I am a mechanical engineer working on machines that have to be accurate. I am currently completing an MS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Alabama, where I work as a graduate research and teaching assistant under Prof. Dhananjay Tambe. My thesis is a precision positioning platform: a stage that locates a tip over addressed wells on a 96 well plate at sub micron scale for automated laboratory handling.
My work sits between mechanism design and motion control. I choose a linkage, work out what resolution it can realistically deliver, then build it and find out where the model was optimistic. That loop runs through CAD, printed prototypes, closed loop motors, encoders, and the firmware that ties them together.
Before graduate school I worked as an HVAC design engineer in Kathmandu, sizing equipment and producing ductwork drawings for commercial buildings, then following those designs through installation and commissioning. I am looking for entry level mechanical, controls, or mechatronics roles in the United States after I graduate in December 2026.
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
University of South Alabama
Expected December 2026
B.E. in Mechanical Engineering
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Kathmandu
MS thesis. A positioning platform that moves a tip to addressed wells on a 96 well plate at 9 mm pitch, repeatably and without operator drift. I designed and printed the stage and plate fixturing — base plate, locating pocket, and the brackets clamping the extrusion frame. Presented as first author at the Shelby Hall Graduate Research Forum.
A planar five bar linkage designed to reach sub micron resolution with far fewer error sources than a spatial parallel mechanism. Each of the four links is split into a pair — eight pieces in total — with the pivot bosses offset to the touching faces so the mechanism clears its own joints through the full sweep. Five Chicago screw positions let link length change without reprinting.
Built and evaluated an open source sub micron motion platform: printed the structure, assembled the parallelogram linkages and ball joints, fitted the magnetic gear rings and encoders, and brought up the firmware. The finding was that resolution and accuracy diverge sharply — joint friction, rod length consistency and thermal drift dominate — which is why we moved to a planar mechanism instead.
The Z positioning and handling module of the platform. A six axis arm on a Raspberry Pi picks and returns plates and carries the pneumatic pipetter to an addressed well, while the motorised stage handles motion in the plane. Written in Python, with a repeatable startup sequence that puts the arm into a known state before any motion command runs.
Undergraduate capstone, 2021–2022, as team lead. Vertical axis turbines accept wind from any heading without yawing. We combined Savonius and Darrieus blades on one rotor so the drag driven section provides starting torque and the lift driven section carries the efficiency, then compared configurations using CFD and numerical methods.
I am developing a positioning platform to automate repetitive laboratory handling — moving a tip to addressed wells on a 96 well plate, accurately and repeatably. So far I have designed and printed the stage and plate fixturing that locates a 96 well plate and carries the aluminium extrusion frame. In a parallel directed independent study I worked on precision mechanisms — a magnetically geared delta stage and a five bar parallel pantograph — which my advisor and I are now integrating into the platform.
I support two undergraduate laboratory courses. In Materials Science I run tensile and hardness testing on Tinius Olsen equipment with PASCO Capstone data acquisition. In Instrumentation and Controls I cover PID tuning, LabVIEW instrumentation, and the inverted pendulum experiment. I prepare equipment, guide students through procedures, and grade laboratory reports.
I calculated thermal loads and sized chillers and air handling units for commercial buildings, then produced ductwork layouts and coordination drawings in Revit and AutoCAD. I followed installations on site through testing and commissioning, which is where design assumptions meet the building as actually constructed. That experience shaped how I approach tolerance and access in mechanical design generally.
Nepal, D., Cooper, S. C., & Tambe, D. T. Presented at the 2nd Annual Shelby Hall Graduate Research Forum, University of South Alabama. Archived in the University of South Alabama institutional repository as Shelby Hall Graduate Research Forum Posters, item 44.
Covers the sample preparation module of the iEye platform: a motorised stage, a six axis robotic arm, and a pneumatic pipetter, with the printed stage and plate fixturing I designed. Supported by the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Lung Biology.
Nepal, S., Dhital, M. R., Amatya, N. B., & Nepal, D. Peer reviewed paper in the Proceedings of the 14th IOE Graduate Conference, Volume 14, December 2023. ISSN 2350-8914 (online), 2350-8906 (print). Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University.
The study set out to identify the factors affecting safety on building construction sites, rank those factors by relative importance, develop a model for assessing safety performance, and apply that model in practice. Fourth author, contributing from the Department of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, Thapathali Campus.