Pacemaker Firmware
Built firmware for a pacemaker using a pre-built microprocessor kit paired with a virtual heart that visualizes output voltage. Programmed the microprocessor via Simulink and MATLAB's visual, model-based SDK across two milestone demo interviews.
3D Room-Mapping Device
Programmed a Texas Instruments MSP432E401Y Launchpad (32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F) with a stepper motor and a time-of-flight sensor to spin and measure distance, generating a 3D map of a room or hallway. Built in Assembly and C over I2C/serial/UART/GPIO/Ethernet, flashed via Keil.
Revenge of the Recycling System
Simulated recycling-sorting system where a robotic arm/mover/hopper sorts waste by material using weight and composition measurements, then navigates via floor colour-lines and RGB sensors. Wrote the classification, sorting, and navigation logic in Python on a Raspberry Pi (QuanserLabs robotics platform) as part of the programming sub-team.
Power in Community
Open-ended brief for a client 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.
Bus-Stop Indicator System
Financial feasibility analysis of a bus-stop indicator system for the Hamilton Street Railway, aimed at reducing rider uncertainty and increasing ridership. Built a Net Value Function, full NPV/value-flow analysis, sensitivity analysis, an Excel-Solver optimization pass, and a risk matrix. Individually led the LED display-lighting analysis, covering manufacturing cost, complexity, and aging.
Automated Recycling Plant
Designed an automated recycling plant for McMaster's John Hodgins Engineering Building, built to run unattended on weekends, process a full week's recycling, and double as an educational space during class hours. Assessed against the PERSEID framework (Performance, Socio-Cultural, Regulatory, Environmental) for community and environmental impact.
varunan-vara.github.io
Personal site running in some form since 2015: started as plain HTML/CSS, progressed through JavaScript and then TypeScript OOP phases, and is now this static rebuild — maintained across several stack changes.
AternosBot
Aternos, a free Minecraft server host, offered no public API or shared-account access across users. Built a web-scraper-backed API against Aternos's own web servers and wired it to a Discord bot so authorized members could start a server remotely. Early scripting/reverse-engineering project, no longer actively maintained.
Ant Hill
Built at UofTHacksX, a University of Toronto student hackathon, using Flutter's cross-platform (iOS/Android/desktop) Skia-based UI framework.
Renewable Technology Challenge
Designed a wind turbine blade for an Engineers Without Borders humanitarian-aid scenario, targeting a rural Guatemalan village that needed low-maintenance, low-cost electricity generation from locally sourced materials.
Automated Sterilization System
Designed an automated surgical-equipment sterilization system for a healthcare facility. Led the tool-enclosure design on the design sub-team, engineering it to fit the sterilizer's fixed container dimensions and withstand the robotic arm's weight and handling requirements.
Advent of Code 2022
Annual programming-puzzle series — algorithmic problem-solving across a range of data structures and techniques.
RGB Pixel Finder
Built for a high-school Chemistry Internal Assessment — applied Python for RGB pixel analysis to support a chemistry measurement problem.
Fake Wordle & License Plate Game
Smaller Python practice projects — a Wordle clone and a license-plate guessing game.