Ryan Thrasher

I’m a Mechanical Engineering student at Olin College of Engineering who enjoys taking ideas from conversations and rough sketches and turning them into CAD models, machined parts, and working systems. I care about building things that are useful and reliable and grounded in real needs, whether that means an accessible note taking tool or a playful line following robot.

On Olin Baja SAE,I design, analyze, and machine mechanical components, including an FEA optimized rear trailing arm and a custom steering wheel developed through iterative prototyping and driver feedback. On Olin Rocketry’s I work on composite manufacturing, fabricating carbon fiber structures, developing layup and trimming tooling, and improving process accuracy and repeatability.

Through my work in the PLAI Lab and EducateAI, I design and test accessible health technologies that combine mechanical prototypes, sensors, and AI driven interaction. I led development on EchoMinds, an accessible note taking app for Blind and Visually Impaired users, and helped improve onboarding and usability for multimodal health tools used by older adults.

I am drawn to projects that start with people and result in something real, work that moves from early ideas to things you can build, test, refine, and trust.