Maximilian Gerhardt
Security Engineer at PHYSEC GmbH
Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMaximilian Gerhardt is a Security Engineer with nine years' experience blending firmware development and applied security, currently based in Bochum and working at PHYSEC GmbH. He specializes in embedded systems and IoT, contributing to notable open-source projects like the Arduino-Pico core and the ch32fun stack where he implemented PlatformIO support, boot/flash tooling, and unbrick/erase routines. His background in IT-Security (BSc, Ruhr University Bochum) informs a pragmatic approach to low-level system hardening and secure build processes. Colleagues rely on him for meticulous documentation fixes and build automation that make hardware-centric projects reproducible and auditable. Not obviously, he moves comfortably between high-level security concepts and byte-level hardware recovery techniques, a niche that reduces device failure modes while improving deployment workflows.
9 years of coding experience
Bachelor of Science - BS, IT-Security, Bachelor of Science - BS, IT-Security at Ruhr University Bochum
Stackoverflow
5,208reputation
504kreached
165answers
11questions
unity-game-engine
top-5%
Github Skills (31)
bootloader10
platformio10
c-language10
rp204010
firmware10
risc-v10
c1110
microcontroller10
c1710
sys10
embedded10
cprogramming-language10
arduino10
assembly9
makefile9
Programming languages (16)
Github contributions (5)
earlephilhower/arduino-pico
Jul 2021 - Nov 2022
Raspberry Pi Pico Arduino core, for all RP2040 and RP2350 boards
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:20 reviews, 20 commits, 38 PRs in 1 year 4 months
Contributions summary:Maximilian primarily focused on integrating PlatformIO support for the Arduino-Pico core. Their contributions included implementing build scripts, configuring USB flags, and adjusting memory settings to enable dynamic sketch partitioning. They also made corrections to documentation, fixed typos, and improved the build process for the PlatformIO integration. Furthermore, they added support for new boot2 files and boards like the Waveshare RP2040 Zero.
rp2040picowraspberry-pismparduino-core
cnlohr/ch32fun
Mar 2023 - Mar 2023
Open source minimal stack for the ch32 line of WCH processors, including the ch32v003, a 10¢ 48 MHz RISC-V Microcontroller - as well as many other chips within the ch32v/x line.
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:2 reviews, 27 commits, 18 PRs in 15 days
Contributions summary:Maximilian primarily contributes to the `ch32fun` repository, which focuses on the ch32 line of WCH processors. Their work involves modifying and integrating code related to the CH32 microcontroller, including library and firmware updates. Key contributions involve adding functionality to the minichlink programmer, including implementing functions for erasing flash memory and unbricking the device. They also adjusted existing code, such as adding and updating header files, demonstrating familiarity with low-level hardware interaction and system programming.
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