v1.0 · updated Jul 2026

Thomas Pan

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

Building things that sense, move, talk and occasionally work on the first flash.

I am a Computer Engineering student building at the edge of hardware and intelligence — from embedded control and robot perception to the silicon-level systems that make machines move with intent.

Embedded Systems Intern @ Rattaowned 4-DOF arm hardware & firmwareFaculty-advised SLAM researchhardware-backed visual SLAM · Dr. Berry, RHITSTM32 · ESP32 · FPGA · ROS2full hardware stack · 14 projects
Phover / tap
Thomas Pan · ECE @ RHITaka 托马
Current Interest
Embedded SystemsVision Guided RoboticsSLAMMachine LearningIoT / Consumer ElectronicsIndustrial RoboticsAutomotive Electronics
Long Term Interest
Embodied Intelligence, General Robotics, Automotive Semiconductor Design, Digital IC Design, SoC Design, Robotics Chip Design
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// projects & experience

Selected work

Robotic arm / PCB design
STM32F446 · CAN · KiCad · DCDC Isolation

Ratta “Mario” Automated Cat Litter Box

Ratta · Embedded Systems Intern · Jun 2026 – Jul 2026

  • Owned arm embedded hardware and firmware: STM32F446 control, KiCad PCB with 24V/5V galvanic isolation (isolated DCDC + isolated transceivers), SMD selection, and procurement
  • Developed 4-DOF inverse kinematics with enclosure and wall constraints; validated in MuJoCo and iterated sim-to-real until motions matched
  • Identified power thermal risk, designed isolation fix, improved comms protocol, drove CAN-to-TTL architecture switch on cost-bandwidth tradeoff
Robot platform / SLAM pipeline
Raspberry Pi 4B · STM32F103 · ROS2 · CAN Busin progress

Summer SLAM — Visual SLAM Study Path

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

  • Built a mecanum robot platform from scratch: STM32F103 real-time control layer linked to a Raspberry Pi 4B ROS2 stack over a custom CAN bus
  • Implemented the full localization pipeline: encoder odometry → particle filter MCL → camera calibration → ORB visual odometry → visual-inertial fusion
  • Published each module as a reproducible tutorial with code, data logs, and validation plots on GitHub
Valuation board / SHAP attribution
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 modelling 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 14 features from 20+ candidates by ablation, and a four-layer evaluation protocol that separates structural estimation from forecasting and selection from confirmation
  • Established a characterised negative result — the large residual pattern by signing mechanism is real but unrecoverable, with the ceiling on any fix measured rather than assumed
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: Raspberry Pi (ROS2 + Flask GUI), ESP32 (wireless forwarding), and FPGA (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.