Hardware engineer with expertise in embedded systems, control loops, and end-to-end hardware design. Experienced in leading critical subsystems from concept through successful deployment, with a track record of optimizing performance and enabling breakthrough achievements.
ML
Michael LiangProfile
Michael Liang
Hardware Engineer · space lasers
Hardware engineer with expertise in embedded systems, control loops, and end-to-end hardware design. Experienced in leading critical subsystems from concept through successful deployment, with a track record of optimizing performance and enabling breakthrough achievements.
About
Experience
Overview Energy
Jun. 2024 – PresentHardware Engineer
Ashburn, VA
- Owned and lead the airborne laser control stack—state machine, safety interlock system, and operation GUIs—directly enabling the company's first successful airborne laser test
- Developed embedded service architecture across multiple subsystems (gimbal, FSM, beacon acquisition, ground, photodiode, thermal, aircraft, ground site) including cutting control latency of these systems from 5 seconds to 250ms using Python and C/C++
- Implemented real-time thermal monitoring with OpenCV that detects fiber optic failure in under a second during live high-power test, preventing multiple instances of extensive hardware damage
- Engineered a 5ms gimbal and FSM tracking control loop, applying Nyquist sampling theory to tune the minimum sampling rate that preserves stability margins, reducing unnecessary CPU load while maintaining full closed-loop performance
- Designed and built 15+ systems end-to-end—mechanical CAD, electrical integration, embedded firmware, and control GUIs—including automated gantries, gimbal tracking rigs, and photodiode measurement fixtures
- Architected telemetry pipeline with InfluxDB, Grafana, and all flight and post-flight dashboards
Projects
Education
Cornell University
Jan. 2024 – Dec. 2024M.P.S in Information Science — Focus on Web Development and Robotics
Ithaca, NY
- Teaching Assistant — mentored 5 capstone project teams through contractual client engagements
Cornell University
Aug. 2020 – May 2024B.S in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ithaca, NY
- 2024 ECE Undergraduate TA Excellence Award
- Coursework: Computer Vision, Embedded Operating Systems, Microcontrollers, Autonomous Mobile Robots, Big Data (Hadoop), OOP & Data Structures
Skills
Languages
PythonC/C++C#TypeScriptSQL (PostgreSQLMySQLMSSQL)JavaHTML/CSS
Embedded & Hardware
Raspberry PiGPIOSerial/UARTI2CSPIStepper/Servo Motor ControlSensor IntegrationState Machines
CAD & Design
SolidWorks (CSWP)Siemens NXFusion 360KiCad
Infrastructure
ProxmoxDockerk3s/KubernetesTrueNAS/ZFSMinIOHAProxyNginxTailscaleUniFi/VLANs
Frameworks & Libraries
ReactNext.jsDjangoFlaskNode.jsInfluxDBOpenCVpandasNumPyPyTorchGit
Contact
Certifications
No certifications yet.