Ákos K. Vida

About

Portrait of Ákos K. Vida in a dark suit and tie.

Photo taken in 2025

I was born in Budapest and grew up in Seattle, Sydney and Vancouver before finishing school back in Budapest with the IB Diploma (42/45). I now study aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology on the Stipendium Peregrinum, and expect to graduate in May 2029.

Most of my work sits where mechanical design meets the people who use it: a 3D-printing technique that makes parts up to twice as strong, an adaptive game controller that became the company AdaptaPlay, composite landing gear for Georgia Tech’s Design Build Fly team, and the electronics for a robotic forging cell at the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility.

I speak English and Hungarian natively and German at an intermediate level.

Skills

Design and Analysis

SolidWorks
Fusion360
SolidEdge
Topology Optimization
UTM Tests
Charpy Impact Tests
Wind Tunnel Testing
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
AVL
Ansys Fluent & SpaceClaim
Circuits
KiCad
Drone Design
RC Airplane Design
Model Rocketry

Control Systems & Programming

Python
MATLAB
C
Bash
G-CODE
Git
Linux
OpenCV
Neural Networks
Backpropagation
I2C
PID Control
Input Shaping
Fourier Transforms
Arduino
Raspberry Pi
ESP32
PIC Microcontrollers
Transistors
Stepper Motors
Servo Motors
Brushed DC Motors
BLDC Motors
Microsoft Office
WordPress

Manufacturing

FDM 3D-printing
SLA 3D-printing
Laser Cutting
Composite Materials
Electrical Lab Tools
Lathes
Cycloidal & Harmonic Gearboxes

Languages

English (native)
Hungarian (native)
German (intermediate)

Work Experience

February 2026 – Present

Founder | AdaptaPlay Inc.

• Founded AdaptaPlay to commercialize my adaptive gaming-controller add-on; incorporated AdaptaPlay Inc. as a Delaware C Corporation in May 2026

• Won 1st place and $15,000 at the University System of Georgia Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition; Georgia Tech InVenture Prize finalist

• Building the company in Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X Startup Launch accelerator, with free pilot trials at the Shepherd Center, AbleGamers and APAC Mexico

August 2026 – Present

Teaching Assistant | GT Startup Lab (COE 2701)

• Teaching assistant for Georgia Tech’s Startup Lab course

November 2025 – Present

Undergraduate Student Researcher at Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility

• Built and maintain all electronics for a robotic forging cell: sensor arrays, actuation and machine-vision sensing

• Wrote the sensing and operator GUI stack on Raspberry Pi and ESP32 microcontrollers

• Design and 3D-print sensor rigs and electronics mounts in CAD, using Arduinos and stepper motors for test fixtures

August 2025 – Present

Materials Lead & Pilot | Georgia Tech Design Build Fly, Micro Class

• Lead materials selection and composites manufacturing, and fly the competition aircraft; led composites and landing gear from November 2025

• Halved landing-gear mass against the previous optimized design using Kevlar and PACE composite layups

• 2nd place overall at SAE Aero Design East 2026, with 1st in flight score and 1st in design report; one of 12 members selected to travel

• Design and CFD work in SolidWorks, Ansys Fluent, AVL and the wind tunnel; built 4+ balsa aircraft

August 2025 – Expected May 2029

Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology

• 4.0/4.0 GPA through the first year, with 50 of 131 credits complete

• Recipient of the Stipendium Peregrinum, Hungary’s most prestigious university scholarship

• Member of the Global Leadership Living Community and its Culture/Festivities Student Action Team

November 2024 – Present

Founder | 3D Innovation Kft.

• Founded and run a registered Hungarian company commercializing 3D-printing and design work

November 2023 – Present

A black ISO 527 tensile specimen clamped in the grips of a universal testing machine.

Developing 3D-Printing Technique to Increase Layer Adhesion through Z-axis Modulation

• Invented technique to increase ultimate tensile strength (180%), impact strength (190%), stiffness (150%), and ductility (200%) of FDM printed parts by introducing frequent, discrete z-axis movements into printing

• Developed Python parser for Marlin GCODE and tested on Universal Test Machines (n=450, ISO 527) and Charpy Impact Test Machines (n=350, ISO 179-1) with 10 plastics including PLA, Nylon PA12, Polycarbonate, CF-PETG, and IGUS J260

• 2nd place and 2 special awards at ISEF 2025; US patent application filed June 2025

December 2021 – Present

Two games controllers fitted with the 3D-printed adaptive add-on, shown at EUCYS 2023.

Developing Gaming Controller Add-on for Individuals with Disabilities

• Invented fully modular low-cost 3D printed add-on that uses compliant mechanisms to link together controller functions for use with one spastic hand; optimized for accommodating the diversity of upper body mobility impairments

• Tested at Hungary’s largest center for cerebral palsy rehabilitation, where it enabled 5 individuals to play Forza without limitations

• Hungarian patent granted in 2026; 22 controllers sold and deployed across four countries

September 2023 – October 2025

Student Mayor of Budapest III. District

• Elected twice; organized a district-wide food drive, toy drive, youth sports tournament and youth concert with peers and NGOs

• Managed the student mayorship’s budget

April 2023 – July 2025

President | Milestone Institute Engineering Society

• Elected president twice after serving as vice president; tripled membership

• Taught CAD, electronics and programming over 60+ hours of sessions, including a Raspberry Pi course, BattleBot and drone builds, and training for the national 3D-printed bridge competition

Honors & Awards

April 2026

University System of Georgia Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition

• 1st Place and the $15,000 prize with AdaptaPlay

• Represented Georgia Tech at the first USG-wide competition, one team from each of 25 institutions

March 2026

Georgia Tech InVenture Prize

• Finalist, top 6 at Georgia Tech, with the finals televised live on GPB

• Prototype Award funding grant

March 2026

SAE Aero Design East

• 2nd Place overall with Georgia Tech Design Build Fly, behind Texas A&M

• 1st in flight score and 1st in design report

May 2025

International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)

• 2nd Place in Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Special Award

• Auto Care Association Special Award

• Highest Hungarian placement at ISEF in 20 years

November 2024

Research Grant for Nation’s Young Talents

• Full grant of 1,000,000 HUF to develop the Z-axis printing technique

September 2024

MVM Green Planet Competition

• 1st Place with team in a televised environmental-protection competition

June 2024

33. National Science and Innovation Olympiad

• 1st Place with the Z-axis modulation printing technique

• First person to win twice in the competition’s 34-year history

April 2024

International Conference for Young Scientists

• 1st place in poster section

• 1st place in presentation section

April 2024

TUDOK XXIV. Pannonian Basin Conference

• Grand Prize in the Engineering/Computer Science section of Hungary’s second-largest pre-college STEM competition

April 2024

Blue Ocean Pitch Competition

• 3rd in Europe at the world’s largest pre-college pitch competition

June 2023

32. National Science and Innovation Olympiad

• 1st Place with the adaptive gaming controller, which then competed at EUCYS 2023

April 2023

MIT Beaver Works CRE[AT]E Challenge

• Product Feasibility Award

September 2022

Social Impact Award (SIA) | Hungary

• Jury Award (1st Place)

January 2022

Printables Competition #17: Gaming Accessibility

• 1st Place out of 168 entries

• Judged by a panel including Microsoft, Prusa3D and gamers with disabilities; the winners were featured in Make: magazine

Patents

Granted in Hungary, 2026: an adaptive gaming-controller add-on for individuals with disabilities. First filed in April 2023, with examination requested in April 2025.

Pending in the United States, filed June 2025: a 3D-printing technique that makes FDM parts up to twice as strong without adding material, by modulating the printhead’s Z-axis motion.