Electrical Engineering @ Waterloo

Abid Azad

Electrical & Embedded Systems Engineer

Electrical Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. I write bare-metal and RTOS firmware for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers — drivers, communication protocols, real-time task design, on-device storage — all backed by automated testing. I also build AI-assisted automation and full-stack products.

Waterloo & Toronto, ON
39.7 KB
Firmware footprint
Sentinel, STM32F411RE
167
Host-test checks
all passing, 6 suites
5
Protocols on one MCU
I²C · SPI · UART · ADC+DMA · PWM
4
Live web apps
shipped to production
University of Waterloo
BASc, Electrical Engineering · Waterloo, ON
Sep 2023 – May 2028
Where I've worked

Experience

Software Engineer · Aram LabsStealth

May 2026 – Present
  • Build agentic-AI products for clients end to end — LLM tool-use workflows, integrations, and delivery.

Operations & Automation · Hauser Industries

Jan 2026 – Apr 2026
Waterloo, ON
  • Built analytical models and KPI frameworks from noisy ERP, manufacturing, and logistics data to detect anomalies and support profit-optimization decisions.
  • Automated data pipelines and decision workflows with Excel and AI-powered tools, cutting latency and manual processing while improving consistency.

Team Member · UWASIC — Analog/Mixed-Signal IC Design Team

Sep 2025 – Present
Waterloo, ON
  • Designing low-power analog circuits (DAC/ADC, current sensing) for matrix–vector multiplication to highlight analog energy efficiency.
  • Prototyping programmable resistors and TIAs using IEEE circuit models to optimize power and signal accuracy.

Operational Systems Engineer · Toronto Business Development Centre

May 2025 – Aug 2025
Toronto, ON
  • Led an AI-driven systems transformation, integrating OpenAI and automation APIs into Airtable and Zoho across 3 departments.
  • Managed cross-functional web and mobile development across Supabase, React, and Tailwind; automated CRM processes with custom AI scripts, cutting manual input ~30% on 1,000+ records.

Data & Systems Intern · Toronto Business Development Centre

Sep 2024 – Dec 2024
Toronto, ON
  • Built internal automation with Make, AppScript, and AI-assisted workflows, improving data transfer and validation between Airtable and Zoho by 80%.
  • Prototyped low-code dashboards and AI-assisted reporting, cutting manual analysis time ~25%.

Electrical Member · UW Baja SAE Design Team

May 2024 – Jul 2024
Waterloo, ON
  • Calibrated an ADXL345 accelerometer with Arduino/C++ drivers, improving acceleration-data accuracy ~15%.
  • Integrated brake lights, pneumatic switches, and differential switches with the vehicle battery for reliability and safety.
Things I've built

Projects

Sentinel — STM32 Sensor Telemetry Hub

Firmware

Production-style FreeRTOS firmware that acquires data from I²C and SPI sensors, persists it to on-board SPI NOR flash through a crash-tolerant append-only log, streams it as a CRC-framed binary protocol over UART, and exposes an interactive command shell — all as cooperating RTOS tasks with an independent watchdog and ADC+DMA supply monitoring.

39.7 KB flash167 host-test checks-Wall -Wextra clean5 protocols, 5 RTOS tasks
CFreeRTOSSTM32F411SPI NOR flashUARTADC+DMA

Self-Balancing Robot

Firmware

A FreeRTOS control system on STM32F446RE with IMU sensor fusion and encoder feedback: PID motor control at 1 kHz, UART telemetry, and a CAN interface for expansion, on a custom multi-rail power board.

STM32F446REFreeRTOSCIMUCANPID

Autonomous Robot

Firmware

Led a 4-person team to build autonomous navigation on a TurtleBot4 using LiDAR and YOLOv5 object detection — 80% accurate object avoidance with real-time ROS visualization.

PythonYOLOv5ROSTurtleBot4LiDAR

MedAssure — Smart Medication Container

Firmware

A smart medication container with temperature/humidity tracking at 95% sensor accuracy and an LCD UI that cut user input time 30%; 3D casing designed in AutoCAD Inventor.

STM32CAutoCAD Inventor

USB-C 5V / 3.3V Power Supply PCB

Hardware

A 2-layer USB-C power-distribution board with CC resistors, ESD/TVS, and polyfuse protection. Full fab files (Gerber, BOM, CPL) validated via ERC/DRC, trace-current simulation, and 3D review.

KiCadAltium

Morse Code Transmitter

Firmware

A bare-metal Morse-code transmitter in RISC-V assembly — driving on-board LEDs via GPIO register writes with 500 ms timing loops, manual stack management, register-based parameter passing, and a 16-bit Morse LUT.

RISC-V assemblyGPIO

Traffic Light Controller

Hardware

A Moore FSM in VHDL for a three-way intersection with timers, synchronizers, and holding registers — verified in ModelSim and deployed to FPGA via Quartus Prime.

VHDLFPGAModelSimQuartus Prime

Vector — Interactive SVG Showcase

Web

A live capabilities showcase built with vanilla JS + anime.js v4: self-drawing emblems, path morphs, filter/gradient/mask playgrounds, motion-path comets, draggable spring physics, and generative charts — reduced-motion aware.

Viteanime.js v4SVGTypeScript

MoneyUp — Expense Tracker PWA

Web

A clean, local-first expense tracker with a P&L calendar (each day tinted by budget), weekly/monthly reports, animated donut and bar charts, and per-category budgets. Next.js + Supabase.

Next.jsSupabaseMotionTypeScript

Focusmode — Day-Blocking Focus Timer

Web

A calendar-style focus-timer PWA: drag-to-create day blocks, a color-coded countdown ring, hourly-break toggles, and a document picture-in-picture pop-out that stays on top.

ViteReactanime.jsTypeScript

Cadence — Productivity PWA

Web

An 11-route Next.js + Supabase PWA (tasks, calendar, habits, insights): fully offline with realtime sync, row-level security, auth, and Web Push reminders.

Next.jsSupabaseTypeScript
What I work with

Skills

Languages
CC++PythonVHDLRISC-V AssemblyJavaScript / TypeScriptSQLJava
Embedded & Hardware
STM32 (Cortex-M4F)FreeRTOSKiCadAltiumArduinoI²C / SPI / UART / CANADC+DMAPWM
FPGA & Digital
VHDLModelSimQuartus PrimeMoore/Mealy FSMs
Software & AI
ReactNext.jsSupabaseTailwindNode.jsOpenAI APIsLLM tool-usen8n / Make / Airtable / Zoho
Instrumentation
OscilloscopeLogic analyzerSMULCR meterFunction generator
Tools
STM32CubeIDEarm-none-eabi-gccOpenOCD / ST-LINKGitMATLABAutoCAD Inventor
Open to opportunities

Let's build something.

I'm looking for embedded / firmware and software co-op roles. The fastest way to reach me is email.

Built with Next.js, Tailwind, Motion & anime.js · © 2026 Abid Azad