Jude St John
Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University
Minor in Theater and Performance Studies • Mandarin Speaker
About
Hello! I'm Jude, a Mechanical Engineering student at Stanford University (Class of 2028) with an interest in placemaking and engineering design.
I'm passionate about bringing others joy with my work and have both research and design experience in settings ranging from research institutes to theatre.
While I'm continuously developing my technical skills, I'm particularly interested in the intersection of engineering, creativity, and entertainment.

Affiliations & Leadership
Skills & Languages
Technical Skills
Languages
Experience
The Walt Disney Company
Support Worldwide Safety Audit & Investigation work through technical audit preparation, documentation review, and cross-functional follow-up for ride/show systems.
Track requirements, open questions, and follow-up items across Maximo job plan alignment, hazard analysis, manufacturer requirements, drawings/specs, and Disney standards checks.
Midea Group's AI Research Center
Worked at Midea's AI Research Institute for the summer, exploring language-controlled generalist robots. Co-authored ActiveUMI, a framework for robotic manipulation with active perception from robot-free human demonstrations, achieving 70% success rate on bimanual tasks. Also see past work: DexVLA, ChatVLA2.
The Arbor
Live mixing, sound checks, and lighting for Stanford events. Separately, in a freelance capacity, I serve as a mixer for various groups' performances, managing load-in, strike, and hearing safety.
Stanford Department of Theater and Performance Studies
Work in the scene shop on tasks directly related to the installation, creation, build, implementation, maintenance, and strike of a TAPS production. Duties include carpentry, welding, installing lighting/sound/video equipment, 3D printing, rigging, automation, painting, etc.
Office of Naval Research
Supported development of a novel optics/photonics process; analyzed results in MATLAB and briefed engineering leads.
Contact
Feel free to reach out for collaborations, project inquiries, or theatrical engineering opportunities.