Current
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
B.S. Computer Engineering (Junior Transfer) • Aug 2025 — Jan 2027 (Expected)
GPA
3.6
Open to Internships
Hi, I'm Andrew Riad.
I build things in
I'm a junior Computer Engineering student at Cal Poly Pomona focused on computer hardware and digital system design. I'm interested in how hardware components interact at the logic and system level, from design and simulation to testing and verification.
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GPA
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Degrees Earned
About
A quick snapshot of who I am and what I'm aiming for.
I'm a Computer Engineering student with a strong interest in computer hardware and digital system design. I enjoy working at the logic and architecture level—designing, analyzing, and testing hardware systems to understand how individual components interact and perform as a whole.
When I work on something, I like to start from what it actually needs to do, keep the constraints in mind, and then test as I go — both in simulation and by hand. I'm especially into digital logic and figuring out how hardware actually behaves.
I'm currently seeking a hardware engineering internship where I can contribute to design and verification work while continuing to build practical experience in computer hardware systems.
Digital Logic
Circuit Analysis
Embedded Fundamentals
Troubleshooting
C / C++ / C#
CAD / 3D Modeling
Currently Exploring
Areas I'm actively learning and building toward — driven by curiosity and where the industry is heading.
FPGA & HDL Development
Learning Verilog/VHDL for digital design and hardware description
Custom PCB Design
Designing and manufacturing PCBs in KiCad for personal projects
RF & Signal Processing
Exploring RF communication through FPV drone systems and radio links
Hardware Verification
Building skills in testing and validating digital designs and circuits
Education
Coursework foundations and current track.
Chaffey College — Rancho Cucamonga
Associate's in Physical Science • Jan 2022 — Aug 2025
Associates degree for Transfer in Physical Science
Associates degree for Transfer in Mathematics
GPA
3.6
Relevant Coursework
Selected engineering and math courses completed.
Calculus III, Linear Algebra/Differential Equations
Physics for Scientists & Engineers II (Electromagnetism & Circuits) + Labs
Digital Logic Design + Lab
Electrical Circuit Analysis II + Labs
Object Oriented Programming & Data Structures and Algorithms
Intro to Microelectronics (Including RF Concepts)
Skills
Tools and strengths I bring to a team.
Engineering
- Circuit analysis & simulation
- Breadboard & lab testing
- Embedded systems basics
- Hardware troubleshooting
- Digital systems fundamentals
Software & Tools
- Coding Microsoft Visual Studio, Arduino IDE
- 3D Modeling SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Fusion
- Circuit Simulation Multisim, KiCad
- Office Suite Microsoft 365, QuickBooks
How I Work
I like to keep things simple: figure out what's actually needed, build a quick prototype, test it early, and fix it from there. I try to communicate clearly, write down what I change, and keep my projects organized.
Experience
Roles that built my operations, communication, and technical troubleshooting skills.
Office Manager
Current RoleLock and Roll Locksmith • Feb 2025 — Present
- Operations: Managed daily office operations, scheduling, and logistics for multiple technicians.
- Systems: Improved accuracy and efficiency by implementing digital tracking systems and better data organization.
- Inventory: Oversaw inventory management and supply ordering with spreadsheets and digital recordkeeping.
- Technical: Assisted with hardware/software troubleshooting for office computers, POS, and scheduling platforms.
- Data: Maintained customer database integrity and service documentation for reliable field communication.
Sales Associate
Office Depot • Oct 2023 — Feb 2025
- Provided customer service and sales support in a fast-paced retail environment.
- Advised customers on computers, printers, and tech products by comparing options and recommending solutions.
- Handled POS transactions, returns, online order fulfillment, and inventory restocking.
Certifications
Professional credentials and completed training.
- MATLAB Completed
Projects
Selected labs and builds showcasing digital logic design and software engineering skills.
Featured Project
Electrical / Computer Engineering · Hardware Integration
My First FPV Drone Build (5-Inch Analog)
This was my first time building a drone. Instead of buying one ready to fly, I put together a 6S 5-inch analog FPV quad from individual parts so I could actually learn how it all works. I picked the components, soldered everything together, set it up in Betaflight, and tested it on the bench. It runs the whole signal chain — from the radio and flight controller out to the motors, and from the camera through the video transmitter to my goggles — and I used a smoke stopper and a multimeter to check things safely as I went.
Embedded bring-up
Soldering
UART comms
RF / video
Power safety
Bench testing
12+subsystems integrated
3UARTs configured
2RF links (2.4 / 5.8 GHz)
01 Project Overview
My goal was to get a working 6S 5-inch analog FPV quad that could take radio input, send live video to my goggles, arm safely, and spin its motors the right way. Since it was my first build, I didn't want to just bolt parts together — I wanted to understand each piece. So I picked compatible parts, soldered the power, signal, and video wiring myself, set everything up in Betaflight, got ELRS radio control working, checked the analog video, and used a smoke stopper and multimeter to bring each part online without frying anything.
02 Why I Built It
I'm studying Computer Engineering and want to go into electrical and computer engineering, so I wanted hands-on experience with the parts a ready-to-fly drone hides — soldering, UART wiring, RF and analog video, battery safety, and figuring out why something isn't working. Building it from parts forced me to learn how every piece connects to the flight controller, and how one bad solder joint or wrong setting can keep the whole thing from working.
03 Components & Equipment
These are the parts I picked for the build — the airframe and electronics on the flight side, plus the test and safety gear I used while putting it together and getting it running.
Main Drone Components
FrameMark4 5-inch 225 mm racing / freestyle frame, 5 mm arms
FC / ESC StackSpeedyBee F405 V4 BLS 55A, 30×30 stack
MotorsT-Motor Velox V2306 V3 1950KV brushless, set of 4 (5S/6S)
PropellersGemfan Hurricane 51433 tri-blade, 5.1×3.5
BatteryOVONIC 130C 6S 1300 mAh 22.2 V LiPo, XT60
Radio TransmitterRadioMaster Pocket EdgeTX 2.4 GHz ELRS, Mode 2, Hall gimbals
ReceiverELRS 2.4 GHz receiver (model to be confirmed)
FPV CameraCaddx Ratel 2 V2 micro, switchable 16:9 / 4:3, NTSC / PAL
Video TransmitterAKK FX2 Ultimate 5.8 GHz analog, MMCX, Betaflight / OSD control
FPV AntennaRushFPV Cherry2 5.8 GHz RHCP MMCX, 83 mm
FPV GogglesEachine EV800D 5.8 GHz 40CH, 5″ 800×480, DVR + diversity
Battery MountingiFlight-style 10×130 mm LiPo straps
Tools / Testing Equipment
Smoke StopperVIFLY ShortSaver V2 electronic fuse — short-circuit / overload protection
MultimeterDigital — voltage, continuity, resistance, general electrical testing
Balance ChargerSKYRC B6 Neo2, 1S–6S charge / discharge / storage
Battery SafetyLiPo fireproof bag for storage and charging
04 Build & Integration Process
- Picking compatible parts. Made sure the frame size, motor mount, prop size, ESC current rating, battery voltage, receiver protocol, and the number of free UARTs on the flight controller all worked together before I bought anything.
- Putting it together. Mounted the FC/ESC stack, motors, camera, VTX, and receiver, and thought about wire routing so the build stayed compact but still easy to work on, with the antennas kept clear of the props.
- Soldering and wiring. Soldered the power, ground, motor, video, receiver, UART, and SmartAudio connections between the FC, ESC, receiver, camera, and VTX. With a high-current LiPo, I was careful about polarity and shorts.
- Testing one piece at a time. Checked each part — power, receiver, motors, video — on its own before moving on, testing, fixing what was wrong, and testing again.
05 Configuration & Testing
Betaflight configuration
- Kept MSP on the USB/configuration UART
- Enabled Serial RX on the ELRS receiver UART
- Configured SmartAudio on the VTX TX pad
- Calibrated the accelerometer
- Verified radio stick and channel mapping
- Set up and checked arming behavior
Bench testing (props off)
- Confirmed flight-controller power-up
- Verified receiver input from the transmitter
- Tested arming, disarming, and idle throttle
- Checked and corrected motor direction
- Verified FPV video through the goggles
- Watched for abnormal current draw
06 Problems I Ran Into
Safe first power-up
Used a smoke stopper the first time I powered it on so it would catch a short or any weird current draw before I plugged the LiPo straight into the stack.
UART & port mapping
Had to figure out which UART each part was wired to and fix the cases where the receiver or VTX wouldn't talk because the port was set up wrong.
Motor direction & prop orientation
Spun the motors with the props off, then sorted out the motor directions, the reversed-motor settings, and which way the props go so everything matched.
Receiver antenna integrity
The RX antenna got damaged, so I had to decide whether to repair it or just swap in a compatible UFL 2.4 GHz antenna to keep my range and avoid failsafes.
Analog video chain
Wired the camera into the VTX and put the VTX and goggles on the same band and channel, then confirmed the picture only reaches the goggles through the VTX.
Current-limiter behavior
Learned to read what the smoke stopper was doing during throttle tests, and that you shouldn't do high-throttle runs through the limiter.
07 What I Learned
The biggest thing I learned is that building a drone isn't just connecting parts — I had to check each part on its own before I could trust the whole thing. The receiver, flight controller, ESC, motors, VTX, camera, battery, and firmware settings all depend on each other, and one wrong wire or setting could stop it from arming, reading my sticks, showing video, or spinning the motors right. Working through that gave me real experience on both the hardware and software side, and it taught me to test in order: check for shorts first, power up the low-current electronics, make sure everything is talking, then move toward testing the full drone.
08 Skills Demonstrated
Embedded systems bring-up
Hardware integration
Soldering & wiring
Circuit troubleshooting
UART communication
RF receiver setup
Analog video transmission
Brushless motor control
LiPo power safety
Betaflight configuration
Bench testing & validation
Systematic debugging
Embedded Systems
RF Communication
Power Electronics
System Integration
Soldering
UART
Betaflight
Hardware Debugging
Software Project
Business Account & Contact Management System
Built a C++ system for managing business accounts and contacts with full CRUD operations, search, sort, pagination, CSV persistence, and undo functionality. Implemented BST-based alphabetical sorting and benchmarked linear search, hash lookup, and tree traversal to compare efficiency across data structures.
Highlights
- Account & contact CRUD with paginated display
- CSV save/load for persistent data storage
- Undo support using a stack-based action history
- Fast O(1) account lookup via custom hash table
- Alphabetical company sorting using a binary search tree
- Performance benchmarking across three data structures
Benchmark Results
102 accounts • 100,000 search reps • 1,000 BST reps
C++
Data Structures
Algorithms
BST
Hash Tables
CSV
Benchmarking
Temp & Humidity Monitor
A smart environmental monitor built around an Arduino UNO and DHT11 sensor. Reads temperature and humidity data and displays readings on a 16×2 LCD. Features user-adjustable thresholds via push buttons and a buzzer alarm. Includes a custom PCB designed in KiCad.
ArduinoPCBKiCadSensorsEmbedded
4×16 Decoder + Minterm Display (74LS138)
Designed a 4×16 decoder using two 3-to-8 decoders and minimal logic. Generated minterms 1/5/9 and drove a seven-segment display; blanked the display and lit an “OTHER” LED for all other inputs.
DecodersCombinational7‑SegmentTTL
5-bit Signed Adder/Subtractor (74LS283 / 74LS86)
Implemented a signed 5-bit adder/subtractor using cascaded full adders with XOR-controlled inversion for two’s-complement subtraction. Added sign + overflow LEDs and displayed results via BCD on a seven-seg.
ArithmeticTwo’s ComplementOverflowBCD
EPROM Lookup: Square of a BCD Digit
Built an EPROM-based lookup table that outputs the square of a BCD input and drives two seven-segment displays. Verified correct outputs across 0–9 inputs (with the lab’s group-specific mapping).
MemoryEPROMLookup Table7‑Segment
Nonbinary Sequence Counter (0,1,2,4,5,6,7)
Designed and built a nonbinary counter using T flip-flops (implemented with JK FFs). Derived logic with state table/K-maps and verified the sequence on a seven-seg display, including self-correction behavior.
CountersSequential LogicK‑MapsVerification
4-bit General-Purpose Register
Created a 4-bit register supporting parallel load, rotate-left, rotate-right, and increment operations using multiplexers and flip-flops. Demonstrated each mode on LEDs with switch-controlled selects.
RegistersMUXControl LogicAdders
Contact
Want to chat about an internship, a project, or a role? Reach out.
Reach me
- Email andyriad98@gmail.com
- Phone 909-646-0187
- LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/andrew-riad-8295b8388
- Handshake cpp.joinhandshake.com/profiles/riad
- Location Rancho Cucamonga, CA