Xavier Wu

Xavier Wu

Mechanical Engineering

Xavier is an 11th grade student from Shanghai International School, China. He is interested in Electrical & Mechanical Engineering and would like to participate in a research competition with the project he completed in this program.



Xavier is very passionate about electrical and mechanical engineering. He has many creative ideas and is very excited to share them. With strong guidance, his ideas have potential to become real design products.

University admission result

★ University of Chicago Full Merit Scholarship

★ Caltech

★ UC Davis Regents Scholarship USD30K

★ UC Irvine Directors Scholarship USD20K

★ University of California San Diego USD5K

★ University of California, Santa Barbara

★ University of California, Los Angeles

Scope of the program

Learning objectives

  • Discuss Xavier’s invention concept, which is a wearable device that acquires biometric data and body motions of swimmers
  • Review swim performance metrics, such as stroke efficiency and stroke rate
  • Review and edit Xavier’s patent application for the wearable device
  • Review and edit Xavier’s design paper, which describes the purpose, function, and dimensional characteristics of the wearable device.

What challenges did he face?

  • Xavier would like to devise a wearable device that acquires bio-metric data and body motions of swimmers.
  • Xavier had a lot of ideas, however there was a need for him to focus on the main relevant factors contributing to his design paper.


How did our mechanical engineering research program help him?

  • We helped Xavier to review and improve his writing for the design paper.
  • Additionally, Xavier has learnt to improve his patent application paper for his product design.
  • Xavier has created a design paper, which describes the purpose, function, and dimensional characteristics of the wearable device.
  • Xavier’s patent application was reviewed and edited.
  • The program has provided valuable evaluation which pinpointed Xavier’s strengths and weaknesses.


Matched Professor in Mechanical Engineering:

A mechanical engineering professor from Columbia University who teaches courses in thermal-fluids engineering and aerospace propulsion.

Recommendation letter

Based on your knowledge of this student, would you recommend this student to selective universities?

I strongly recommend that Xavier apply to highly-selective universities because he is a critical thinker, has excellent written and oral communication skills, and has demonstrated a outstanding capability to shephard an idea from concept initiation to integrated design.

He is bright, inquisitive, passionate, and hard-working; He is also a strong technical writer, as evidenced by the content of the design paper and patent application.

Professor from Columbia University

Excerpts from the student’s work

Leave a Reply