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Electrical engineering portfolio

Daniyal Shahabi

Electrical Engineer

I am a third-year electrical engineering student at Dalhousie University with a wide range of technical interests, hands-on projects, and practical engineering experience.

Email me LinkedIn YouTube

Personal Projects

10/2022 - 03/2024

Robotic Arm

This 6-axis robotic arm was fully 3D printed, requiring about a week of nonstop printing. It was then assembled with gears, stepper motors, servos, sensors, wiring, and other components. A PCB was then soldered and connected to an Arduino Mega for control. Extensive troubleshooting was required to resolve issues related to gear tolerances, friction, software, and the electronic system.

Presented the robotic arm and my 3D printer at my high school while in grade 12 to inspire students.

Source: THOR open-source Robotic Arm

08/2025

Electronics Home Lab Setup

Established a fully equipped home electronics lab, including an oscilloscope, signal generator, two bench power supplies, soldering station, digital microscope, multimeter, and a component inventory.

Embedded Systems | 08/2025 - Present

Aquarium Automation

Automated fertilizing, CO2, water changes, and lights via control relays, H-bridge modules, peristaltic pumps, sensors, and more than 2000 lines of self-written C++ code. Designed and built a custom H-bridge module using transistor pairs.

03/2026 - Present

8-Bit Computer Build

Building an 8-bit computer from discrete logic gates and ICs (ALU, registers, memory, clock, control logic, program counter), while documenting progress through educational YouTube videos.

Embedded Systems | 10/2023 - Present

Aquatic Plant Farm

Automated lights, high-pressure spraying pumps, an air-refreshing lid system, and water drainage to grow aquarium plants outside of water at high humidity. Sold the home-grown aquatic plants to hobbyists.

Freelance Businesses | 08/2022 - 05/2025

3D Printing and Design

Designed and 3D-printed many custom broken parts, aquarium fittings, and a V8 intake adapter for clients.

Freelance Businesses | 08/2022 - 05/2025

Computer Repair and Assembly

  • Repaired desktop computers, laptops, monitors, televisions, and 3D printers for customers.
  • Collaborated with a Memorial University postdoc on computer cooling issues for his Lab2Market project.

Educational videos

Vector Calculus and Differential Equations

Created educational tutorial videos on vector calculus and differential equations to help fellow students.

Vector Calculus

Differential Equations

05/2025 - Present

Automotive Repair and Maintenance

  • Performed hands-on repairs, including lower control arm bushings, brake rotors and pads, handbrake cable and assembly, and oil changes.
  • Self-taught in engine, brake, cooling, suspension, sensors, and electrical systems.

Extracurricular

09/2024 - 01/2026

Dalhousie Formula SAE (FSAE)

Helped design a 420V to 24V DC converter, high-voltage indicator, and analog multiplexer circuit; also wrote documentation and fabricated carbon fiber body panels.

08/2024

Waterloo Quantum School for Young Students (QSYS)

Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), University of Waterloo

Selected for the Institute for Quantum Computing’s high school quantum program, completing lectures and problem-solving sessions on quantum mechanics, quantum information, and quantum computing.

Volunteer | 11/2022 - Present

Volunteer Experience

Stage cameraman for more than 300 hours at Halifax Christian Church.

Work Experience

05/2026 - Present

Jeff Dahn Research Group (Tesla Partnership)

NSERC USRA Research Assistant

Dalhousie University

  • Created a specialized experimental setup for a PhD researcher to study inhomogeneous current in batteries:
    • Developed a Python application of roughly 10,000 lines controlling source-measure units and high-precision multimeters, featuring an interactive interface, live plotting, monitoring, and automated data acquisition.
    • Designed and built a thermal chamber that acts as a Faraday cage to block external noise, plus custom cell holders with integrated PCBs.
  • Designing a new cell holder tailored to the Dahn Lab’s pouch cell battery size.
  • Improving the reliability of the existing Ultra High Precision Charger (UHPC).
  • Fabricated pouch cells in a glovebox environment and conducted electrochemical cycling tests.

09/2025 - 05/2026

Dalhousie Engineering Math Marker

Dalhousie University | Halifax, NS

  • Selected by the Math Department for an A+ record to mark 50+ MATH 1280/1290 assignments weekly.

05/2025 - 09/2025

JAZA Energy

Electrical Engineer Internship

Halifax, NS

JAZA Energy brings reliable electricity to rural Africa. Solar power is used to charge battery pack modules rented by customers via subscription. Products are developed and tested in Halifax, Canada. In summer 2025, I worked at JAZA to test packs and chargers.

  • Tested battery modules and chargers for solar energy systems, bringing power to rural communities in Africa:
    • Built a thermal chamber with automated temperature control and logged data from 35+ thermocouples through a data acquisition system.
    • Developed a data analysis tool with 1,000+ lines of Python, Excel VBA, and Excel queries that turns gigabytes of raw CSV data into 200+ graphs and cycle/test reports.
    • Documented test results and authored a 7,000-word manual for the analysis tool.
  • Inspected manufacturer PCBA samples and documented findings across 100 pages and 150 figures.
  • Built current/voltage characterization maps for firmware, mapped battery OCV recovery and charger efficiency, and ran stress tests to establish safe current limits.

Here is a BBC documentary on JAZA (older version of products shown - 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OGA76kQJ98

08/2024 - 05/2025

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Province of Nova Scotia | Halifax, NS

Education

09/2024 - Present

Bachelor of Electrical Engineering

Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS | 4.3/4.3 GPA cumulative

Awards & Scholarships

  • Awarded scholarships from Dalhousie University for academic and extracurricular achievements, including the Fairfax Financial Holdings, Dalhousie Entrance and Leadership, John G. Bruce, JMBT, Bruce and Dorothy Rosetti, President’s Associates, John J. Jodrey, and Walter P. Copp scholarships.
  • Received one of two Marginson Awards, given to the first-year engineering students with the highest marks at Dalhousie.
  • Awarded the New Canadian Education Award from the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia.

Volunteer at Dalhousie

  • MATH1290 Accessibility Note Taker at Dalhousie University (01/2025 - 04/2025).

Hobbies

Drawings

Guitar

Amateur electric guitarist. The image shows my setup, where I usually use the built-in effects pedals and a looper pedal along with my headset.

Aquariums

Aquarium 1.0 2022-2023

First aquascaped aquarium build. The tank was handmade by gluing glass panels together and included several custom 3D-printed components, such as clips and holders for the top cover, a custom-designed CO2 diffuser, and other accessories.

Aquarium 2.0 2023-present

A custom 3D-designed and printed shell was used to create the underground cave structure in this aquarium. Rocks were individually glued onto the shell, and the entire assembly was then attached to the aquarium. Dirt was used as the substrate, with sand added on top to cover it. Monte Carlo was chosen as the plant, following an Iwagumi-style aquascaping design. There are currently no fish or other livestock in the aquarium, as I am still testing the automatic aquarium system to ensure it is safe before introducing any animals.

Computers

Here is my second computer build documented on YouTube (2026).

Skills

Technical

Digital & Embedded: FPGA logic design (Intel Quartus), ESP32/Arduino, discrete logic ICs

Programming & Data: C, C++, Python, AVR Assembly, MATLAB, Excel (VBA & Power Query)

Lab Equipment: Oscilloscope, DAQ systems, Keithley SMUs and DMMs (GPIB control and data acquisition)

CAD & Simulation: KiCAD, Altium Designer, LTspice, SolidWorks

Fabrication: THT/SMD soldering (incl. microscope work), 3D printing, metal fabrication

Battery Testing: Li-ion (NMC, LFP) and Na-ion cell cycling, characterization, and data analysis

Physics & Math: Electromagnetic fields/waves, signal analysis, probability & stats, linear algebra, vector calculus, DE

Non-technical

Problem Solving: Critical thinker with strong 3D visualization; enjoy solving complex technical challenges

Teamwork: Lead and collaborate in interdisciplinary teams; equally effective working independently

Documentation: Organized and detail-oriented; write reports, schematics, and presentations

Communication: Explain complex technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences

Languages: Fluent in English, Persian (Farsi), and Turkish

Contact

daniyal.shahabi@dal.ca LinkedIn YouTube