Electrical and Computer Engineer building embedded systems

B.S. and M.S. at Carnegie Mellon; available for full-time roles after graduation.

Miguel Salvacion
Skills & approach

Hardware, firmware, and system integration.

Improved EV power delivery at Ford, deployed automated RF matching at Hacker Fab, taught register-level embedded systems, and built independent devices where the enclosure, PCB, and interface have to work together.

PCB DesignPower DeliveryC / C++ARM AssemblySTM32Zephyr RTOSCANI2C / SPI / UARTPythonRF AutomationHardware DebuggingSolidWorks
Selected work

My engineering projects.

Engineering projects

Assembled embedded vehicle with STM32 carrier PCB and motor system
Embedded · 4 months · CMU

Real-Time Embedded Vehicle

STM32 vehicle stack with a custom RTOS, ARMv7-M boot code, preemptive scheduling, PID speed control, UART telemetry, and LCD state updates.

STM32 Cortex-M4RMS scheduler<10% average speed error
Trash collection robot chassis with robotic arm and electronics
Electrical · 2 months · Build18

Trash Collection Robot

Autonomous bottle-collection robot with Raspberry Pi vision, Arduino motor control, UART command protocol, custom power delivery, and arm actuation.

Raspberry Pi CVArduino control9V quad H-bridge

Independent builds

Kirby Companion embedded device Kirby Companion embedded device with its touch display active
Product · 2 weeks · Personal

Kirby Companion

ESP32-S3 smart display in a custom 3D-printed Kirby enclosure, built as a standalone desktop companion with touch UI, weather, alarms, timers, minigame screens, Wi-Fi, and I2S audio.

2-inch touch displayMAX98357 audio3D-printed shell
Kirby-shaped LED keychain PCB
Analog · 3 weeks · Personal

Kirby LED Keychain

Pure analog LED chaser on a custom Kirby-shaped PCB with 555 timer sequencing, decade counters, exposed HASL art, and coin-cell auto-shutoff.

No microcontrollerAuto-shutoffCustom PCB art
Selected experience

Engineering experience.

Ford Motor Company logo Ford Motor Company

Hardware Systems Engineering Intern

On eDrive Units Diagnostics, resolved a 5.8 V control-unit drop from heat and undersized wiring, then specified upgraded gauges and routing. Isolated a Mach-E/E-Transit park-system ratcheting fault from warranty teardowns, presented an 8D, and wrote EDU service procedures that validated modular eMotor repair over full-unit replacements.

CMU Hacker Fab logo CMU Hacker Fab

Embedded Systems Researcher

Built an open-source automated RF matcher for $636 (80%+ below commercial units) that holds ~1.2 VSWR at 95–100 W for 60+ minute depositions, using real-time coordinate descent on a Teensy 4.1 and a KiCad control PCB whose SWR and protection paths were checked in ngspice so ADC inputs stay below 3.3 V.

Carnegie Mellon logo Carnegie Mellon University

Head Teaching Assistant

Manage 10 TAs and mentor 60+ students debugging custom preemptive RTOS kernels—PendSV context-switch faults, RMS bugs, and HLP priority inversion—using GDB and OpenOCD over JTAG. Guide STM32 firmware (MMIO, interrupt-driven serial, PWM) and review student 2-layer PCBs through PID motor tuning and sensor-actuator bring-up.