David Mellis
Software Architect at Autodesk Tinkercad
Oakland, California, United States
Summary
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Top expert inEmbedded Systems and Firmware Engineering
David Mellis is a software architect with 20 years of experience designing browser-based creative tools and embedded systems, currently leading the Tinkercad engineering team at Autodesk in Oakland. He blends deep hardware-level expertise—demonstrated by significant contributions to Arduino libraries (Ethernet, LiquidCrystal) and ATtiny support—with research pedigree from MIT Media Lab and a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences. His work spans product-facing architecture for kid-friendly design tools and low-level IoT/firmware fixes such as W5100 SPI/DHCP handling, showing an unusual comfort moving between high-level UX constraints and chip-level protocols. At Autodesk EAGLE and Tinkercad he has steered teams that make complex design workflows accessible to hobbyists and educators. He has also contributed machine-learning improvements to gesture-recognition tooling, reflecting a pragmatic mix of research, open-source, and product engineering. Colleagues describe him as a leader who translates academic rigor into maintainable, widely used developer and maker tooling.
21 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Media Arts and Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Media Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMasters, Interaction Design, Masters, Interaction Design at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
Stackoverflow
4,851reputation
408kreached
1answer
4questions
Github Skills (26)
c-language10
machine-learning10
spi10
gesture-recognition10
sys10
pwm10
embedded10
serial-communication10
cprogramming-language10
random-forest10
arduino10
api-design9
feature-extraction9
interrupt9
cpp9
Programming languages (11)
Github contributions (5)
damellis/attiny
Sep 2011 - Nov 2021
ATtiny microcontroller support for the Arduino IDE
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:45 commits, 22 PRs, 18 pushes in 10 years 3 months
Contributions summary:David's primary contributions involved adding support for various ATtiny microcontroller models within the Arduino IDE. Their work included defining pin configurations, implementing interrupt macros, and enabling PWM functionality. This primarily focused on modifying header files for different ATtiny variants, directly impacting the ability to utilize these microcontrollers with the Arduino ecosystem. The user also updated existing code for compatibility with newer versions of the Arduino IDE.
arduino-ideattinymicrocontroller
arduino-libraries/Ethernet
Nov 2009 - May 2012
Ethernet Library for Arduino
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:36 commits in 2 years 6 months
Contributions summary:David primarily contributed to the Ethernet library, focusing on low-level interactions with the W5100 Ethernet controller. Their work involved modifying and updating core files such as `w5100.h`, `w5100.cpp`, and `Client.cpp`. These changes addressed issues related to hardware initialization, SPI communication, and the correct handling of network connections. They also worked on the integration of DHCP and UDP functionality.
arduinoethernet
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