About me

kai asher green

Currently, I am a M.S. student in Electrical Engineering at NC State University. My research is in fabrication of microscale electronic and robotic devices. My undergraduate background is in Mechatronics Engineering, which stands at the intersection of mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering. Beyond coursework, I leverage my experiences in youth and collegiate STEM education, advanced fabrication (CNC, wood, metal), and additive manufacturing to contribute meaningfully to the engineering field.

Click for FLAME Lab

My research interests focus on the fabrication and characterization of microscale actuators for emerging robotic systems. I am particularly interested in how thin-film materials, microfabrication processes, and device geometry can be engineered to translate material-level phenomena into useful mechanical motion. My prospective research in the FLAME Lab will explore the fabrication of electrochemical microactuators inspired by nickel-based bilayer devices, in which changes within an active material produce bending and mechanical displacement. This work involves developing fabrication processes for patterned thin-film structures and investigating how material properties, layer thicknesses, geometry, and processing conditions influence actuator performance.

Undergraduate Experiences

Starting my journey with Mechatronics Engineering at UNC Asheville and NC State gave me a hands-on foundation spanning mechanical design, electronics, controls, programming, and fabrication. Much of my engineering education happened outside of traditional coursework, through working in fabrication spaces, teaching others, maintaining equipment, and learning how to turn an idea into a physical system. At UNC Asheville’s Engineering 3D Printing & Design Lab, I worked extensively with additive manufacturing while supporting the operation and development of the lab itself. My work included printer maintenance and troubleshooting, material testing, design and prototyping, and developing tools and procedures to make the lab more reliable and accessible to its users. These experiences taught me to think about fabrication not simply as a way to manufacture a finished design, but as an engineering process whose materials, parameters, equipment, and limitations directly influence what can be built.

My work with STEAM Studio expanded that perspective through community-based engineering and education. Working with students in a hands-on makerspace reinforced the importance of designing environments where people can experiment, make mistakes, and develop confidence using unfamiliar tools and technologies. These roles made teaching and mentorship an important part of how I approach engineering. Across these experiences, I gained exposure to manufacturing, machining, welding, and shop operations.

That broad foundation continues to shape my graduate work today as I move into microfabrication and microscale actuation. Sure, the scale and fabrication methods have changed, but I remain interested in the relationship between a devices fabrication process and performance