v1.0 · updated Jul 2026

Thomas Pan

B.S. Computer Engineering 27' @ Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Minor in Robotics, AI, Internet of Things

Builds working products from electronic hardware to embodied intelligence and finds out why when they don't.

I am an Electical and Computer Engineer from embedded control and robot perception to the silicon-level systems that make machines move wisely and safely.

Mechatronic Systems Engineer @ Rattaowned 4-DOF arm hardware, firmware & controls, 5,000+ trials, zero failuresFaculty-advised SLAM researchhardware-backed visual SLAM · Dr. Berry, RHITSTM32 · ESP32 · FPGA · ROS2full hardware stack · 14 projects
Current Interest
Embedded Systems HardwareEmbedded Systems FirmwareMechatronic SystemsEdge-deployed AI SystemConsumer ElectronicsMobile Robotics
Long Term Interest
Robotics, Digital IC Design, Hardware Accelerated Algorithms, Robotics SoC, Edge AI System
See projects
Contact me
// projects & experience

Selected work

Yellow Geomcat unit with robotic arm visible through glass panelGeomcat booth at Pet Fair Asia 2026Black Geomcat product variantArm controller PCB with STM32F446 and anime silkscreen artKiCad 4-layer PCB layout with isolated power domainsMuJoCo simulation of the inverted 4-DOF arm with gravity compensationPrototype internals showing RK3576 main board, arm controller, and motor wiringKiCad schematic showing ADM3053 isolated CAN and ADM1201AR digital isolatorTeam debugging multiple prototype units in the workshopTwo cats lounging inside the stainless steel prototype
STM32F446 · CAN · KiCad · DCDC Isolation

Ratta “Geomcat” Automated Cat Litter Box

Ratta (Supernote) · Mechatronic Systems Engineer · Jul 2026 – Aug 2026

  • Rescued a stalled project by designing all electrical, firmware, and control systems for a demo-ready inverted 4-DOF robotic arm within 6 weeks
  • Product verified at Asia Pet Expo, ran nonstop for 10 hours every day during the 5-day expo.
  • Built STM32 firmware, arm controller PCB schematic and layout, sim-to-real MuJoCo pipeline and control algorithm.
Robot platform / SLAM pipeline
Raspberry Pi 4B · STM32F411 · ROS 2 Jazzy · CAN Busin progress

Summer SLAM: Visual SLAM Study Path

Rose-Hulman · Advised by Dr. Berry · Jun 2026 – Present

  • Built an X-drive holonomic robot platform from scratch with an STM32F411 real-time control layer linked to a Raspberry Pi 4B ROS 2 Jazzy stack over CAN bus
  • Implemented the full localization pipeline from encoder odometry through particle filter MCL (2.3 cm error) to camera calibration and ORB visual odometry
  • Published each module as a reproducible tutorial with code, data logs, calibration data, and validation plots on GitHub
Predicted vs actual salary on year-1 contracts, with CBA-capped players highlightedPer-player SHAP impact by featureMean absolute SHAP contribution per featureSystematic pricing bias by CBA signing mechanism
Python · XGBoost · Two-sided Grabit (Tobit GBT) · SHAPin progress

NBA Free Agent Valuation Model

Personal research project · Jun 2026 – Present

  • Adapted Grabit (gradient tree-boosted Tobit) from credit-risk modeling to NBA salaries, then composed its two-sided censoring with a probability-gated max push and a told-route extension cap so each stage answers one distinct CBA question
  • Built the full pipeline end to end, scraping Basketball Reference, Spotrac and nbarapm, engineering 21 features from 40+ candidates by ablation, and a four-layer evaluation protocol that separates structural estimation from forecasting and selection from confirmation
  • Established a characterized negative result: the residual pattern by signing mechanism is real but unrecoverable, with the ceiling on any fix measured empirically
Device photo / UI screen
ESP32 · ESP-IDF · FreeRTOS · SPI TFT Displayin progress

IoT Desktop Terminal

Mar 2026 – Present

  • Shipped a complete embedded product. ESP32, sensors, 2.8″ SPI TFT, and 3D-printed enclosure, with FreeRTOS firmware holding 25 FPS UI alongside background networking
  • Reverse-engineered PaperCut’s multi-step HTTP auth and implemented WPA2 Enterprise on ESP32 for one-button remote print release
  • Implemented BLE HID wireless keyboard input and an ESP32-hosted web interface for remote configuration
System architecture / FPGA board
Raspberry Pi · ESP32 · Tang Nano 9K FPGA · Verilog

Distributed Robotic Arm Control Architecture

Dec 2025 – Mar 2026

  • Split a robotic arm control system across three processors. The Raspberry Pi runs ROS2 with a Flask GUI, the ESP32 handles wireless forwarding, and the FPGA runs Verilog real-time I/O
  • Wrote Verilog modules for multi-channel UART, 50 Hz servo PWM generation, and CRC-8 error detection on a Tang Nano 9K
  • Cut measured control latency over 90% by replacing HTTP with UDP over a direct ESP32 access point
Competition photo / Robot demo
VEX Robotics · PID · Odometry · Bezier Path Planning

Hongkou Robotic Club: Robotics Mentor

Shanghai, China · Aug 2023 – Apr 2025

  • Coached VEX Robotics teams to Skills global rank No. 2 and multiple world records across international competitions
  • Co-designed motion control systems: PID closed-loop control, encoder odometry, and Bezier curve path planning
  • Taught engineering, physics, and programming foundations to middle school students through hands-on robotics
// about

Skill pool

  • C / C++ Firmwareembedded · automotive · industrial
  • ESP32 / ESP-IDFembedded · IoT
  • STM32embedded · automotive
  • CAN Busembedded · automotive · industrial
  • OpenCVvision · machine learning
  • Vision Guided Controlvision · industrial
  • ROS2 NavigationSLAM · industrial
  • SLAM PipelinesSLAM
  • Python MLmachine learning · vision
  • IoT PrototypingIoT · embedded
  • Robot Motion Controlindustrial · embedded
  • Automotive ECUsautomotive · embedded
  • PCB Bring-upembedded · IoT
  • Sensor FusionSLAM · vision · ML
  • Digital Logicembedded · automotive
  • Controls Modelingindustrial · embedded

No matching skills yet.