Systems engineer · Greensboro, NC

Natnael
Workneh

Cloud infrastructure, real time software, and autonomous systems.

M.S. Electrical Engineering candidate at North Carolina A&T and former Huawei Cloud Delivery Engineer. I work on systems where infrastructure, networks, software, and physical hardware have to operate reliably together.

NowGraduate Research Assistant · NC A&T
PreviouslyCloud Delivery Engineer · Huawei
EducationM.S. Electrical Engineering · Spring 2027

Experience

Production scale and research depth

Enterprise cloud delivery and production operations, followed by current autonomous systems research.

JAN 2026 to PRESENTGreensboro, NC

North Carolina A&T State University

Graduate Research Assistant · Autonomous Robotic Systems Laboratory

Build and experimentally validate an NSF funded autonomous transportation platform spanning motion capture, real time software, network communication, embedded control, multi agent coordination, and physical experiments.

  • Develop the MATLAB based digital twin and vehicle runtime that connects heterogeneous ground vehicles and drones with localization, controllers, safety logic, scheduling, telemetry, and hardware command paths.
  • Integrate OptiTrack Motive and NatNet for live rigid body localization, map registration, calibration, tracking health checks, and physical to digital coordinate alignment.
  • Develop path following, waypoint, collision safety, same lane following, and reservation based intersection control logic for heterogeneous autonomous vehicles.
  • Profile and restructure the runtime for scalable multi vehicle execution using independently scheduled control workers, shared world state, latest value IPC, and centralized coordination and safety authority.
  • Implement and validate UDP/WebSocket command paths with Pico side watchdog failsafes so stale or lost commands drive vehicles into a safe state.
  • Design and bring up a custom KiCad vehicle controller PCB around the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, DRV8874 motor driver, and TPS54302 power stage, including schematic capture, PCB layout, fabrication, assembly, and hardware validation.
MATLABOptiTrack / NatNetUDP / WebSocketReal time controlMulti agent systemsPico 2 WKiCad
JUL 2024 to SEP 2024Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

iCog Labs

Software Engineering / AI Intern

Worked across AI prototyping, front end implementation, and automated application testing in a small engineering environment.

  • Built and demonstrated a knowledge grounded RAG prototype using Python, LangChain, Llama, embeddings, vector retrieval, and a vector database to answer against a controlled knowledge source.
  • Implemented responsive Svelte pages from Figma designs and translated UI specifications into reusable front end components.
  • Authored Playwright tests covering 5+ application pages and core user interactions to improve regression coverage and confidence during changes.
PythonLangChainLlamaRAGSveltePlaywrightFigma

Projects

Systems I can show, not just describe

The autonomous transportation platform is the flagship: software architecture, localization, networking, control, embedded hardware, and physical validation in one system.

01 / FLAGSHIP · AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS

Autonomous Transportation Platform

Develop and experimentally validate a networked aerial ground transportation platform that closes the loop between a digital twin and physical vehicles in a motion capture environment.

  • Connects MATLAB world state and coordination, OptiTrack Motive/NatNet localization, Ackermann and skid steer ground vehicles, Tello drones, embedded controllers, and live network transports.
  • Implements localization, path following, collision safety, intersection reservations, same lane coordination, watchdog failsafes, diagnostics, and experiment logging.
  • Scales execution through a supervised runtime with shared world state, independently scheduled vehicle control, latest value IPC, and centralized coordination and safety authority.
  • Validates the complete physical to digital loop through repeatable experiments and post run trajectory, timing, and controller analysis.
MATLABNatNetUDP / WebSocketControlMulti agentReal time systems
Physical testbedValidation footage from the autonomous transportation platform
02 / EMBEDDED SYSTEMSPHYSICAL BUILD

Custom Vehicle Controller PCB

Designed and assembled a compact controller board for an autonomous ground vehicle instead of relying on loose development modules.

Custom vehicle controller PCB render
HardwareCustom vehicle controller board
  • Integrates Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, DRV8874 motor drive, TPS54302 power conversion, steering, power, and vehicle interfaces.
  • Completed schematic capture, PCB layout, DRC, fabrication output, assembly, bring up, and firmware validation.
KiCadMicroPythonPCBMotor control
03 / FULL STACK SOFTWARECAPSTONE

Biometric Authentication API

Built a biometric authentication system as part of a five person software team.

  • Worked across Django REST APIs, React client flows, MySQL persistence, and Python based face recognition logic.
  • Integrated application and biometric components into an end to end authentication workflow rather than treating recognition as an isolated demo.
Django RESTReactMySQLPythonFace recognition
04 / APPLIED AIPROTOTYPE

Knowledge Grounded RAG Prototype

Created a small retrieval augmented generation pipeline to answer from a controlled knowledge source during AI training work at iCog Labs.

  • Implemented document embedding, vector storage, retrieval, prompt grounding, and Llama based generation in Python.
  • Used the prototype to demonstrate the difference between open ended generation and knowledge grounded responses.
PythonLangChainLlamaEmbeddingsVector DB

Core expertise

What I can contribute

A focused view of the technical areas supported by the work above, not an exhaustive keyword inventory.

01

Cloud Infrastructure

Huawei Cloud Stack, AWS fundamentals, compute, containers, storage, SaaS delivery, upgrades, capacity expansion.

02

Networking & Security

Linux, TCP/IP, DNS, routing, VPC, VPN, WAF, Cloud Firewall, IAM, incident response, root cause analysis.

03

Real Time & Autonomous

MATLAB, NatNet, localization, path following, PID control, multi agent coordination, scheduling, UDP/WebSocket command paths.

04

Embedded & Software

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, MicroPython, KiCad, Python, JavaScript, REST APIs, Git/GitHub, hardware/software integration.

EducationM.S. Electrical EngineeringNorth Carolina A&T State University · Expected Spring 2027
FoundationB.S. Electrical & Computer EngineeringAddis Ababa Science and Technology University · GPA 3.54/4.00
CertificationAWS Certified Cloud PractitionerIssued August 2024

Resume

View my resume

A single portfolio resume covering enterprise cloud, autonomous systems research, embedded engineering, and software experience.

View resume ↗

Contact

Let’s work together

I’m exploring 2027 roles where systems thinking, infrastructure, networking, real time software, or autonomous systems matter.