Urban Pistek

Passionate about engineering and building the future

About

Learn more about me...

Mechatronics Engineer

Univeristy of Waterloo | UW

Current

IntelliCulture | Data & Machine Learning Engineer

Past

IntelliCulture | Software Engineer (Part-time)
Siemens | Algorithms / Machine Learning Engineering Intern
UWOrbital | Embedded Engineering in Electrical Power Systems
Athos | Software Engineering Intern
Athos | Embedded Engineering Intern
IntelliCulture | Software Engineering Intern
UWAFT EcoCar Team | Electrical Engineering Lead
Geotab | Automotive R&D Engineering Intern
University of Waterloo | Research Assistant Intern

When I was young - as young as 5 years old - I distinctly remember checking out the space books from my school library. I would turn the pages with awe looking at the images of galaxies, stars and all the various diagrams. This progressed into books on dinosaurs, rocks, electronics and various other scientific topics. I barely knew how to read and english was my second language, yet more than comic books those books spoke to me.

Now after all those years I feel that I finally have the bare minimum knowledge to actually understand a sliver of those technical topics. Most importantly I feel that I have the patience, discipline and curiosity to learn, as the growing mountain of knowledge stands before me. This is why I love engineering. The ability to learn and apply knowledge, to create and understand complex systems with the elegance of a stroke of an artist's brush. To master laws of the universe and use them with incredible precision, there is something beautiful about that.

Adventures

Some of the Mountians I have summited...

Skills

C/C++ ~2 Years Libraries & Tools: Zephyr RTOS| Mbed OS| ROS | GDB

Javascript ~1 Year Frameworks: NodeJs | Express | Jest

Docker ~1 Year Related: Docker Compose | VMs | Serverless

Machine Learning ~1 Year Tensorflow | Keras | Jax | OpenCV | Mlflow

Rust ~1 Year Applications: GPU Programming, Concurrency, Profiling

Postgresql ~1 Year TimescaleDB | SQL

Shell ~1 Year Types: Bash Scripting | Zsh

Git ~2 Years Software Tools: Gitlab | Github

Hardware Prototyping ~2 Years Tools: STM32 | Arduino | Raspberry Pi | NRF DK | Oscilloscope

PCB Design ~1 Year Software Tools: Altium | KiCAD

Databases ~1 Year Tools: Fauna | MySQL | Redis

Robotics Software ~1 Year ROS | CARLA | Foxglove

Schematic Design ~1 Year Software Tools: Altium | KiCAD | VeSys

Linux ~1 Year Ubuntu | Pref | Vim | OctoPi

Mechanical Prototyping 1 Year 3D Printing | Laser Cutting

Accomplishments

Engineering Internships

Publication

Fluent Langauges

Mountains Summited

Publication

Role of spot weld electrode geometry on liquid metal embrittlement crack development

Interests

Software

Hardware

Machine Learning

Robotics

Quantum Computing

Energy

Embedded Technology

Automation

Experience

Here are some of the things I have done...

Professional Experience

Data & Machine Learning Engineer

2023 - Present

IntelliCulture, Calgary, AB

Leading development of data infrastructure, machine learning applications, algorithms, system design and core software

Machine Learning & Algorithms Engineering Intern

2022

Siemens, Kitchener, ON

Integrating software tools and IoT infrastructure with machine learning to create scalable real-time intelligent applications
Utilizing TensorFlow and Keras to develop supervised models such as LSTMs, Decision Trees and XGBoost
Leveraging software tools such as MLflow, Jupyter Lab and Docker in machine learning operations and data engineering
Explored algorithms such as kmeans and KNN, utilizing dimensionality reduction techniques such as PCA and tSNE
Developing python scripts for data pre-processing, visualization, analysis with Pandas and automation tasks
Created publisher and subscriber agents with Docker using MQTT and Kafka protocols to enable edge processing

Embedded Engineering Intern

2021

Athos, Redwood City, CA

Developed firmware for the NRF52833 and STM32L4 MCU chips using theZephyr RTOSwithPythonfor scripts and testing
Utilized embedded tools such as GDB, Jlink, Altium and Oscilloscopes for development and debugging
Developed an IMU, Magnetometer and digital signal processing driver using CMSIS and custom sensor APIs
Implemented a firmware architecture for automated PCBA testing of peripherals such as BLE, SPI, I2C, GPIO, PWM and UART
Designed a BLE Client in Python on macOS to perform GATT writes with custom Protobuf message definitions

Software Engineering Intern

2021 - 2023

IntelliCulture, Kitchener, ON

Leading development of the back-end infrastructure and data platform for core products and internal development
Leveraging OpenCV, Jupyter Lab and Python to develop image object edge detection algorithms and processing
Designed testing infrastructure for E2E, integration, and unit testing using Pytest, Jest, Robot Framework, and Jenkins
Maintaining and improving NodeJs, Python, Shell, Fauna DB, Docker, and Jenkins technology stack
Involved in innovation pipeline running minimum viable experiments and R&D to determine new product opportunities

Software Engineering Intern

2021

Athos, Redwood City, CA

Integrated and developed component and system tests into a Jenkins CICD and End-to-End testing pipeline
Utilized Robot Framework to develop automated End-to-End tests involving Python, iOS, Redis, and C components
Developed UI tests for an iOS mobile app using the Xcode UI testing (XCUI) testing framework in Swift

Software Engineering Intern

2020

IntelliCulture, Kitchener, ON

Led development of 2 web applications using NodeJs, MySQL, NGINX and Bootstrap as the technology stack, launching Beta versions within 6 weeks of starting development
Performed code reviews, managed and distributed tasks for 2 software engineering interns across software projects
Developed a NodeJs server with ExpressJs using Python scripts as child processes and Socket.io for data streaming
Integrated a custom portal into a web application with the Geotab SDK and Bootstrap framework while developing helper data migration scripts and prototyping in Python
Utilized various API's and software tools such as Git, Postman and MySQL Workbench while working in a AGILE development enviroment

Automotive R&D Engineering Intern

2019

Geotab, Kitchener, ON

Developed and tested firmware for IoT devices within a embedded development environment
Designed a custom PCB for hardware testing using Altium to develop the schematic, board layout and component libraries
Research and development of internal hardware and firmware by utilizing embedded tools and running an internal alpha testing program
Engaged in rapid prototyping utilizing arduino's and circuit boards for quick development while reverse engineering various PCB’s and devices

Research Assisant Intern

2019

Center for Advanced Materials Joining | University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Co-Author of research paper investigating the role of spot weld electrode geometry on liquid metal embrittlement crack development
Experienced with operating and using PLC programming for a production robotic spot welder
Collected data on AHS steel cracking while using Excel and Matlab to perform data analysis investigation distributions and correlations
Designed custom jigs, fittings and equipment using Solidworks for CAD design and to perfrom FEA analysis. The parts were machined manually on a mill and lathe

Student Teams

WAT.ai Team Member | Deep Learning Frameworks

2022 - 2023

WAT.ai , Waterloo, ON

Created a Multi-Layer-Preception Model in Jax trained on the MNIST dataset and evaluted its metrics

UWOrbital Team Member | Electrical Power Systems

2022 - 2023

UWOrbital , Waterloo, ON

Designing, developing, and integrating the hardware and firmware of Electrical Power Systems (EPS) for a custom CubeSat as part of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge
Developing a Maximun Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm to optimize power output efficiency for the electrical power system
Engineering firmware using the Zephyr RTOS Kernel with a Ubuntu development environment for Battery Management, MPPT and telemetry data

UW Robotics Software Team Member

2020

UW Robotoics Team , Waterloo, ON

Developed a custom ROS action server for a spiral search algorithm
Created a custom ROS package and Node on a Ubuntu 18.04 VM

Electrical Engineering Team Lead

2018 - 2020

UWAFT EcoCar Team , Waterloo, ON

Led electrical development of HV and LV systems to convert a stock Chevrolet Blazer into a hybrid electric vehicle with SAE level 2 autonomy capability
Led development and testing of a custom PCB control components using a STM32 through CAN utilizing KiCAD for PCB design
Developed wiring schematics and harness diagrams for the vehicle HV powertrain and LV systems using VeSys
Led development of a relay control & LV diagnostics PCB utilizing KiCAD for PCB design
Managed the electrical team by sprint planning, organizing tasks and teaching members in a AGILE workflow
Led development of a lights and switches indicator PCB utilizing KiCAD for PCB design
Developed control software in C++ for 3 custom PCBs communicating on a custom CAN bus
Collected battery voltage data from Simulink model and used Matlab to examine HV bus voltage ripple

Synchrotron Research Team Lead

2016 - 2018

BCHS Synchrottron Research Team, Calgary, AB

Leadership role in hypothesizing, organizing and conducting two unique scientific experiments tested at a synchrotron
Investigated the effects of forest fire on sulphur soil chemistry by analyzing the speciation, oxidation and concentrations of sulphur compounds using XANES
Analyzed the oxidation and speciation of chromium and arsenic throughout various stages in the bitumen extraction process utilizing techniques such as linear combination fitting
Collected data on the IDEAS Beamline at the Canadian Light Source using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) techniques such as XRF and XANES

Education

Here is a summary of my education...

Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechatronics Engineering

Univeristy of Waterloo | 2018 - 2023

"Mechatronics engineering is the design of computer-controlled electromechanical systems. The essence of it is that the design of the mechanical system must be performed together with the design of the electrical/electronic and computer control aspects that together, comprise a complete system. Mechatronics engineers use a multidisciplinary and systems-based approach to develop the “intelligent” electromechanical devices and integrated systems."

-Waterloo