OZAYR RAAZI

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السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

(Peace Be Upon You)

My name is Ozayr Raazi, and I am a fourth-year Computer Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. I am passionate about all things tech- and space-related, with a special interest in PCBs, embedded systems, digital design, and computer architecture.

Currently, I'm on my 4A term!

UWaterloo Crest
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Projects

Biro-1

  • Ideated and planned a fully-custom media controller device to address a real-world need of keyboard not having hardware media keys, and created a team of 5 people to help realize the project
  • Defined product requirements, set timelines, organized subsystems, and created high-level tasks for delegation among team members
  • Researched components, designed block and schematic diagrams, and started layout for prototype board, while assisting in firmware and RTOS development
Clickable GitHub Icon KiCAD PCB Design C++ Project Management
Printed Circuit Board

MVM Engine + Tanh Circuit

  • Implemented a Matrix-Vector Multiplication engine from Microsoft's Project Brainwave deep learning accelerator by designing a pipelined dot-product module, accumulator module, and control FSM
  • Built a fully pipelined circuit that calculates the Taylor approximation of the hyperbolic tangent function, used for neural network activation, and optimized it to run at 561MHz on a Pynq-Z1 FPGA using DSP48E1 blocks
SystemVerilog AMD Vivado Digital Design
MVM Diagram

8-Bit CPU

  • Designed and simulated a simple CPU with an 8-bit data bus, 4 registers, a 7-function ALU, and a 256-byte RAM block, built from the ground up with logic gates following a Udemy course
  • Created a custom instruction set with 34 instructions, implemented a 6-cycle fetch and execute process in the CPU's control section, and created an assembly language based on the instruction set
  • Wrote a Python script to convert assembly code into hexadecimal to load and run on the CPU, successfully calculating and storing the result of 5x5 in 16 instructions
Computer Architecture Logisim Assembly Python
Simulated CPU Picture

Omnibus

  • Waterloo Rocketry's unified bus for data collection and visualization written in Python
  • Redesigned the dashboard that displays sensor data, enhancing navigation and configuration ease-of-use, by rewriting the code using the QGraphicsView framework and PyQtGraph
  • Reduced startup time by 67% by creating a launcher to automatically start all required processes in the background based on user input and ensure clean exiting
Clickable GitHub Icon Python PyQtGraph Subprocess
Omnibus Dashboard Picture

Sand Crab

  • Designed and built a remote-controlled car with a 3D-printed claw for transporting small objects
  • Programmed an Arduino board to control a DC motor (for forward/back movement) and 4 servo motors (for turning and claw control)
  • Programmed a second Arduino board to communicate with the first using nRF24L01 wireless communication modules (over 2.4Ghz radio) and act as a remote control
Clickable GitHub Icon Arduino 3D Printing Electronics
Custom RC Car Picture

Spidey Sense

  • Designed a PCB for converting multiple thermocouple readings to 4-20mA signals using conversion daughter boards
  • Used KiCAD for end-to-end design of the schematic and PCB layout, and assembled the board by soldering all components by hand
  • Successfully integrated the PCB into a custom data acquisition system, enhancing its capability to measure component temperatures with high precision during critical rocket test scenarios
KiCAD PCB Design Soldering
Physical PCB Picture

Personal NAS

  • A personal Network Attached Storage (NAS) server built from an old PC running UnraidOS
  • Configured SMB shares to act as a network backup destination
  • Enabled private and self-hosted document cloud, Pi-Hole instance, and Git repository hosting service
Docker Virtual Machines Unraid PC Hardware
Desktop Computer Picture

Hexacopter Drone

  • Built a 6-rotor drone using a DJI Naza M2 flight controller resulting in a successful test flight of up to 100ft
  • Wired and calibrated GPS, sensors, communication module, video transmitter, and power module, and interfaced them with the flight controller and motors
  • Repaired and upgraded the drone after a crash by 3D-printing stronger structural components and resoldering sensor connections
DJI 3D Printing Electronics
6-rotor Drone Picture

Experience

Astera Labs

Hardware Diagnostics Engineer (Co-op)

Jan. 2026 - April 2026

Astera Labs Logo

Hardware Diagnostics Engineer (Co-op)

C | Raspberry Pi | I2C

  • Spearheaded software bringup of 3 evaluation boards for high-speed retimer ASICs, by developing low-level C diagnostic utilities to enable external control and testing through a Raspberry Pi
  • Improved hardware testing by developing a control loop to maintain precise module temperatures, using a PI controller with feedforward paths and a custom YAML configuration parser for modularity
  • Increased manufacturing yield as measured by a reduction in uncaught errors from 0.26% to 0.01%, by isolating I2C communication failures and migrating the subtest from Python to a C subprocess
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Untether AI

Hardware Engineer (Co-op)

Jan. 2025 - April 2025

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Hardware Engineer (Co-op)

PCB | Cadence OrCAD X | STM32

  • Designed 4-layer evaluation Printed Circuit Board from scratch using Cadence OrCAD X, including component research, schematic diagram, and layout, enabling testing of new Power-Management ICs
  • Verified functionality of 40+ AI Accelerator Cards by conducting physical inspections, short checks, performance benchmarks, and neural network correctness tests, while ensuring power/thermal compliance
  • Reduced current sensing IC's error to <1% by sweeping configuration registers and comparing current values measured via STM32 to adjustable current load's readout, simulating an active board
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Untether AI

Firmware Engineer (Co-op)

May 2024 - Aug. 2024

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Firmware Engineer (Co-op)

C | I2C | DediProg | OpenOCD

  • Developed firmware for an AI Accelerator Card (PCIe Gen5 x16), enabling key features such as power sequencing, temperature sensing, power monitoring, and fan control, using the I2C and PMBus protocols
  • Brought-up first batch of cards by writing firmware, conducting hardware checks, flashing PMICs, power sequencers and ASICs, and debugging issues, achieving fully booted cards in under 3 days
  • Researched and proposed switching a voltage rail from single-phase to dual-phase, potentially reducing power loss by 46% and increasing efficiency by 10%
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Ciena

Embedded Software Engineer (Co-op)

Sept. 2023 - Dec. 2023

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Embedded Software Engineer (Co-op)

C/C++ | GoogleTest | LibEvent

  • Accelerated iteration and testing of a Segment-Routing module by developing an event-based client for simple user interfacing and by configuring CMAKE to enable independent compilation
  • Improved error-detection of a TCP-transport library by creating C++ GoogleTest unit tests, allowing for send and receive functionalities to be tested concurrently using multi-threading
  • Increased thread safety of C code and protected internal data structures by converting APIs to signal-based
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Dell

Software Engineer (Co-op)

Jan. 2023 - April 2023

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Software Engineer (Co-op)

Python | Jenkins | Coverity | qTest | Docker

  • Enhanced security of a PCIe card by implementing Trusted Boot features such as allowing binary signing without access to private RSA keys
  • Eliminated the need for physical boards for initial firmware testing by configuring an ARM emulator
  • Improved testing capabilities by increasing the number of automated tests running in Docker containers, creating new Robot Framework software robots
  • Boosted software security by enabling fast discovery of potential vulnerabilities by creating Jenkins CI pipelines to run code analysis using Coverity
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Waterloo Rocketry

Software Subsystem Lead

Sept. 2022 - Sept. 2024

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Software Subsystem Lead

Python | C | KiCAD

  • Contributed to a team of 60+ people for the annual development and launch of a rocket to 30,000 ft
  • Increased organization in the Software subsystem by creating a GitHub Project board for issue tracking and by adding branch naming conventions, PR templates and repository Codeowners
  • Facilitated development by onboarding new members, breaking down projects into individual issues, creating and maintaining timelines, supporting developers, and reporting progress to team leads
  • Augmented data collection capabilities for engine tests and added support for thermocouples by creating electrical schematics and designing PCBs using KiCAD
  • Optimized Kalman filter for estimating rocket position during flight by developing C code to convert coordinates between reference frames using rotation matrices
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Education

University of Waterloo

Honours Computer Engineering

Sept. 2022 - Present

UWaterloo Logo

Computer Engineering Student

  • Program: Honours Computer Engineering
  • Current Term: 4A
  • Relevant Courses:
    • ECE 493: Machine Learning Hardware Systems
    • ECE 320: Computer Architecture
    • ECE 722: Reconfigurable Computing (Graduate-level)
    • ECE 327: Digital Hardware Systems
    • ECE 350: Real-Time Operating Systems
    • ECE 340: Electronic Circuits 2
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Skills

Languages

Technologies

Operating Systems