Patrick Chwalek
Founder & Chief Engineer at New Lens Labs
Greater Chicago Area United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolPatrick Chwalek is a founder, hardware inventor, and MIT-trained researcher specializing in embedded sensing and deployable tracking systems for wildlife, defense, and service animals. Over nine years he designed CollarID, a modular, distributed wildlife-tracking platform developed at the MIT Media Lab and deployed with National Geographic, now being adapted for dual-use defense and service-animal applications and backed by MIT patent filings. His background bridges mechanical engineering, computer science, and product design, with field-validated sensor systems that survive extreme environments from the Arctic to Patagonia. Prior work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory produced low-power wearable and covert multi-sensor systems, demonstrating his ability to move technologies from lab prototypes to operational deployments. As Founder & Chief Engineer of New Lens Labs and a current MIT postdoctoral researcher, he combines hands-on hardware, edge ML, and real-world field trials to solve hard sensing problems that traditional solutions miss. An uncommon strength is his track record of designing for deployment longevity and ecological ethics while iterating rapidly between field tests and product design.
9 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Media Arts and Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Media Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMaster's degree, Computer Science, Master's degree, Computer Science at Georgia Institute of TechnologyBachelor’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUniversity College London
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
0answers
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Github Skills (23)
arduino-library10
arduino9
porting7
eeprom6
bluepill6
bsp6
stm32f46
hal5
rfc5
stlink5
discovery5
sdcc5
evaluation5
python4
embedded3
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
mitmedialab/Project-Captivate
May 2019 - Apr 2022
Contributions:87 commits, 32 pushes, 1 branch in 2 years 10 months
pchwalek/buzzcam
Oct 2023 - Mar 2025
Contributions:96 pushes, 7 branches in 1 year 5 months
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