Erim Ozcan.

Erim Ozcan — Brown University ’29

Inventor& engineer.

Erim Ozcan

Second-year at Brown studying mechanical engineering and computer science. I invented a drone propeller that cuts sound pressure 40.7% in the band mammals hear best, lead a spatial-genomics instrument at the Tripathi Lab, and founded a robotics tutoring non-profit that's reached 150+ students.

See the propeller Get in touch
40.7%
propeller sound-pressure cut
3rd
Engineering category, International Science & Engineering Fair
4.00
GPA at Brown
$400k+
VC deployed via Van Wickle Ventures

Featured invention — Patent pending · PCT

A propeller you can barely hear.

A low-noise drone propeller. Starting from the toroidal geometry introduced by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, I ran the parametric study nobody had published — and found a new parameter of my own, the leading blade segment height offset (LBSHO). The final 8-inch propeller is 4.4 dBA quieter, with 40.7% less mean sound pressure across 1–10 kHz.

4.4 dBA
quieter than conventional
40.7%
less sound pressure, 1–10 kHz
~10%
higher figure of merit
Explore the 3D model

01 — Hardware

Machines, instruments & inventions.

Physical systems designed in CAD, prototyped, and validated — from a patent-pending propeller to lab instruments built to look and behave like finished products.

Toroidal Propeller — 3D modelInteractive 3D

Aerospace · Invention

Patent pending · ISEF 3rd

Toroidal Propeller

A low-noise drone propeller. Starting from the toroidal geometry introduced by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, I ran the parametric study nobody had published — and added a parameter of my own, the leading blade segment height offset, which reaches the same thrust at lower RPM.

  • 4.4 dBA quieter; 40.7% less mean sound pressure, 1–10 kHz
  • SolidWorks CFD screening, then anechoic testing on a stand I built
  • Patent pending (PCT); paper written, submission held for the filing

Scientific Instrument · Tripathi Lab

Built · publication in prep

Compact Automated Centrifuge

A benchtop swing-bucket centrifuge built for liquid-handling automation decks — 2 mL tubes, roughly a two-plate footprint, ~6,000 RCF. It looks and behaves like a finished instrument, not a lab prototype.

  • ~6,000 RCF in about a two-96-well-plate footprint
  • Closed-loop brushless control (G431 ESC + Arduino supervisor)
  • Lid interlocks, overspeed & fault safety, USB operator console
Exploded CAD view of the Electric Slide device

Scientific Instrument · First Author

First author · SLAS 2026

Electric Slide Flow Cell

A slide-based electrical device that stains and de-stains tissue for highly multiplexed spatial imaging using a controlled electric field — replacing the slow, tissue-damaging chemical antibody-stripping step.

  • De-stains in ~1 minute at 50 V — about 8× faster than manual
  • Coverslip-embedded, sealed channel, magnetic-lock, 3D-printed
  • First author, SLAS 2026 (Revvity-funded)
World's Fastest Drone Propellers — 3D modelInteractive 3D

Aerospace · CFD

In progress

World's Fastest Drone Propellers

Propeller design lead on a student-and-engineer effort to build an extreme-speed quadcopter — custom high-pitch aluminum propellers targeting roughly 30,000 RPM and 800 km/h, validated through a custom CFD pipeline.

  • Custom high-pitch, CNC-aluminum, high-advance-ratio propellers
  • ~30,000 RPM / ~800 km/h forward-flight design target
  • Compressible OpenFOAM CFD with automated force extraction

02 — Software

Code, agents & simulation.

AI-native systems and engineering software — full-stack platforms, autonomous agents, and the CFD pipeline behind the hardware.

AUTONOMOUS AGENTSdiscover · rank · draft95847362approve to send

AI · Full-Stack

Deployed

Opportunity Command Center

An AI-native platform that discovers, evaluates, and helps me act on professional opportunities — autonomous research agents, eligibility ranking, and application drafting, with human approval required before anything is sent.

  • FastAPI + Next.js + Postgres, durable workers, agent research
  • Google OAuth, Railway deploy, CI/CD, review & approval queue
  • Behaves like an opportunity research-and-application team
KNOWLEDGE GRAPH

AI · Knowledge System

Active

eBrain

A personal AI brain: structured, git-versioned memory that Claude Code loads as context to understand me and run real tasks end-to-end — including building this very portfolio — and that serves versioned personal context to apps like OCC.

  • Structured knowledge graph, not an undifferentiated embedding pile
  • Versioned candidate-context API + domain-event sync
  • Executes real tasks from durable, provenance-tracked context
ONE PLATFORMCAD → CFD → datavariants.csvdesign sweepprop genparametric CADbatch CFDOpenFOAManalysisthrust · η

Simulation · CFD

In progress

WFD CFD Pipeline

The software engine behind the drone-propeller work: a browser-based CFD workflow to upload geometry, batch overnight OpenFOAM simulations with resume-on-failure, and read back thrust and efficiency.

  • OpenFOAM v13 — snappyHexMesh, MRF, compressible rhoPimpleFoam
  • FastAPI backend with a Three.js STL-preview frontend
  • Batch runs, resume after failure, CSV force/efficiency export

03 — Experience & ventures

Roles beyond the bench.

01Research
Sep 2025 – Present
Providence, RI

Tripathi Lab, Brown University

Research Scientist

Design-team member on next-gen LabChip liquid handlers; spatial-genomics project lead behind the Electric Slide flow cell.

02Nonprofit
May 2022 – Aug 2025
McLean, VA

Unpuzzled Robotics

Co-Founder & CEO

Robotics for kids 4–12 in affordable-housing after-school programs — 150+ students across 3 locations.

03Venture
Sep 2025 – Present
Providence, RI

Van Wickle Ventures

Associate

Source and diligence startups at Brown's endowment-backed venture fund; helped deploy $400k+ in venture capital.

04 — Honors & awards

Recognized for the work.

2025

Regeneron ISEF 2025 — 3rd Place, Engineering

Chosen out of 175,000 competitors worldwide. Plus the Midjourney Special Award of Excellence ($5,000).

2025

Regeneron Science Talent Search — Top 300 Scholar

National recognition from Regeneron & the Society for Science ($2,000).

2025

D.C. Junior Science & Humanities Symposium — 1st Place

Recognized for the oral presentation of the toroidal-propeller research ($2,000).

2024

MIT THINK Semifinalist

Plus Fairfax Science & Engineering Fair 1st Place and AIAA Nation's Capital 1st Place.

National Merit Scholar✦AP Scholar with Distinction✦Northwestern Economics Tournament — Semifinalist✦VEX — Virginia State Championship 2nd Seed✦Seton Tournament Champion (2023, 2024)✦Battle of the Bridge Champion✦National Merit Scholar✦AP Scholar with Distinction✦Northwestern Economics Tournament — Semifinalist✦VEX — Virginia State Championship 2nd Seed✦Seton Tournament Champion (2023, 2024)✦Battle of the Bridge Champion✦

05 — Foundations

Education & toolkit.

Education

Brown University

Providence, RI

B.S. — Mechanical Engineering & Computer Science (double concentration)

Class of 2029 · 4.00 GPA

The Potomac School

McLean, VA

Advanced coursework across calculus, physics, chemistry, economics & more

Class of 2025 · 3.99 GPA · SAT 1580

Online coursework

Remote

Harvard (Nonprofit Leadership) · MIT (Writing about Nature) · UVA (AI in Economics) · UAM Madrid

Continuing education

Technical toolkit

SolidWorksFusion 360Ansys FluentMATLABLabVIEWPythonJavaCAdobe IllustratorPremiere ProExcel

Languages

  • EnglishNative
  • TurkishNative
  • SpanishProficient

06 — Beyond the lab

There's more to it.

erimeats

A cooking blog pairing dishes from around the world with the stories — and issues — of the places they come from.

erimeats.com

VEX Robotics — Team Captain

Led design and drove the team to a 2nd seed at the Virginia State Championship and multiple tournament titles.

Swimming & Dive

Brown Club Swimming; Varsity Captain at Potomac. Mid-Atlantic Conference championships and a decade in the water.

Math Team — Captain

Ran curated problem sets and competed across DMV-wide math competitions.