUMS Scores from VA Clinical Notes

Extracting Cognitive SLUMS Scores from VA Clinical Notes

Rule-based NLP pipeline to extract Saint Louis University Mental Status (SLUMS) scores from ~3 million unstructured VA clinical notes. 83% accuracy, 99% precision, 20,000+ notes/minute on a single laptop. Presented at GSA 2025.
2025
Site
Sampling-Based Path Planning Algorithms

Sampling-Based Path Planning Algorithms

Implementing and evaluating RRT and PRM motion planning algorithms from scratch in Julia, with analysis of how clutter affects success rates. Rotation project reviewing FMT*.
2020
Code
Ocean Buoy Path Planning Simulation

Ocean Buoy Path Planning Simulation

Using public ocean current data to build a simulation framework for testing motion planning algorithms on autonomous ocean buoys. Solo contract work in Python, Pandas, and Folium.
2020
Robot Compiler (RoCo) Website Redesign

Robot Compiler (RoCo) Website Redesign

Redesign of the UCLA LEMUR Lab RoCo webapp to use Bootstrap for mobile/desktop responsiveness, plus bash/Python/OpenSCAD scripting to generate STL thumbnails for the carousel.
2019
Code Site
CS279r: PaperSignals Parameterized

CS279r: PaperSignals Parameterized

An open-source browser-based UI (Python/Flask) for customizing Google's voice-controlled printable paper robots. Harvard PL/HCI Graduate Seminar.
2018
Code Site
CS223: Credit Community Graph Algorithms

CS223: Credit Community Graph Algorithms

Investigating trust-score propagation in social lending networks to establish creditworthiness without traditional data. Harvard Random Processes and Algorithms.
2018
Code Site

Robotics

Robot arms, manipulators, walking machines, and autonomous systems — from tactile-sensing research to rideable hexapods.

8 projects
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Interactive UR5 Demo: Hand Tracking

A UR5 robot arm that mirrors hand movements in real time using MediaPipe hand tracking.
2026
Site
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Throwdini: Throwing with Orientation

A robotic arm throwing setup built on a UR5. The plan was a reinforcement-learning residual model on top of ballistic physics, but under time constraints the throw was hardcoded. Unpublished work with Ondrej Biza.
2020
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6.832: Inertia Wheel Inverted Pendulum

Using a flywheel to balance an inverted pendulum. LQR and region-of-attraction analysis in simulation; swingup and stabilization on real hardware using PD and bang-bang control. MIT Underactuated Robotics.
2019
Staubli Robot Arm Drawing ★

Staubli Robot Arm Drawing

Staubli robot arm, programmed to stipple with vcode -> gcode -> processing (or alternatively via SVG Inkscape to gcode converter).
2016
18 Servo Hexapod ★

18 Servo Hexapod

ABS plastic, 18 RC servos, Pololu serial servo controller. Tripod gait.
2011
Rideable Hexapod ★

Rideable Hexapod

Demo'd at NYC Maker Faire. Welded steel frame, two wheelchair motors, 24V battery pack.
2011
Robot Arm Assistant: Voice + Vision Cube Pickup

Robot Arm Assistant: Voice + Vision Cube Pickup

A 6-DoF robot arm assistant that picks up cubes using ArUco tag detection and color thresholding in OpenCV, with voice interaction via Mozilla TTS and Vosk speech recognition.
2022
Site
Wifi-Enabled Robots

Wifi-Enabled Robots

ESP8266 two wheel-drive robot, serving webpage with controls using SPIFF and websockets, and same for Roomba (over serial interface).
2016
Code

Hardware/Mechatronics

Mechanical design, embedded systems, and fabrication — devices and hardware built from scratch.

7 projects
Custom Glyphs on Waveshare RP2040 LCD

Custom Glyphs on Waveshare RP2040 LCD

Getting CircuitPython running on the $17 Waveshare RP2040 LCD board and adding custom Unicode characters (including cat glyphs) to a BDF font file.
2023
Site
Sailboat Rudder

Sailboat Rudder

Made 26' boat rudder from scratch (minus bronze skeleton).
2015
DIY Menstrual Cup

DIY Menstrual Cup

Used body-safe two-part silicone with 3d printed molds to create a menstrual cup.
2015
Sailboat Repairs

Sailboat Repairs

Bought a 26' sailboat off of craigslist for $100. Sailing it back to Boston (no, I'd never sailed before) with lots of help
2014
LED Graduation Cap

LED Graduation Cap

Used RGB LED strips to spell out "MIT" on my graduation cap.
2013
POV yoyo

POV yoyo

Prototype for a yoyo with a built-in persistence of vision display
2012
Countertop Vending Machine

Countertop Vending Machine

Small vending machine to stock Arduinos in student-run machine shop at MIT
2011

Leadership

Workshops, conferences, and seminar series organized to bring people into making and engineering.

6 projects
Feminism Hackathon (Hack4Fem) ★

Feminism Hackathon (Hack4Fem)

Organized and held hackathon emphasizing positive creative power of feminism.
2015
Kickstarter: Swarmbuddies ★

Kickstarter: Swarmbuddies

Created multi-robots with overhead tracking, intended for second kickstarer.
2014
Kickstarter: NarwhalEdu ★

Kickstarter: NarwhalEdu

Created lasercut drawing robot arm, coupled with online class. Successful $20k kickstarter.
2013
EL Wire Workshop

EL Wire Workshop

Won grant and ran EL wire workshop with two friends.
2013
Hexapod Conference (Hexacon)

Hexapod Conference (Hexacon)

The world's first Hexapod Conference, with over thirty attendees.
2013
MITERS Seminar Series

MITERS Seminar Series

Organized and co-taught workshops to introduce people to prototyping skills such as Solidworks, breadboarding, EAGLE, ordering boards, and more, reaching over fifty students.
2012

Fun

Playful side projects — laser-etched pancakes, CNC Nyan Cat molds, rainbow food, sewing, sailing, and other adventures.

7 projects
Laser Pancakes ★

Laser Pancakes

Etching pancakes with a LaserPecker 2 handheld laser engraver at house parties. Handheld portable lasercutters = party time.
2023
Site
Real-Time Translation Shirt/Apron

Real-Time Translation Shirt/Apron

A wearable translation apron that runs offline and real-time speech translation — and is at least somewhat fashionable.
2023
Site
Food Fun

Food Fun

Rainbow challah, challah animals, cute robot pumpkin, rainbow cookies
2018
Sailing and Other Adventures

Sailing and Other Adventures

Sailing! and other adventures
2018
Sewing and Crafts

Sewing and Crafts

Infinity dresses, Cosplay, OSHW dress, skirt, shirts reused, pom poms
2018
Strobe Lab: Schlieren Technique

Strobe Lab: Schlieren Technique

For 6.163 Strobe Lab final project, attempted to implement : Background-oriented schlieren imaging
2012
Nyancake — CNC Nyan Cat Food Mold

Nyancake — CNC Nyan Cat Food Mold

A CNC-milled Nyan Cat food mold for making Nyan Cat-shaped food. See instructions on Instructables.
2011
Site

Press and Other Events

Talks, media coverage, awards, activism, and miscellaneous projects that don't fit a neat engineering box.

5 projects
Talks & Press

Talks & Press

Selected talks, media coverage, and featured publications — from MIT News and the Wall Street Journal to Hackaday and Instructables.
2022
Awards & Fellowships

Awards & Fellowships

Google Women Techmakers Scholarship (2017) recognizing technical leadership for women; Google Summer of Code (2013, with Code for America), developing Python APIs to access government data.
2022
Site
Personal Websites

Personal Websites

A collection of personal websites accumulated over the years — academic portfolio (nrobot.dev on Jekyll), engineering portfolio (Pelican/Hexo on GitHub Pages), and a blog (orangenarwhals.com on WordPress/AWS). Apparently I accumulate websites, oops.
2021
Code
COVID-19 Activism and Op-Eds

COVID-19 Activism and Op-Eds

Op-eds in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a #ShutdownGA petition that gathered 80,000+ signatures in two weeks, advocating for early pandemic response measures in Georgia.
2020
Site
Projects I didn't get around to documenting

Projects I didn't get around to documenting

Flask webapps, H Bridge motor controllers, lasercutter mini projects, etc.
2018