Hello! I’m Sakthivel, an Embedded & Firmware Engineer who loves building at the edge where software orchestrates hardware. I’m finishing my M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Northeastern University (Dec 2026) and looking for my first full-time role in embedded systems.

What I bring to a team:

• 🔋 Production-style wearable firmware — C on Zephyr RTOS / nRF Connect SDK for an nRF52840 device: multi-threaded architecture, peripheral drivers, BLE, and hardware crypto.
• ⏱️ Hard real-time systems — deterministic 10 kHz C++ control loops on Xenomai/EVL Linux for closed-loop neurostimulation research.
• 🏎️ Automotive / CAN firmware — Rust (Embassy async) control firmware for an FSAE electric race car: cruise control, thermal control, shared CAN database.
• 📐 Measurement-driven engineering — I validate with logic analyzers, profiling under full load, and statistics, not guesswork.

Northeastern University — Boston, MA M.S., Electrical & Computer Engineering · Expected Dec 2026 · GPA: 3.6 Coursework: Computer Architecture, Operating Systems, Computer Networks & Security, Real Time Systems

Anna University — Chennai, India B.E., Electronics & Communication Engineering · May 2024 · Mahatma Gandhi Merit Scholar Minor: Internet of Things (IoT)

• Built C firmware on Zephyr RTOS (nRF Connect SDK) for a screenless nRF52840 wearable, with a 4-thread architecture and drivers for the PDM microphone, 2 MB QSPI flash, NVS storage, touch input, and DRV2605L haptics.
• Secured BLE audio with AES-128-CCM on the CryptoCell-310 via PSA Crypto, using per-packet nonces and authentication tags, and wrote a Python tool to verify decryption.
• Profiled an on-device TinyML wake-word (VAD) model under full system load, verifying reliable inference within the nRF52840’s 256 KB RAM / 1 MB flash budget.
• Evaluated the TPS63900 as a replacement for the TPS63020 buck-boost converter, modeling ~34% longer battery life.

• Implemented a feedforward temperature controller in Rust (Embassy async) that adjusts thermal response ahead of measured deviation, improving responsiveness over PID-only control.
• Developed a Cruise Control drive mode with CAN speed-limit input, MPH-to-RPM conversion, and linear pedal-torque derating to hold a driver-set speed via the motor controller API.
• Built closed-loop thermal control for the LV box: read SHT30 temperature, computed a linear 0–100% PWM duty cycle, and sent it over CAN to the vehicle compute unit, updating the shared CAN database.

• Built real-time C++ modules on RTXI (Xenomai/EVL Linux, 10 kHz loop) for a closed-loop neurostimulation platform that synchronizes a force-tracking task with tES, temporal interference, and TMS output.
• Implemented a real-time EEG pipeline (LSL ingest, TMS-artifact reconstruction, notch/bandpass filtering, FFT band power) that modulates tES/TI amplitude in closed loop.
• Kept the real-time thread deterministic using lock-free atomic handoffs and by moving Qt/X11 calls off it, avoiding Xenomai secondary-mode switches.
• 🔗 Related repo: My_RTXI_Repo

Computer Networks; Digital Design & Computer Architecture

• Guided 50+ students through OSI fundamentals with conceptual and Wireshark-based lab assignments.
• Held weekly office hours on Python socket programming and routing protocols (TCP/IP), and helped 15+ students build RISC-V single-cycle processors on the PYNQ-Z2 FPGA using Xilinx Vivado.

ESP32 CAN Python SimPy Logic Analyzer

• Built a 3-node ESP32 CAN testbed that emulates an EV’s ECUs with real sensors, plus a SimPy discrete-event simulator of the same network, validated against analytical worst-case response-time bounds.
• Measured message latency, jitter, and deadline misses across bus loads up to 95%, different bitrates, and fault scenarios, using logic-analyzer timing and 95% confidence intervals to compare simulation with hardware.

ESP32 C++ KiCAD

• Built an ESP32 salinity sensor with a custom electrode probe; C++ firmware uses oversampled ADC reads, Beta-curve calibration, and temperature-compensated salinity modeling.
• Added a WS2812B LED bar graph that shows water quality as a blue-to-red gradient in real time.

C ARMv8 x86_64 Linux

• Benchmarked Dhrystone on ARMv8 and x86_64, profiled with GPROF, and validated hotspots with assembly; tuned LINPACK on x86-64 with compiler flags and BLAS libraries.

C Linux SSH

• Built a bare-metal OS in C with syscall wrappers, an ELF loader, and mmap-based memory management, plus multi-threaded context switching on custom 4 KB stacks.

C++ Ubuntu

• Implemented Alternating Bit and Go-Back-N with checksums and timeouts, reaching 95%+ delivery under loss and corruption across 1000+ messages and 6+ network conditions.

ESP32 MAX30102 OLED ThingSpeak

• Built a low-cost device that measures SpO2, heart rate, and body temperature, shows them on an OLED, and logs readings to ThingSpeak for a cloud-based patient record.

Python YOLOv5 OpenCV

• Built a YOLOv5 queue-detection pipeline that adapts signal timing, cutting simulated wait times by ~27%.

Global Student Mentor — Northeastern Office of Global Services · Mar 2025 – Present

• Guide 50+ international students through the move to Northeastern with 1-on-1 and group sessions, and helped run 10+ student engagement trips.

Senator, Student Affairs — Graduate Student Government · Aug 2025 – Jan 2026

• Developed a Mental Health Awareness initiative and ran tabling events that reached 200+ students.
• Led the logistics of the Fall Fest game stations for 600+ participants.

• Amateur Radio Volunteer (KC1YHE), Boston Athletic Association: provided radio communication support at the Boston Marathon 5K finish line.
• Volunteer, Boy with a Ball: mentor local youth in setting and reaching their goals.
• Hobbies: Trekking, science experiments, sports, book discussions, and weekend embedded prototypes ⚡

Hiring for embedded, firmware, or real-time systems roles starting in 2027? Let’s talk.