Arizona State University
Ayaan Khan
I study mathematics and mechanical engineering and build robots, sensors and biomaterials, drawn to the point where engineering meets the nervous system: neurotech, surgical robotics and haptic prosthetics.
Research
Sensing, soft robotics and neural signals.
Neuromuscular Control and Human Robotics Lab, ASU
Designed the elastic tensioning for the lab's soft back-support device, working alongside its air-powered actuation system, as the study scales from 5 to 15 participants.
Leading my own project through ASU's FURI program: a soft magnetic tactile sensing skin built from magnet-embedded TPU and a magnetometer array.
AlzDetect, Barrow Neurological Institute
Built and tested a real-time EEG classifier reaching 90.77% accuracy with sub-100 ms inference across 70+ OpenNeuro subjects.
Environmental XR and Robotics Lab, ASU
Selected from a cohort of 30 for robotics and EEG experience. Designed the robot's end effectors and the full pipeline for EEG experiments pairing a UR20 arm with a 14-channel Emotiv EPOC+.
Building
Companies and organizations I started or helped start.
KINETIX
3D-printed PCL-PEG/agar biomaterial scaffolds for localized drug delivery. Contributed to a U.S. provisional patent application.
Astra
An AI agent platform for multi-agent task execution.
Chandler Robotics Education Foundation
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit for robotics education, which I have kept running since finishing high school.
Robotics Edge
Teaching robotics to students on a paid basis.
Robotics
Four seasons of VEX with Team 937X Aurora, as lead designer and documentation lead.
FIRST Robotics Team 9704
Helped start the program and sustain it with school administration, managing team finances and sponsor funding.
Community mentoring
Volunteering at Arizona VEX tournaments and mentoring robotics teams from elementary through high school, to keep a sustainable competition system going for Arizona teams.