Harvard Athlete Ally<\/a> or giving tours at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.<\/p>\n\u201cIf I was to be an athlete at any other school, I wouldn\u2019t have the time to pursue my engineering goals\u201d and other interests, said Ayala, a native of Atlanta. \u201cOur coaches and the Ivy League allow us to develop so many different interests and ideas while still competing at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came time to come up with her thesis project, Ayala was pleased to be able to merge her two major passions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI built a robot that can shag balls, almost like a Roomba, out in the outfield during practice,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be able to combine both of my worlds is truly special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayala began work on her project in the fall, employing machine learning to train her SoftBot, using hundreds of photographs, to recognize softballs.<\/p>\n
This spring, she combined all the systems to create a cart-like robot that could collect, on average, 6.5 softballs per testing session. A horizontal roller would take in the softballs, and a ramp would slide them down into the onboard storage.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the thesis project, Ayala grew significantly as an engineer and designer. With each iteration, she became more confident in making technical decisions, testing her ideas, and improving the robot based on what she learned,\u201d Hasanov said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the skill that transfers the most between softball and ROTC is building camaraderie. All the things you do within the military are highly challenging, and you have to find ways to stick together during those difficult moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
In ROTC, Ayala gained useful leadership and tactical skills that translated to other areas of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the skill that transfers the most between softball and ROTC is building camaraderie. All the things you do within the military are highly challenging, and you have to find ways to stick together during those difficult moments,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cThe same applies to softball. When you\u2019re down in the seventh, how do you build that camaraderie to make the comeback and win? Having that fortitude translates to both.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduation, Ayala will attend cadet summer training and be commissioned as an Army officer. She plans to also continue working on her startup, Gander Robotics, a company that is developing autonomous underwater drones that use sonar to find victims in maritime search and rescue missions.<\/p>\n