I'm Luka Zivaljevic, an Industrial Engineering student at Purdue University. I work where process meets hardware: drones, self-hosted AI, CAD, and a startup teaching kids how machine learning actually works. This is where those projects live.
// currently on the bench const luka = { school: 'Purdue University', major: 'Industrial Engineering', builds: ['drones', 'local AI', 'CAD'], startup: 'Zival LLC', status: 'studying' }
Slots are placeholders for now. Each one fills in as the work ships. Add a project by editing one array in assets/js/projects.js.
Placeholder. Physical, screen-free puzzle kits that teach kids the vocabulary of machine learning and LLMs. Add the product photos, unit economics, and the first fulfillment run here.
Placeholder. 3D-printed custom airframe with a companion drone for the Bell Aviation fire-rescue mission. Add the PID/Betaflight tuning notes, sonar hover-hold results, and folding-wing CAD.
Placeholder. Fully custom espresso rig with cross-platform control from iOS, Android, and PC. Add the control architecture diagram, firmware notes, and a short demo clip.
Placeholder. Trained computer-vision models to categorize and label image datasets. Add the dataset description, accuracy numbers, and a confusion matrix.
Placeholder. Open-source Hugging Face models running locally through Ollama and LM Studio, fully independent of cloud inference. Add the hardware, model comparisons, and tokens/sec.
Placeholder. Ubuntu running on repurposed iMac hardware for self-hosted applications and storage. Add the service map, storage layout, and uptime notes.
Placeholder. Mechanical components and functional prototypes designed in Fusion 360, including a printer built from scratch. Add renders, the BOM, and print-quality comparisons.
Placeholder. Reserved for the next project. Duplicate this block in assets/js/projects.js whenever you start something new.
I'm an Industrial Engineering student at Purdue University with a hands-on background in software, applied AI, and CAD design. Most of what I know came from building things end to end: designing the part in Fusion 360, printing it, wiring it, writing the firmware, and then figuring out why it doesn't work yet.
Before Purdue I played collegiate water polo at Long Beach City College: 16 hours of training a week, 30+ games a season. That's also where I learned to teach: coaching 10-and-unders at Pegasus Aquatics and teaching 3D printing, laser cutting, and robotics to 1st–8th graders at Forge MakerSpace.
Right now I'm starting Zival LLC, building educational boxes that teach kids the vocabulary of machine learning through physical puzzles, with no screens required. I'm looking for an internship in industrial engineering or operations.
Where the projects above come from.