Hi, I'm

Daniel

Materials Science & Hardware Engineering Student

Undergraduate researcher at UIUC specializing in semiconductor device fabrication, FPGA design, and circuit development. I work on projects ranging from cleanroom wafer fabrication to building custom hardware emulators.

Resume

About Me

Hi! I am a Materials Engineering student at UIUC. I like being able to make things, whether it is in a microfabrication lab or on a FPGA board.

I have hands-on experience with cleanroom semiconductor processing and digital system design.

Technologies I work with:
  • SystemVerilog/VHDL
  • Python
  • C/C++
  • Vivado/Quartus
  • SolidWorks
  • Linux

Experience

ECE 385 Teaching Assistant - UIUC
Spring 2026 - Present
Guided 200+ students on FPGA-based digital system design, SystemVerilog RTL implementation, and Vivado synthesis workflows.
Photonic Systems Lab Researcher
Fall 2025 - Present
Served as a research assistant focused on semiconductor process development. My research project involves creating a novel fabrication flow using wafer bonding and KOH wet etching to produce and characterize custom silicon device structures
ECE 220 Teaching Assistant
Fall 2024 - Present
Mentored over 300 students per semester in a core computer systems course covering C, C++, and LC-3 Assembly. Responsibilities included providing one-on-one debugging assistance, leading lab sessions, and reinforcing complex programming concepts.
Thermal Engineering Group Researcher - Texas A&M University
Summer 2025
Contributed to a summer research project by fabricating microscale thermal test vehicles in a Class 100/1000 cleanroom. My responsibilities included executing multi-step processes such as photolithography and e-beam evaporation.

Education

Expected 2027
B.S. Materials Science & Engineering
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Relevant Coursework:

  • ECE 488: Compound Semiconductors and Devices
  • ECE 444: IC Device Theory & Fabrication
  • ECE 385: Digital Systems Laboratory
  • MSE 405: Microstructure Determination

Projects

NES Hardware Emulator on FPGA
SystemVerilog C++ Static Timing Analysis
NES Hardware Emulator on FPGA
Designed and implemented a NES hardware emulator on the Urbana FPGA board with cycle-accurate CPU, PPU, memory and controller interfaces.
CMOS Integrated Circuit Wafer
Cleanroom Photolithography Metrology
CMOS Integrated Circuit Wafer
Processed and characterized CMOS wafers in a cleanroom environment, performing oxidation, lithography, etch, diffusion, and electrical testing.
Semiconductor Compact Model Extraction Framework
PyTorch Streamlit Semiconductor Physics
Semiconductor Compact Model Extraction Framework
Python framework for automating semiconductor device characterization that utilizes global optimization algorithms to extract physical parameters.

Get in Touch

Feel free to reach out regarding anything, I will respond within a couple of hours.
Email Me