Situation: Automated brain cell maintenance device needed to monitor microfluidic system flow to detect bubbles and blockages.

Task: Developed non-contact liquid detection based on photogate.

Action: Designed, prototyped, and tested analog amplification and filtering circuitry and miniaturized the design onto a modular PCB for machine prototyping.

Result: Fast and reliable differentiation between air and water with negligible drift over multiple hours of continuous operation.

Situation: Automated brain cell maintenance device needed to control series of solenoids.

Task: Developed compact spiking solenoid driver with simple (on/off) digital control input.

Action: Designed, prototyped, and space optimized the layout, fitting a nine channel controller into a 80x25mm package.

Result: Easy to control design with flexibly ranged inputs for logic, hold, and spike voltage.

Situation: Automated brain cell maintenance device needed control of 50 servos per 24 samples.

Task: Develop modular servo control method to scale between since batch and multi-batch systems while maintaining seamless control via existing IoT infrastructure.

Action: Developed controller and power circuitry as well as Python driver libraries to interface the devices with higher level control software.

Result: Reliable operation ever since it was implemented in April 2024.

Situation: ECE 118 (Mechatronics) final project.

Task: Design a robot electrical system with stable power to all components and capable of detecting 1.5 and 2 KHz IR beacons.

Action: Designed in EAGLE, assembled on perfboard.

Beacon detectors used multiple feedback bandpass filters based on the MCP6004 op amp.

Power system uses two linear regulators for 5 and 3.3 volt output. Breakout boards were designed and soldered to integrate power and make connecting peripherals to the Uno32 board easier.

Result: All circuits functioned properly and reliably with detector circuits having a range exceeding the seven foot game field.

Situation: The UCSC robotics club (Slugbotics) needed an improved lighting system for underwater computer vision which needed to run off of 12 volts.

Task: The research, sourcing, and design for manufacture of a 12 to 51 volt boost converter power supply for my custom dimmable light ring system.

Action: Designed in EAGLE. I used this redesign as an opportunity to use new routing techniques, improving trace efficiency to limit excess heat generation within the sealed underwater use case.

Result: Successfully powered the lights for underwater operation.

Goal: Practice DFM and assembly for SMD components and programming bare microcontrollers.

Task: Design a pocket sized game of connect four using WS2813 addressable RGB LEDs.

Action: Designed in Fusion 360 (CAD and ECAD), programed in Arduino IDE C++. Documented on Github.

Result: A playable game of Connect Four powered over USB and running on a swappable ATTINY-85 game cartridge.

Situation: Typing math notes while attending university online during the pandemic was tedious.

Task: Design a tool to help speed up the process of writing notes.

Action: Designed in Fusion 360 (CAD and ECAD), programed in CircuitPython. Documented on Github.

Result: A device which significantly simplified the process of typing special characters and opens up the ability to type programming shortcuts and hotkey combinations.

Situation: ECE 118 (Mechatronics) final project.

Task: To build a digital alarm clock to reduce my reliance on a phone to provide timing.

Action: Designed in Fusion 360 and Autodesk Eagle. Programmed in Arduino IDE (C++). Documented on Github.

Result: A fully functional clock with the ability to set alarms and run a Pomodoro timer.

Situation: Mixed Engineering Internship at Apple in the Power Management Unit Testing group.

Task: Design, manufacture, and test a standalone thermal management solution to meet dissipation specs for custom load within a constrained space.

Action: Designed in Siemens NX, simulated in Ansys Discovery, characterized on custom testbench with results analyzed using Python.

Result: Met required specifications within the desired footprint.

Situation: ECE 118 (Mechatronics) final project.

Task: Design, manufacture, and program a robot to play a soccer/ping-pong based game (in a team of two within a five week timeframe).

Action: Mechanical components and assembly designed in Onshape, manufactured with a laser cutter and 3D printer.

Result: Robot capable of: Autonomous movement using a state machine, hierarchical state machine running in a real time service handler; omnidirectional movement using an H-style drive; detecting 2KHz IR beacon signals, navigating the game field and avoiding obstacles with tape and bump sensors, and scoring shots from all point zones.

Situation: Mixed Engineering Internship at Gener8 assisting with alpha unit design for a biomedical testing product.

Task: Design and manufacture a device to repeatedly bend heat pipes to a specific angle without crimping or cracking.

Action: Designed in SolidWorks, Version controlled with SolidWorks PDM.

Result: A primarily 3D printed device using off the shelf parts from McMaster-Carr.

~15% of the cost of an off the shelf pipe bender.

Situation: Mixed Engineering Internship at Gener8 assisting with alpha unit design for a biomedical testing product.

Task: Design a sheet metal assembly to hold HEPA filter and dual impeller outtakes.

Action: Optimized an assembly for ease of manufacture, sealing, and filter replacement. Designed in SolidWorks and version controlled with SolidWorks PDM.

Result: The design to the left contains the needed parts and ensures an easy seal can be made. Impellers are placed within the sealed unit and a rubber seal is placed at the interface of the machine walls.

Situation: Automated brain cell maintenance device needed to record data from a series of sensors and display it in real time.

Task: Create standardized interface and protocol for controlling data acquisition devices, displaying data, and recording the data for future analysis.

Action: Written in Python using tkinter library for cross platform compatibility.

Result: The application communicates over USB-UART bridge to control STM32 based sensor controller and records received data in CSV format. Data stream can be stopped and started and errors are automatically detected and raised to the user.

Situation: Mixed Engineering Internship at Apple in the Power Management Unit Testing group.

Task: Devise a method to speed up PCB revision design reviews by automating the process of cross-checking netlist and part population to detect possible lost connections.

Action: Written in Python with integration to internal PDM systems. Generated Sankey diagram netlist visualization and tabulated possible erroneously unpopulated net connections in a labeled CSV format.

Result: Prototype correctly detected a past mistake, proving the viability of automated component population checks and was handed of for future development.