Aiqi Zhang

Past Experience

Research

  • Air Quality Modeling

    Sep 2026 - Ongoing

    Supervisor: Prof. Josh Apte · UC Berkeley, Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Exploring reduced-complexity air quality modeling with InMAP, focusing on atmospheric transport, mixing, and efficient tools for air quality assessment and decision-making.

  • Urban Carbon Uptake from Cameras & SIF

    May 2025 - Aug 2026

    Supervisor: Prof. Debra Wunch & Dr. Natalia Restrepo-Coupe · University of Toronto, Physics

    Integrating city traffic camera networks, downscaled high-resolution satellite SIF, and vegetation modeling to characterize urban vegetation phenology and carbon uptake across the City of Toronto.

    Outcome: See list of publications

  • Domino Chain Effect

    Sep 2024 - Jun 2026

    Supervisor: Prof. Ania Harlick & Prof. Boris Braverman · University of Toronto, Physics

    Using a 3D reconstruction system based on computer vision to record and analyze the mechanics of toppling domino blocks.

    Outcome: A new lab designed for undergraduate students; educational manuscript in preparation. Code on GitHub

Teaching

  • Graduate Student Instructor, Physics 7B

    Aug 2026 - Ongoing

    University of California, Berkeley, Physics

    Teach undergraduate physics laboratories through experiment demos, office hours, grading, and preparation of teaching materials.

  • Lab Technician, Advanced Undergraduate Physics Laboratory

    May 2025 - Aug 2025

    University of Toronto, Physics · Supervised by Prof. Ania Harlick

    Set up new student experiments, including configuring and fine-tuning Spatial Light Modulators for a Digital Holography lab, and authored its experiment manual.

Undergraduate Projects

  • Accelerate Quantum Linear Solver with GPU

    Engineering Design · 2025

    Investigated GPU-accelerated sparse linear solvers and preconditioning methods to improve the performance of quantum hardware simulations.

  • Patchuolink

    Engineering Design · 2024

    Developed an IoT prototype for real-time cultivation monitoring, integrating wireless data flow, storage, analysis, and a user-friendly web interface.

  • Satellite Image Segmentation

    Engineering Design · 2024

    Built and trained an autoencoder for satellite image segmentation into color-coded land types, with self-tuned architecture and training.

  • Betta-Trap

    Engineering Design · 2023

    Designed Betta-Trap, an inlet stormdrain filter that captures plastics to protect the Great Lakes, developed through prototyping, CAD modeling, and accessibility testing.

  • Optical Pumping in Rubidium

    Advanced Physics Lab · 2025

    Explored optical pumping in rubidium vapor with emphasis on calibration methods and signal analysis.

  • Ozone Measurements

    Advanced Physics Lab · 2025

    Calibrated a Microtops Ozonometer using in-situ measurements, reference datasets, and simulation.

  • Ferroelectric Materials and Phase Transitions

    Advanced Physics Lab · 2024

    Studied electrical properties of Rochelle salt crystals through preparation, fabrication, and testing.

  • Solitons

    Advanced Physics Lab · 2024

    Investigated classical soliton wave theory using a shallow water tank with varied boundary conditions.

Hackathons

  • CampusPulse

    Amazon Web Services Design Challenge · 2024

    Built CampusPulse, a Next.js + AWS platform with event filtering, interactive maps, smart scheduling, and an AI chatbot to enhance student engagement.

  • Regenerative Carbon HVAC System

    Clarke Prize Environmental Design Challenge · 2024

    Designed AI-enhanced HVAC system with carbon capture to cut building emissions at the Clarke Prize Challenge.

  • CardiacSOS

    Hack the Heart 2024

    CardiacSOS is a wearable AI-powered vest that monitors heart patients in real time and triggers immediate emergency responses.

  • SmartGEMS

    UTRA Hackathon 2024

    Built a smart grid model using sensors and AI to optimize renewable energy use and provide interactive sustainability insights.

  • OpenSOS

    1st Theme Prize - NewHacks 2023

    Built OpenSOS, an AI-driven agent for real-time emergency response using speech recognition, GPT-3.5, and AWS.