Benjamin Kunkov's Portfolio

Contact: [email protected]

Welcome to my portfolio!
This portfolio highlights my work in 3D design, FPV drones, and music.

Scroll to explore, or use the links below to jump between sections.
Website updated monthly.

• About
• KidWind
• Blender
• FPV
• music
• other awards

About Me

I'm Benjamin Kunkov, but people call me Ben. I'm 17 years old and finishing up high school. I will be attending Northwestern University in the Fall for mechanical engineering.
As you will see, I have great interests in art, engineering, and music; more recently, I've been interested in finance and the business world.Currently reading: After Midnight by Daphne Du Maurier, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Currently learning: Waltz in C-Sharp Minor by Chopin (Piano).
Currently building: An automated liquidity-provision program for various markets.Some fun facts: I can speak Russian fluently and I can type (in English) at 150 WPM!

KidWind Team

Perhaps the project I am most proud of is founding and leading the most successful KidWind team in West Texas, Patriot Energy. It is a school club and I have plans to pass it down once I graduate.

What is KidWind?

KidWind is a global renewable-energy engineering competition focused on small-scale wind turbine design and testing. The main event is a wind-tunnel test, where turbines are judged on how much power they produce. Teams are also scored on challenges like energy debates, offshore turbines, and technical quizzes.

Our website has everything you need to learn about our team; some images are below to help you get an idea of what our turbine looks like.

(From left to right) Our turbine spinning in a wind tunnel; welding the tower; advanced metal gearing system; designing the blade in Blender; new large-area blades.

Engineering

Our biggest breakthrough was a set of ultralight 3D-printed blades. Most small-scale 3D-printed turbine blades fail for one reason: weight. As Dr. Pol, my mentor at the National Wind Institute, explained to me, at the low Reynolds numbers these turbines operate in, “industry-standard” blade designs are simply too heavy to perform well. But I didn’t want that limitation to force us into balsa or foam.After testing, I adapted a hollow-printing approach often used by fixed-wing hobbyists. By preserving the same geometry, adding strategically placed internal ribs, and using a specialized filament, I reduced blade weight by roughly 80% while keeping 95% of the stiffness. They are the hallmark of Patriot Energy. In tandem with our new gearing system, the blades give us a great foundation to keep improving for years to come.I learned a lot over my three years with our KidWind team. I did gain lots of technical knowledge, but what I took away most was leadership skills. More specifically, the understanding to just dive in and go for it — to take risk. In engineering, many decisions are final. They cannot be undone. This was a terrifying task. But still, I committed to the permanent cuts and welds that sealed our ambiguous fate as a team. It worked out in the long run. Learning to commit to irreversible decisions shaped how I approach engineering and leadership at the most fundamental level.

Honors

Two-time Regional Champions, reaching World Finals twice (2024–2025).
1st place in every category (2025).
2nd place international quizbowl (2024).

Below are my favorite 3D-rendered projects, both still and animated.

300+ hours | 2021 - Present

Animated (click to play) – 17 Projects in 1 Reel

Still (click to enlarge)

About Blender

This art is made with Blender, a free and open-source program that allows you to create anything under the sun! You can draw, animate, sculpt, edit, track, model, and color grade to name a few things. It was all created by me (no AI), solo.

Is this all you do with Blender?

Beyond art, I use Blender for engineering projects, whether it's a designing a lunar lander or adjusting a turbine blade. Recently, I've been using Blender to reshape and design custom turbine blades so they fit onto our turbine hub used for the KidWind competition.

What's next?

I hope to keep making art and explore different avenues, especially during college. I'll keep using it both as a creative outlet and as a tool for engineering design.

Below are two on-board videos from my different FPV drones.

150+ hours | 2023 - Present

5-inch freestyle drone (on-board sound) – Nazgul5

75mm whoop drone (no sound)– Mobula 7

5-inch propellor freestyle drone

This 1-foot long, 450 gram drone is the biggest and most powerful one in my collection. It's also the most tinkered-with and adjustable; I learned to solder and program in a new language to tune the drone to my liking. The above image highlights some of the hardware upgrades I've done to the drone.

Some more specs

75mm propellor whoop drone (5-inch for scale)

It's tiny and nearly impossible to upgrade, but that means it's nearly impossible to break. It's safe, reliable, and a bunch of fun to play around with. It's top speed is around 35mph and uses 1s lipos.

Music Performance & Production

1000+ hours (combined instruments) | 2016 - Present

I've been playing the piano since I was eight years old, and the alto sax since I was eleven.
Honors: I earned a 1st place state title for solo woodwind performance (saxophone) as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place titles for ensemble performance over six years (TAPPS).
My earliest memories were of me dancing to the Beatles—I always had a love for all things music, and it's something I wish to continue through college and beyond!

Music Production

I write, produce, and perform music on the side for fun. In 2025, I had one of the songs I made published under the penname of Finn Blackwood (to protect my privacy).
Click to listen to it below!

Below is a screenshot of some channels in Logic Pro, the software I used to produce Seen You Smile.
The piano parts were played by me and fed through to the software. I am always working on music and plan to release something new in 2027.

Other selected awards/honors

TAPPS 2A One Act Play: State Runner-Up
Scholastic Art & Writing: Gold Key Winner (Outstanding Fiction)
ACS Chemistry Olympiad: Advanced to National Stage
College Board: National Merit Commended Scholar; AP Scholar with Distinction
UIL/DOE: Science Champion; Regional Science Bowl Quarterfinalist (2x)
Athletics: Varsity Soccer (Founding Member), Varsity Swim (Founder), Varsity Tennis
Leadership: DECA Founding Member; NHS; Honor Council; Student Council Representative
School Honors: Headmaster Honor Roll; Proven Patriot Award (1 of 3); Student Scholar Awards (1 of 1)

All work by Benjamin Kunkov. These projects were created independently as personal and exploratory work.

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