Stephen Carlson
PHD Student at University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, Nevada, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolStephen Carlson is an aerospace-focused electrical engineer and PhD student with 12 years of experience designing, embedding, and flight-testing small robotic aircraft and avionics systems. He blends hands-on prototyping from PCB and firmware development to Altium layouts and PX4 integration with advanced research in UAV dynamics, vibration localization, and optical-guided perching. Past roles span industry and government labs—Aurora Flight Sciences, Raytheon, NASA, and startups—where he developed UWB/FPGA IPS, RF fingerprinting with LimeSDR/USRP, and towed-drogue and winch systems. Based in Reno, he pursues ambitious goals like democratizing personal flight and deploying self-sufficient bird-scale migratory UAVs, while maintaining practical expertise in PID tuning, sensing, and flight-test safety. An avid field engineer, he pairs adventurous pastimes (scuba, whitewater, lightsaber choreography) with a unique knack for turning conceptual aerial-robotics ideas into working hardware.
12 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD at University of Nevada, RenoBachelor of Science (BS) Electrical Engineering, Bachelor of Science (BS) Electrical Engineering at Brigham Young University
German
Github Skills (51)
robotics10
autopilot10
mavlink10
artwork10
plane10
rover10
aircraft10
arduino10
ros10
px49
gnu9
dronekit8
gnuradio8
typescript8
wireless8
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
StephenCarlson/MiniHawk-VTOL
Jun 2020 - Jun 2022
Artwork for the MiniHawk VTOL, a 3D-Printed Tricopter/Fixed-wing hybrid aircraft.
Contributions:2 releases, 101 commits, 2 PRs in 2 years
aircraftfixed-wingvtolhybridwing
StephenCarlson/KatanaLRS-code
May 2014 - Aug 2014
Contributions:16 commits in 3 months
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