Design Projects

Eight team-based design projects across four years at McMaster — from a wind-turbine blade designed for an Engineers Without Borders scenario to pacemaker firmware built with Simulink. Fuller write-ups, in-progress detail, and photos live in the Notion workspace →

SFWRENG 3K04 — Software Development

Pacemaker Firmware

Level III · Team of 4

Built firmware for a pacemaker: a pre-built microprocessor kit paired with a virtual heart that visualizes output voltage. Programmed the microprocessor through Simulink and MATLAB's visual, model-based SDK across two milestone demo interviews, on the Simulink-toolchain sub-team (course split teams by toolchain: DCM vs. Simulink).

SimulinkMATLABEmbeddedMedical Device
COMPENG 2DX3 — Microprocessor Systems Project

3D Room-Mapping Device

Level II · Team of 2

Programmed a Texas Instruments MSP432E401Y Launchpad (32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F, 256KB RAM) paired with a Velleman VMA401 stepper motor and an ST VL53L1X time-of-flight sensor, spinning and measuring distance to build a 3D map of a room or hallway. Full bill of materials, with sensor fusion driving the physical output. Built in Assembly and C over I2C/serial/UART/GPIO/Ethernet, flashed via Keil.

AssemblyCARM Cortex-M4FSensor Fusion
1P13 — Team Fri-23

Revenge of the Recycling System

Level I · Team of 5 — Ann Shi, Jeffrey Hu, Oishi Ray, Rachel Yuet Tsang

Simulated recycling-sorting system: a robotic arm, mover, and hopper sort waste by material, using weight and composition measurements to classify items, then navigate via floor colour-lines and RGB sensors to the correct bin. Wrote the classification, sorting, and navigation logic in Python on Raspberry Pi hardware (QuanserLabs robotics platform) as part of the programming sub-team.

PythonRaspberry PiProgramming Sub-Team
1P13 — Team Fri-23

Power in Community

Level I · Team of 4 — Hussain Muhammed, Dhiren Patel, Anshul Keswani

Open-ended brief for a client living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective-tissue disorder. Designed a 6-degree-of-freedom assistive kitchen device enabling knife-based cutting with minimal muscle strain, simulated in Autodesk Inventor, working within the real client's accessibility constraints throughout.

Autodesk InventorHuman-Centered Design
ENGINEER 3PX3 — Engineering Economics

Bus-Stop Indicator System

Level III · Team of 4 — Arjun Karthik, Mofeoluwa Osibanjo, Nicholas White

Financial feasibility analysis of a bus-stop indicator system for the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR), aimed at cutting rider uncertainty and growing ridership. Built a Net Value Function (HSR revenue, carbon-tax savings, and route-optimization savings, minus labour, maintenance, infrastructure, production, and installation costs), a full NPV/value-flow analysis, a sensitivity analysis identifying infrastructure cost as the dominant model driver, an Excel-Solver optimization pass, and a risk matrix. Individually led the LED display-lighting analysis: manufacturing cost, complexity, and aging.

Financial ModelingExcel SolverNPV Analysis
ENGINEER 2PX3 — Communications and Social Impacts

Automated Recycling Plant

Level II · Team of 5 — Yara Basiouny, Gwyneth Cicci, Daniel Franze Da-Silva, Matthew Pironaggi

Designed an automated recycling plant for McMaster's John Hodgins Engineering Building (Rooms 109/109A), built to run unattended on weekends, process a full week's recycling, double as an educational space during class hours, and hold up for 10+ years. Assessed against the PERSEID framework (Performance, Socio-Cultural, Regulatory, Environmental, and additional categories) to gauge community and environmental impact on Hamilton specifically.

Design StudioPERSEID Framework
1P13 — Team Fri-27

Renewable Technology Challenge

Level I · Team of 4 — Hemraj Bhatt, Ryan Gumahung, Humza Noor

Designed a wind turbine blade for an Engineers Without Borders (EWB) humanitarian-aid scenario: a rural Guatemalan village that needed low-maintenance, low-cost electricity generation from locally sourced materials. Modeled and iterated the blade geometry in Autodesk Inventor across the two-term studio.

Autodesk InventorEWB Scenario
1P13 — Team Fri-26

Automated Sterilization System

Level I · Team of 4 — Connor Utasy, Junyi Chen, Ty Kenzie

Designed an automated surgical-equipment sterilization system for a healthcare facility. Led design of the tool enclosure holding medical instruments before sterilization, engineered to fit inside the sterilizer's existing container dimensions (new equipment purchases were off the table) and withstand the weight and handling of the robotic arm moving it.

Autodesk InventorDesign Sub-Team

Coursework

Coursework from Level II through Level V. The eight team-based design-project courses above (COMPENG 2DX3, ENGINEER 2PX3, SFWRENG 3K04, and ENGINEER 3PX3 among the Level II–V entries below) are detailed as cards above — table rows link back up to them.

CourseTitleLevelDetail
ELECENG 2CI4Intro to Electrical EngineeringIICircuit resistance/voltage/current modeling; Analog Discovery Kit 2 labs
ELECENG 2CF3Circuits and WavesIIOp-amps, filters, Bode plots, transfer functions; LTSpice + Excel simulation
COMPENG 2DI4Logic DesignIICombinational logic, Boolean algebra, FPGAs; built a T-flip-flop counter/adder light sequencer on an Altera PLD
COMPENG 2SH4Principles of ProgrammingIIC and C++ — pointers and memory, then OOP (classes, inheritance)
COMPENG 2SI3Data Structures & AlgorithmsIISorting algorithms, efficiency/complexity analysis in C/C++
COMPENG 2DX3Microprocessor Systems Project (design project, team of 2)II3D room-mapping device — see card above ↑
ENGINEER 2PX3Communications and Social Impacts (design studio)IIAutomated recycling plant — see card above ↑
ELECENG 2EI4Electronic Devices and Circuits IIIDiodes, transistors, op-amps, capacitors; self-directed labs
COMPENG 3SM4Algorithm Design & AnalysisIIIJava — hash maps, red-black trees, graphs, greedy & dynamic-programming algorithms
SFWRENG 3SH3Operating SystemsIIIOS structure, memory optimization, multithreading; Linux self-managed via VirtualBox
SFWRENG 3K04Software Development (design project, team of 4)IIIPacemaker firmware — see card above ↑
ENGINEER 3PX3Engineering Economics (design studio)IIIHSR bus-stop indicator system — see card above ↑
ELECENG 3TP3Signals & SystemsIIIComplex variables, Fourier/Laplace transforms, discrete-time systems
ELECENG 3TQ3Advanced Probability and Random ProcessesIIIProbability theory, random variables/processes, correlation/density functions
COMPENG 3DQ5Digital Systems DesignIVHDL modeling, simulation, synthesis, and verification; FPGA/programmable-device implementation
COMPENG 3DY4Computer Systems Integration Project (design studio)IVSmall-group computer engineering design & implementation project
ELECENG 3CL4Introduction to Control SystemsIVState-space modeling, linearization, stability, control design
ELECENG 3EJ4Electronic Devices and Circuits IIIVMultistage amplifiers, oscillators, data converters, feedback/stability
ELECENG 3TR4Communication SystemsIVAM/PM/FM modulation, digital modulation, noise performance
COMPENG 4DM4Computer ArchitectureVISA design, pipelining, instruction-level parallelism, memory hierarchies, multiprocessor structures
COMPENG 4DS4Embedded SystemsVEmbedded processor architectures, SOC organization, HW/SW co-design and co-verification
ELECENG 4OI6 A/BCapstone Design Project (in progress)VTwo-term, final-year capstone

Leadership & Extracurricular

Member since 2023 · Conferences Co-Lead, 2024–2025

Member of GDG (Google Developer Groups) McMaster's Incubator and Conferences Team, contributing to the club's annual hackathon, which drew 250 hackers from 650 applicants in its most recent run.

As Conferences Co-Lead (with co-leads Bhravi and Leon), delivered both Mac-a-thon and DevFest with a smaller-than-typical team, led the team's first push toward official MLH (Major League Hacking) certification, and secured third-party funding.

Nov 2021 — Sept 2022

Worked on the Quant Team at DFIC, which manages a large student-run investment fund, using QuantConnect (Python-based) to build and backtest models against historical data — mainly regression algorithms of varying complexity to measure tech-stock performance over time.

Feb — Oct 2023

Managed sponsorships, funding, and partner/client relations. Authored materials on hydrogen fuel cell technology in competitive automotive racing and on sustainable energy storage transitions.

Started 2026

Technical Lead running technical workshops and leading a team project, similar in scope to GDG McMaster's Open Source Team.

Get in touch

Open to conversations about co-op and full-time opportunities.