AMJAD·REHAWI
Senior · EE + ME · Santa Clara University

Hardware engineer for things thatmove themselves.

Senior honors double major (EE + ME) at Santa Clara University, translating an EV power-electronics stack into autonomous drone and aerospace hardware.

GPA 3.6Class of 2027Santa Clara, CA
GPA / 4.00
0
BMS pack voltage
0 V
Thermistors managed
0
Accuracy improvement
+0 pp
Hackathons won
0
Patents filed
0
Brand thesis

The same stack that runs an EV — battery, BMS, thermal, control, sensors — runs a drone.

I'm building the hardware spine for autonomous flight. Cells, busbars, BMS, motor drives, IMU and lidar fusion, vehicle control. The work I've done on FSAE traction packs and STMicro motor-drive validation maps directly onto eVTOL propulsion, swarm coordination, and aerospace-grade power electronics. Raven is the proof — an 8-stage roadmap from single-tilt-rotor airframe to a 4-drone autonomous swarm.

About

About

Hardware engineer translating an EV power-electronics stack into autonomous aerospace.

Senior honors student at Santa Clara University, graduating 2027 with a double major in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. 3.8 GPA. I learn by building the full stack — schematic, PCB, firmware, mechanical, control — and shipping the result to a hard deadline.

Across the past two years I've worked on a 600 V FSAE traction pack with a custom slave-board BMS (144 thermistors), validated motor-drive ICs at STMicroelectronics, and built PalmSync — an embedded heart-rate device that lifted accuracy from 76% to 93% and won the SCU CrossFit Maker Challenge. Each project sharpened a different layer of the same vertical: cells, power electronics, sensing, firmware, control.

Raven is where it all converges. An eVTOL roadmap I'm running solo — Stage 1 builds the airframe and tilt-rotor mechanism, the mid stages layer in IMU and lidar autonomy, the final stages prove out a 4-drone autonomous swarm. The thesis is simple: the hardware engineering needed for safe autonomous flight is the hardware engineering I've been doing on cars, and I'm here to do it on aircraft.

Projects

Hardware that moves itself.

Skills

The stack, end to end.

Power, hardware, firmware, controls — built and shipped.

Power electronics & batteries

deep
Li-ion pack designBMS architectureBus-bar layoutCell balancingIsolation monitoringThermal envelope

Hardware design

deep
Schematic + PCBSOLIDWORKSMechanical bring-upLab bench validation

Firmware & embedded

strong
STM32C / C++CAN / SPI / I²C / UARTSensor fusion

Controls & autonomy

strong
PID + state-spaceKalman filteringLidar / visual odometry (learning)ROS2 (learning)

Tooling

strong
PythonMATLAB / SimulinkGitLab automation

Domain knowledge

deep
FSAE EV rulesAerospace-grade reliability mindsetPropulsion trade studieseVTOL airframe basics
Experience

Where I've shipped.

  1. Motor-Drive IC Validation Intern

    Internship
    STMicroelectronics · Santa Clara, CA
    • Bench-characterized motor-drive silicon across supply, temperature, and load conditions.
    • Built test rigs and automated capture routines for validation sweeps.
    • Authored validation reports cited in product-release reviews.
  2. HV Battery & BMS

    2024 — present
    SCU Bronco Racing (FSAE EV) · Santa Clara, CA
    • Contributed to the team's 600 V traction pack — cell-level voltage sensing, balancing, and mechanical pack work.
    • Owned slave-board BMS schematic and PCB work supporting 144 thermistors across the pack.
    • Helped author the HV subsystem rules-compliance package for FSAE EV.
  3. Hackathon Lead — PalmSync

    2024
    SCU CrossFit Maker Challenge · Santa Clara, CA
    • Led a three-person team to first place with PalmSync, a pressure-compensated PPG wearable.
    • Designed the front-end and on-device DSP that lifted heart-rate accuracy from 76% to 93%.
    • Filed a provisional patent on the motion-rejection technique with two co-inventors.
Honors

Recognition.

2023 — 2027

SCU Honors Program

University Honors track.

2024

CrossFit Maker Challenge — Winner

First place, three-person team.

2024

Provisional patent (PalmSync)

Motion-rejection technique for pressure-compensated PPG.

Contact

Let's build hardware that moves.

Hiring, collaborating, or curious about Raven? Get in touch.