PCB design, embedded firmware and test instrumentation for a Formula SAE electric car.
Background MainBoardRev2 — designed by H. Geiger in Altium
Scroll// About me
I'm an electrical engineering student at the University of Cincinnati, on the EV electronics side of Bearcats Electric Racing. I mostly work on the parts of the car that tell you what it's doing — the circuit boards, the firmware, and the benches and rigs that prove a design actually works.
So far that's a four-layer STM32 data-acquisition board, a four-wire bench for testing battery cells, and a reflow oven the team uses to build its own boards. The work I like best ends in a real measurement, and I'd rather catch my own mistakes on the bench than in the car.
I'm looking for a spring co-op in embedded, electronics, or test engineering.
A radio-controlled snowcat I designed and built from scratch — an Xbox controller talks to an ESP32 that runs two independent ESCs for skid steer, through a custom herringbone two-stage reduction, on 3D-printed tracks. Body modelled on a Pisten Bully 600.
Built a battery-powered dual-axis (alt-azimuth) star tracking mount — NEMA 17 steppers through 71:1 planetary gearboxes, closed-loop encoders, a custom ESP32 board and a Wi-Fi web UI — and validated tracking with a GoPro and an iPhone.
A first-year ENED team project for the Pine Ridge Reservation — a 3D-printed microfarm that breaks the wind for a small garden. I did the CAD and printing and built the test rig, including an anemometer I made from scratch (my own Altium board and a printed impeller) to measure how much the wind dropped inside.
Converted a toaster oven into a controlled reflow oven driven by an ESP32, with a thermocouple, local LCD and encoder, and a web interface for profile control. Brought board assembly in-house instead of waiting a week on an assembly house.
Built a four-wire Kelvin test jig rated past 120 A for characterizing 21700 cells before pack integration. Ran tabless cell research and cell selection, with a six-channel MAX6675 thermal rig logging temperature rise to a 50 °C cutoff.
A 4-layer STM32H723 data acquisition board for the Formula SAE electric car — three FDCAN buses, inertial and GPS logging to SD, and an 802.11ah telemetry link. Schematic and layout in Altium; firmware not yet written.
Altium — schematic capture and 4-layer layout
STM32 and ESP32, in C++
Three-bus DAQ board for the FSAE car
Board bring-up and signal debug
Milliohm-scale cell resistance
Capacity, IR, discharge limits
MAX6675, six-channel rig
In-house assembly of team boards
Accumulator and tractive system
Enclosures, jigs and fixtures
