Welcome to my website! My name is Sam and I'm currently a fourth-year B.S. Electrical Engineering candidate at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
I have a passion for power and energy, especially areas focusing on renewability and sustainability.
As a student, I gain more interest in electronics as time goes on through the different curriculum I experience, such as work with microcontrollers (PIC18F4321, Arduino Uno, etc.),
control systems, and of course, power.
I have been familiar with the engineering field ever since I was a child; my high school curriculum was specialized in both engineering and biomedical sciences and
I graduated completing the Engineering track. During my time there, I committed 4 years to my community FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) robotics team, Team 4999 Momentum Robotics.
There, I got my first exposure to FPGA's, servomotors, pulse-width-modulation, and communications, some of the core aspects of building a functional robot. It was then and
there that I knew I wanted to pursue the study of electronics and its applications in the world.
Currently, I am a part of BANSHEE UAV, a project club at Cal Poly Pomona. As a member of the Power Management team, our responsibilities include creating and performing testing
procedures for different methods of passive power generation for a drone the entire BANSHEE team is designing for a coast-to-coast flight. In my downtime between project work,
this website is actually part of my duties for the project team, as it is a good way to build up skills I might have previously lacked.
I believe my experiences in high school and university have shaped my passions into what it is today and I would love to share that with others. If you have a child with an
interest in robotics, I've provided resources below to hopefully point you in the right direction.
To learn more about my current project: BANSHEE UAV
Construction Management
While my primary interests lie in electrical engineering, I am also currently considering a career in construction management, from my time with Morrow-Meadows Corporation,
an electrical contractor. With my (very helpful) supervisor and mentor Bill Nauta, I have experience in many standard construction practices, such as contract review,
building overlays (Bluebeam Revu), RFI's, change orders, and much more. I gained all of my experience in communication and management through this experience; I would like to
explore this pathway more and am currently looking for opportunities in both electrical engineering and construction management fields.
Music
Music will always be my first love. I am a lifelong instrumentalist, piano being my main instrument (I also have years of experience with the violin, bass guitar, and double bass).
I am a member of the Cal Poly Pomona Piano Ensemble, led and advised by the talented Dr. Nadia Shpachenko. As I enter my secondthird year with the group, I find myself rediscovering my
love for piano performance every rehearsal. I have gotten the wonderful opportunity to work with the composers of the pieces I perform through the ensemble, such as Michael Roth,
Jonathan Russell, and Tom Flaherty.
Project that served as a first venture into HTML and CSS languages. Learned how to host a server, load
a custom domain, and deploy through Github all for the first time. Used applications of HTML techniques
for a user-friendly interface and experience, such as hyperlinks, CSS stylization for a more streamlined
visual.
Investigation of signal processing as the final project for my Signals and Systems class. Study of wavelets and
the effects of Fourier transforms on the signal. Using MATLAB, created a script for denoising audio files.
Investigation of elementary sampling and quantization algorithms and techniques in digital signal processing. Use of error analysis
and signal-to-noise to analyze the integrity of processed signal.
Design, simulation, and analysis of a four pole low pass filter circuit. Responsible for the PCB design of the circuit
using Altium PCB Designer. Ran simulation observing voltage, current, and frequency behavior of the circuit using PSpice.
Analysis of properties of the frequency response, including upper and lower cutoffs, bandwidth, and center frequency.
Design of PCB board used in autonomous battery exchange for a UAV. Intended to improve UAV flight time by reducing power turnaround time. Focused in optimization of ground control
station to withstand extreme conditions, as well as streamline PCB design within both ground control station (GCS) and UAV prototype. Procured
power solutions for the entire GCS system, including 11 buck converters and a custom 65W USB-C cable for powering the station's computer.
Momentum Robotics is the high school community robotics team I was a part of during my time at Eunice Sato Academy of Mathematics and Science, a high school
specializing in both Engineering and Biomedical Sciences pathways. We participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition every year, where our task was to build a full-scale
robot designed and built to complete tasks according to the game theme for that year, all within six weeks. This experience was quite formative for me as I got exposure to the
inner workings of a robot and electronics at large.
2017-2018 Season
For the 2017-2018 season, I was a high-school freshman and took on a technician role for the Electrical subunit of the team. I participated in power system design as well as
make the wired connections for all serial communication in the robot. In addition to my electrical contributions, I also cut out the aluminum stock needed for our intake and climbing
systems. The theme of the season was called "Power Up!," where teams were tasked to design and develop robots that could
intake and shoot out themed milk crates onto a scale for points. Momentum Robotics finished in the quarterfinals of the Orange County regionals.
2018-2019 Season
In the 2018-2019 season, I took on more responsibility within the electronics subunit of the team, creating the power system design along with my lead at the time, under the mentorship
of Terry Wells. Again, I wired the entire robot's power system and serial communication buses. Along with the programming lead that season, I interfaced with the FPGA we were using for
the robot, the NI roboRIO. Although phased out these days (with the roboRIO 2.0), this was the first case of embedded systems I had ever experienced. This was a very digestible and smooth
introduction to serial communication for me, with the roboRIO having capabilities for I2C and SPI. During this season, the team made a transition from using exclusively PWM devices to using
both PWM and CAN devices. From this, I gained a lot of experience in serial communication in CAN devices. Momentum Robotics finished the season in the Qualifications phase of the Los Angeles
regionals.
2019-2020 Season
I took on the role of Electrical Lead for the team in the 2019-2020 season. This leadership opportunity allowed me to empower other students to learn more about electronics and how
deeply it is ingrained into robotics. With my subunit, I led the team in power system design and build, as well as collaborated with the programming subunit to interface with the roboRIO.
This season was quite challenging in particular due to the demands of the theme for that year, "Infinite Recharge." There were many moving parts to the game this year. One goal was to shoot
foam balls into 2 slots of choice, each at different heights. A second goal was to spin a wheel to the correct configuration for an opportunity at extra points. The final goal of the
game was to hang onto a bar with a design similar to a coat hanger; a robot grabs one side of the bar and it will start to tip to that robot's side, making it harder for the ally robots
to grab on to the other side for more points. In terms of electrical design, I was quite challenged by the sheer amount of stretch the robot had to mechanically make, and subsequently, the electrical system.
As a team, we opted to not consider the wheel task at all in our robot design, as the reward for completing the task was not worth it for the amount of space on the robot it would have to take up.
Our final decision came to being able to shoot the foam balls at an elevated height, which made the electrical power system plausible and efficient for what little time we had. Momentum robotics
ended the season in the Qualifications phase in the 2020 Los Angeles Regional. Due to COVID-19, our season was cut short.
2020-2021 Season
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, there was no physical robotics component for the season. However, FIRST created programs for teams to participate in from home. As the captain for Momentum
Robotics in my fourth and final year, I led my team in FIRST's new competition, FRC Game Design. Our task was to create a theme for a potential game FIRST could host in a future year,
including rules, visual designs, mechanics, and all other components that could go into an FRC game. My role as a captain blossomed as I engaged in delegation among members working on the
game. I oversaw all discussion of game mechanics, visual design, and proper documentation. At the end of the season, my team and I presented our proposal to FIRST officials. I'm quite proud
of my time with Momentum Robotics.
CV, Related Coursework
You can find a (hopefully updated/current) CV of mine here. Below is a list
of any relevant coursework through my time as an EE student.
Circuit Analysis
Mathematically calculate properties of different types of DC, AC circuits. Master fundamentals of KCL, KVL, using applications of matrix operations. Analysis
within both time and frequency domains using applications of differential equations. Additional analysis of RLC circuits, phasor analysis, AC steady-state power, and complex
circuit functions using applications of Laplace transform, convolution. Investigate and produce analog filter design.
Microelectronics
Investigate semiconductor devices such as diodes, BJTs, and FETs behaviors and characteristics. Master diode circuit analysis, amplifier biasing. Apply different signal
models (large signal, small signal) to further analyze single stage amplifiers to determine voltage transfer curves. Understand physical structure, basic device modeling of
p-n junctions, MOS capacitors, and MOSFETs. Analysis of frequency response of single and/or multi-stage amplifiers, differential amplifiers, and more.
Microcontrollers
Understand the inner workings of digital logic and hardware developmental language for digital logic design. With this, apply knowledge of digital logic to the programming and
interfacing of microcontrollers. Create different applications with microcontrollers as well as fluidity in both assembly and C language programming using the microcontrollers
capabilities in logic and memory. Introduce concepts of communication between devices, embedded systems via I2C, SPI, UART using a serial bus.
Digital Signal Processing
Basic principles of both continuous-time and discrete-time signals and systems. Frequency domain analysis of continuous-time signals,
Fourier series and Fourier Transform. Time and frequency domain analysis of discrete-time signals and systems, sampling, z-transform,
discrete Fourier series and transform. The analysis, design and implementation of finite impulse response, infinite impulse response,
and adaptive digital filters. Introduction to digital signal processing algorithms including multirate signal processing,
frequency domain analysis, and spectral estimation.
Control Systems
Theory and application of system modeling and performance specifications of dynamic systems. Understand different types of system and system response. Design and analyze
linear time invariant feedback control systems via root locus and frequency response compensation techniques. Exposure to systems that combine electronic and mechanical components.
Power Engineering
Study principles of power engineering with emphasis of magnetics, transformers, and rotating AC and DC machines. Understand magnectic material characteristics and steady-state operational
circuit models, as they apply to transformers and electrical machines. Analyze power gneration with synchronous and doubly-excited induction machines, along with per-unit computations
in power systems.
Communication Systems
Continuous wave modulation and demodulation. Power efficiency, bandwidth efficiency and system complexity of modulation systems. Performance of Communication systems in noise.
Sampling process and various types of pulse modulation, introduction to digital modulation and demodulation, optimal reception in Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), bit error rate (BER) and symbol error rate (SER) evaluation.
Repertoire
Below is my current repertoire, in both solo and ensemble performance. If you are interested in working with me or commissioning a performance, please feel free
to reach out here.
Solo Performance
Liszt
Liebestraum No.3
Debussy
Arabesque No.1
Arabesque No.2
Clair de Lune
Chopin
Prelude in e minor
Fantaisie Impromptu
Ensemble Performance
Cascading Resonance - Jonathan Russell
Concerto Grosso No. 1 with piano obbligato - Ernest Bloch
Sabre Dance for Five Pianos - Aram Khachaturian, arranged by N. Jane Tan
Time's Up - Tom Flaherty
Sheetcake, The First Slice and a half - Michael Roth
