Creative
Technologist.

I build tools and images where physical systems meet visual storytelling: robotics, mechanical design, virtual production, and cinematography. The tools, vocabulary, and stubbornness turn out to overlap more than people think.

Based Syracuse, NY
Studying S.I. Newhouse · CS minor
Now showing CineWave v1
Open to Creative technology | robotics
▸ Featured · Engineering
REC · 24 fps UE5 / DIGITAL TWIN 2026

CineWave: 6-DoF Robot

Capstan Drive Wrist · Harmonic Drives · UE5 digital twin
See more

Selected work

2020 — 2026 · Creative technology
Cutaway view of the humanoid robot head showing internal mechanics and sensing. HRI · Research
Teleoperated humanoid · TARX
2023 — Present
30+ servo 3D-printed humanoid for studies on operator embodiment. Deployed with 250+ participants. Co-authored HICSS 2025 paper validating the TARX scale for affective robot-operator relationships; second paper in writing.
30+ servos 250+ participants Raspberry Pi · OpenCV
See more
Rio testing the stroke rehabilitation robot arm in the lab. MITACS Globalink · 2025
Stroke rehabilitation robot
2025
Upper-limb rehab robot for the MITACS Fulbright Canada fellowship. 100+ custom SOLIDWORKS parts, full kinematic analysis, and an 80-page technical handoff report used as the document of record.
100+ parts 80 pp report Fulbright Canada
Screenshot from the MLM Experience VR misinformation education tool. VR · Research
MLM Experience
Research
Government-funded VR education tool about misinformation and catfishing in social spaces. Solo engineered the interactive experience from prototype to playable research build.
VR social spaces Misinformation Solo engineer
Generated portrait from the Temporal AI image collection. AI · Generative art
Temporal AI
2021
Early AI image collection built with StyleGAN, custom datasets, and training pipelines. Released as a Solana NFT collection that generated over $100,000 in revenue.
StyleGAN Custom datasets $100K+ revenue
Still from the BEA Best of Fest award-winning documentary film. BEA Best of Fest
Piloting The Past Into The Future
2026 · Doc
2026 BEA Chairman Award Winner. Selected from 2,500+ entries. Award presented by Roger Deakins, CBE ASC BSC.
Screenshot of VocalForge voice dataset curation interface. Open source
VocalForge
2023
Open-source voice-dataset curation and cleaning tool. Python & PyTorch. 130+ stars on GitHub.
Babylon.js 3D visualization showing a Minecraft structure generated from text prompts. Web · 3D
Babylon.js LLM tool
2025
Web-based 3D app that generates Minecraft structures in real time from natural-language prompts.

Practice across four domains

Skills · Tools · Vocabulary

Mechanical engineering

01 · Hardware

Robotic arm design from first principles. Capstan & harmonic drives, carbon-fiber links, PA6-CF housings. From sketch to BOM to kinematic analysis to printed handoff.

SOLIDWORKS Fusion 360 Harmonic drives Capstan differential Stepper · BLDC motors PA6-CF · Carbon fiber Kinematic analysis 3D printing

Embedded & control

02 · Systems

Real-time motor control, sensor fusion, and bus architectures. Deployed on embedded Linux, Raspberry Pi, and Jetson family. Comfortable from schematic to firmware to closed-loop tuning.

Raspberry Pi · Jetson CAN-FD · SPI · I2C PID · feedforward control Absolute encoders Servo · stepper drivers Teleoperation Embedded Linux

Software & AI

03 · Code

Control pipelines, computer vision, open-source tooling. Python keyframe editors, live subject tracking, LLM-driven 3D generation, voice-dataset curation at scale.

Python C++ C# · JavaScript · React OpenCV · MediaPipe PyTorch Babylon.js · Three.js Nvidia Omniverse WebSocket · real-time

Cinematography

04 · Camera

DP and camera operator. Lighting, motion control, real-time virtual production. Digital twins and live-link pipelines for production tools.

Cinematography · DP Lighting design Unreal Engine 5 Control Rig · Live Link DaVinci Resolve Premiere Pro Sequencer Virtual production

About

A short bio · Syracuse, NY
Rio Harper, portrait.

I’m a creative technologist working at the intersection of mechatronics and storytelling. As a recent graduate of the Renée Crown Honors program in Visual Communications at Syracuse University, I build the embedded systems, mechanical assemblies, and cinematic workflows that make complex user-facing robotics actually work.

Whether I'm engineering a custom 6-DOF cinema motion control arm or working within virtual production pipelines, my philosophy is simple: I prefer making one well-engineered tool over ten quick demos. Mechanical design and cinematography are core parts of my practice, alongside embedded control, human-robot interaction, and digital production. I'm looking to bring this hybrid workflow to full-time roles in robotics or virtual production starting in May 2026.


When I'm not trapped in the lab, I enjoy taking incredibly long hikes by myself, with a good audiobook or music playlist.


  • BasedSyracuse, NY
  • OriginSyracuse, NY
  • StudyingVisual Communications · Computer Science @ SU
  • AvailableMay 2026

Recognition

Selected — 2022 — 2026
Festival BEA Best of Fest · 2026 Selected from 2,500+ entries. Presented by Roger Deakins, CBE ASC BSC.
Fellowship MITACS Globalink · 2025 Fulbright Canada research fellowship at the University of Alberta.
Honors Renée Crown University Honors Syracuse University, 2022 — 2026. 3.95 GPA, Newhouse · CS minor.
Open to conversations

Creative Technology,and conversations.

Graduating Spring 2026. Always happy to nerd out on all things robots, AI, and cinema-related topics -- or niche musical genres, I can talk all day about those too.