Hi,I'mDenizGursoy
Electrical Engineer
Building the physical layer of intelligent systems in embedded hardware, robotics, and deep tech
Building at the edge of hardware & intelligence
I'm a second-year Electrical Engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania focused on systems at the intersection of hardware, software, and autonomy.
I've led an autonomous racecar team to 1st place internationally at MIT, designed EMG-driven prosthetics, and programmed PLCs for a hyperloop tunnel boring machine. I build things that move, sense, and decide.
This summer I join SpaceX as a Raptor Tooling & Automation Engineering Intern, automating manufacturing and test processes for the Raptor engine.
Education
University of Pennsylvania
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
B.S.E. · Electrical Engineering
Expected
May 2029
Embedded Systems & Firmware
Bare-metal C/C++, RTOS, microcontrollers, SPI/I²C/UART
Robotics & Autonomous Systems
LIDAR fusion, SLAM, ROS, autonomous navigation stacks
PCB & Hardware Design
Altium Designer, signal integrity, analog front-ends
Controls & Automation
PLC programming, PID, state machines, HMI
Relevant Coursework
- CIS 2400Computer Systems Architecture
- ESE 2150Electrical Circuits and Systems
- ESE 2180Electronic, Photonic, and Electromechanical Devices
Where I've worked
SpaceX
Raptor Automation & Controls Engineering Intern
Hawthorne, CA
May 2026 – Aug 2026
- Automating manufacturing and test processes for the Raptor engine program using PLC and controls systems
Venture Lab · Stealth AI/Healthtech Startup
LLM Operations Intern
Philadelphia, PA
Sep 2025 – Dec 2025
- Collaborated with an AI / Healthtech startup in stealth at Venture Labs, contributing to a real-time health analytics platform
- Developed features using React Native, Supabase, and FastAPI; integrated ML-powered insight generation to automatically analyze user symptom data and deliver personalized health patterns in under 3 seconds
Syracuse University · College of Engineering
Robotics Systems Engineering Intern
Syracuse, NY
Jun 2025 – Aug 2025
- Created a custom hexacopter SAR platform by integrating a PulsON 440 radar with a Pixhawk flight stack and Raspberry Pi; optimized powertrain for 20% increase in flight stability during autonomous data collection
- Developed Python signal processing pipelines implementing backprojection and motion compensation, achieving sub-10cm resolution and 40% reduction in image reconstruction latency
MIT Lincoln Labs
Beaver Works Autonomous Racecar · Team Captain
Cambridge, MA
Jun 2023 – Aug 2023
- Led 5-student team to 1st place internationally by programming a 1/10-scale autonomous vehicle through a 9-section obstacle course
- Developed Python-based autonomous stack with LIDAR/IMU fusion and OpenCV-based AR recognition; PID control system achieving sub-100ms obstacle response and zero-collision performance
What I'm building
Penn Hyperloop
ActivePower & Controls Engineer
Philadelphia, PA
Sep 2025 – Present
- Upgraded 240V→480V three-phase AC system with 5+ VFDs controlling 15+ HP motors, enabling 300% greater power delivery for a 1,000-lb autonomous TBM that placed 2nd in The Boring Company's 2026 Not-a-Boring Competition
- Programmed Siemens S7-1200 PLC & ESP32 MCU with TIA Portal to implement autonomous drilling state machine with hardwired E-stops, software interlocks, and remote kill switch for <100ms fail-safe response
- Integrated VFDs & sensors into unified HMI using Modbus RTU, I2C, and Ethernet protocols for synchronized telemetry
Photos
Penn Assistive Devices & Prosthetic Technologies
ActiveEmbedded Systems Engineer
Philadelphia, PA
Sep 2025 – Present
- Developed 8-channel EMG acquisition system with 24-bit ADCs & programmable gain amplifiers for prosthetic arm control; SPI-interfaced signal conditioning, dual voltage regulation, PCB schematics in Altium Designer
- Transitioning from H-bridge linear actuator to dual-servo architecture; implementing modular Raspberry Pi Pico interface for rapid prototyping and user-specific calibration
Photos
Penn IEEE
ActivePresident
Philadelphia, PA
Jan 2026 – Present
- Leading 100+ member student chapter; organizing technical panels, industry speaker events, and local engineering competitions
Photos
Penn Aerial Robotics
PastElectrical Hardware Engineer
Philadelphia, PA
Sep 2025 – Jan 2026
- Designed custom STM32-based flight controller PCB in Altium Designer from scratch to optimize SWaP-C vs. commercial Pixhawk systems, targeting 50%+ cost reduction and 30% weight reduction for competition UAV platforms
- Engineered power management subsystem with voltage conversion from USB/battery to multiple rails (5V, 3.3V, 1.8V) and implemented dual memory modules, power sensing, and fail-safe systems for flight data logging
Photos
Things I've built
NaviGlass
AI-powered Assistive Wearable for the Visually Impaired
A full-stack wearable system that uses computer vision to give real-time environmental awareness to visually impaired users — at 72% lower cost than commercial alternatives.
80+
Object Classes
$83
Total Cost
−72%
vs Commercial
FPGA-Accelerated Algorithmic Trading Agent
Deep Reinforcement Learning + Hardware Inference
A high-frequency trading agent combining DRL with FPGA-accelerated inference — slashing latency from 316μs to ~2μs while achieving a 36.4% ROI in backtesting.
36.4%
ROI (Backtesting)
0.78
Sharpe Ratio
158×
Latency Reduction
Hexacopter SAR Platform
Custom Synthetic Aperture Radar UAV System
A fully custom hexacopter platform integrating a PulsON 440 radar for synthetic aperture radar imaging, achieving sub-10cm resolution with autonomous flight.
<10cm
Resolution
+20%
Stability Gain
40%
Latency Saved
Photos
Autonomous Racecar Stack
MIT Beaver Works · International Grand Prix
Led a team to 1st place internationally, building a fully autonomous 1/10-scale vehicle with LIDAR/IMU fusion and real-time obstacle avoidance on a 9-section course.
#1
Placement
<100ms
Response Time
0
Collisions
Photos
My technical stack
Languages
AI / ML
Hardware & EE
Tools & Platforms
Proficiency
Autonomous Systems
MIT Lincoln Labs
Embedded Systems
PCB · FPGA · PLC
Robotics & UAVs
ROS · Pixhawk · SAR
AI / DRL
PPO · YOLO · Torch
Let's build something remarkable
Whether you have an internship opportunity, a research collaboration, or just want to talk about autonomous systems, embedded hardware, or rocketry — I'd love to hear from you.
© 2026 Deniz Gursoy · Electrical Engineering & Computer Science @ UPenn
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