William Heap

William Heap, from San Jose, California, is pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford School of Engineering. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). William aims to translate novel research into impactful robotic systems through a combination of technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial skills. He is currently working to develop soft, pneumatic “vine” robots for use in search and rescue and hazardous environment inspection. At UCSB, he managed a multidisciplinary team to pursue technical and needfinding development for vine robots, and raised more than $100,000 in funding for the team’s work. William was awarded the University of California Regents Scholarship, was a Stanford Summer First Fellow, and is currently a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.