Yashwanth Piratla MechE · UC Berkeley
Portrait of Yashwanth Piratla
Mechanical Engineering — UC Berkeley

Yashwanth Piratla

I design, manufacture, test, and iterate mechanical systems for robotics and real hardware.

Engineering projects

Mechanical design, analysis, and builds

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2026 FRC season

Deployable Multi-Level Climbing Mechanism

A deployable climber that carries the full weight of the robot up multiple bars on alternating carbon-fiber hooks — packaged into three inches of space between the swerve modules and shooter.

Mechanical DesignCADFEAPower TransmissionTesting
2025 FRC season

Three-Stage Cascading Elevator

A fully belt-driven three-stage cascading elevator that reaches a 7-ft scoring target from inside a 3 ft 6 in. starting-height envelope — redesigned component-by-component through testing.

Mechanical DesignCADManufacturingPrototypingTesting
2024 FRC season

MK4 Swerve Drivebase & Robot Architecture

The complete mechanical architecture for a 2024 FRC robot — chassis, frame rails, bellypan, and an under-bellypan electronics layout that freed the upper chassis for the elevator, climber, and under-bumper intake.

Mechanical DesignCADPackagingSystems IntegrationManufacturing

5" FPV Drone

A group-built 5-inch FPV drone combining mechanical assembly, electrical integration, configuration, and flight testing. A separate group case study is in progress.

Group ProjectMechanical AssemblyElectrical Integration
CAD / Design / Analysis

42-Cell Battery Module Design

Designed and analyzed a 42-cell 14S3P battery module in SolidWorks, focusing on structural integrity, cell spacing, insulation, battery-system integration, and manufacturability.

Mechanical DesignBattery SystemsFEA
Research

Technical & research work

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Collaborative research

Wearable Health ML Research

A two-person research project on wearable cardiovascular signals — I built the SwiftUI iOS application and HealthKit data collection, and drove the app concept and system architecture around a machine-learning study.

iOS / SwiftApple HealthKitCore MLSystems ArchitectureResearch
Experience / Leadership

Beyond the engineering work

FRC Robotics — President

Led a 40-member team across robot development, mechanical design, manufacturing, technical training, outreach, and STEM fundraising.

Praevius — Partner ↗

Led social media and used Stable Diffusion, video editing, and four AI outreach systems in work associated with ~$200K lifetime revenue.

VTseva — Community Service

Founded Feeding Hope, raised ~$20K for visually challenged students, supported ~$50K through UTSAV, and mentored FLL students.

Portrait of Yashwanth Piratla
About

Engineering, hands on the hardware

I'm a mechanical engineering student at the University of California, Berkeley. Most of my engineering experience comes from four years of FIRST Robotics Competition, where I led a 40-member team and designed the mechanisms, drivetrain architecture, and robot packaging that had to survive real matches.

My work sits where mechanical design meets manufacturing and testing: CAD in Onshape and SolidWorks, CNC and manual machining, plasma cutting, 3D printing, and the iteration cycle that follows the first time a part breaks.