001 — INDEXSenior · EE + ME · Santa Clara

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.

RAVEN · v0.1LIVE TELEM
Tilt-rotor · 3 motors · Stage 01 / 08
Fixed-wing in cruise. Three-motor VTOL in hover.
GPA
3.6
Class of
2027
Location
Santa Clara, CA
Status
Available · Summer 2026
002By the numbers
GPA / 4.00
0
Hackathons won
0
Pending Patents
0
003The thesisEV power electronics → autonomous aerospace

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

Why this works
Same stack

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.

A
Power electronics
420 V / 540 V BMS, charging, IMD
B
Motor inverter math
PWM · space-vector modulation · ESC
C
Firmware discipline
STM32 · Lauterbach JTAG · CAN
D
Systems craft
PCB safety review · thermal · integration
005Projects

The pivot, in flight.

A flagship tilt-rotor eVTOL program, a 540 V motorsport pack, motor-inverter validation at ST, an award-winning wearable, and applied-entrepreneurship products.

004About

Hardware engineer translating an EV stack into autonomous aerospace.

01

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.

02

Across the past two years, I've worked on a 420 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.

03

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.

006Capabilities

Power, hardware, firmware, controls — end to end.

Tier 1 are deep, demonstrated, rare for a junior. Tier 2 are strong and in active growth.

Tier 1 — Deep3 groups
01Tier 1

Power electronics & batteries

Li-ion pack designBMS architectureBus-bar layoutCell balancingIsolation monitoringThermal envelope
02Tier 1

Hardware design

Schematic + PCBSOLIDWORKSMechanical bring-upLab bench validation
03Tier 1

Domain knowledge

FSAE EV rulesAerospace-grade reliability mindsetPropulsion trade studieseVTOL airframe basics
Tier 2 — Strong3 groups
01Tier 2

Firmware & embedded

STM32C / C++CAN / SPI / I²C / UARTSensor fusion
02Tier 2

Controls & autonomy

PID + state-spaceKalman filteringLidar / visual odometry (learning)ROS2 (learning)
03Tier 2

Tooling

PythonMATLAB / SimulinkGitLab automation
007Experience

Where I’ve shipped.

01 · Role
Internship
Santa Clara, CA

Motor-Drive IC Validation Intern

STMicroelectronics
  • 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.
02 · Role
2024 — present
Santa Clara, CA

HV Battery & BMS

SCU Bronco Racing (FSAE EV)
  • 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.
03 · Role
2024
Santa Clara, CA

Hackathon Lead — PalmSync

SCU CrossFit Maker Challenge
  • 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.
008Recognition

Honors, fellowships, certifications.

  • 01

    SCU Honors Program

    University Honors track.

    2023 — 2027
  • 02

    CrossFit Maker Challenge — Winner

    First place, three-person team.

    2024
  • 03

    Provisional patent (PalmSync)

    Motion-rejection technique for pressure-compensated PPG.

    2024
009Contact

Let's build hardware that moves.

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

Emailarihawi@scu.eduPhone+1 (530) 407-6321LinkedInamjadrehawi
LocationSanta Clara, CA
GPA3.6 / 4.00
Graduating2027