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Electrical engineering student, University of Louisville

EthanSuttor

I lay out circuit boards and write the firmware that runs on them. The board in the photo is a drone flight controller I designed in KiCad and soldered myself.

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Working
Project engineer (part-time), Gaylor Electric
Most interested in
PCB design, embedded firmware, FPGAs
The STM32F405 flight controller I designed, assembled after hotplate reflow
MCU · STM32F405
IMU · BMI270
U5 · TPS5450
My first flight controller after hotplate reflow. It flies now, and v2, about half the size, is on order. Read the build log

About me

Ethan Suttor
Senior at UofL's J.B. Speed School of Engineering

I'm a senior electrical engineering student at the University of Louisville's Speed School, where most of my coursework has pulled me toward the hardware side: embedded systems, FPGA design, and VLSI physical layout.

The flight controller started as a test: could I take an embedded system from a blank schematic to something that actually flies? It flies now, and the second version is on order. The build log has everything that went wrong along the way, including the parts that make me look bad.

Projects

Bench test: one motor at full throttle from the FlySky transmitter

Personal project · PCB design · v1 flying, v2 (IRIS) ordered

Custom Drone Flight Controller PCB

An STM32F405 flight controller for a 4S quad, running Betaflight on a target I wrote (ETHANF405). v1 is 80 × 80 mm and flies. v2, called IRIS, is 55 × 55 mm, about 53% less board, and adds 16 MB of blackbox flash, a barometer, GPS and optical flow ports, camera and VTX power, and a 5 V buck sized for 3 A.

MCU
STM32F405
EDA
KiCad
FIRMWARE
Betaflight
IMU
Bosch BMI270
POWER
TPS5450
FLASH
W25Q128JV

Latest log entry, : v2 is ordered

Read the write-upFull build log
ATmega328PB Door Lock Hardware Prototype

Class project · Microcontrollers

Dual-Factor Hardware Security System

A door lock that asks for two things: a 4-digit code on a keypad, then a password over UART. Bare-metal C on an ATmega328PB, with Timer1 PWM driving the servo.

ATmega328PB, Bare-Metal C, AVR-GCC, UART + PWM

Read the write-up
Basys3 FPGA Production Board

Class capstone · Digital design

FPGA Hierarchical ALU & 7‑Segment Display Controller

A 0 to 1000 up/down counter in VHDL on a Basys3. The debouncer, counter, BCD converter and 7‑segment driver each got their own testbench before I wired them together. The whole thing fits in 117 of the Artix-7's 20,800 slices.

Artix-7 Basys3, VHDL, Xilinx Vivado 2024.2, ILA

Read the write-up

Other projects

See every project on one page

Experience

  1. Work · May 2026 to now

    Engineering co-op, now project engineer (part-time)

    Gaylor Electric · Sellersburg, IN

    I started as an engineering co-op on active electrical construction jobs and stayed on part-time as a project engineer. The work is proposal budgets, material procurement and jobsite safety tracking.

    • Started a safety and performance token program that tracks and rewards jobsite safety
    • Built internal automation tools in Microsoft Copilot Studio

  2. Work · Jan 2026 to May 2026

    Student worker, electrical bench tech

    Speed Center for Innovation · University of Louisville

    I helped students debug their embedded projects and bring up their PCBs, kept the test equipment running, and helped people pick parts.

  3. Leadership · Feb 2025 to Aug 2026

    Executive officer

    IEEE Student Chapter · University of Louisville

    Ran the chapter's PCB assembly lab for a group of 15+ students, organized hardware design workshops, and held everyone's soldering to IPC standards.

  4. Leadership · Jan 2025 to now

    Peer mentor

    Engineering Living-Learning Community · University of Louisville

    Mentor to 40 first-year engineering students in the residential program. I also planned two community events, each with about 20 people.

  5. Internship · Aug 2022 to May 2023

    Industrial engineering intern

    Nifco Americas · Shelbyville, KY

    My first engineering job, at a Tier 1 automotive supplier. I learned the design process from the engineers there.

    • Modeled parts in SolidWorks for machine conversions and conveyor upgrades
    • Kept the hardware engineering database current across several plants
    • Updated specs and drawings for global suppliers
    • Saw injection molding and 5S lean practices up close

Skills

Tools I've used on the projects above.

Hardware design and analysis

  • PCB design (KiCad, Altium)
  • Power tree design
  • System architecture
  • Tanner EDA (L-Edit, S-Edit, T-Spice)
  • DRC and LVS checks
  • SolidWorks
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Logic analyzers

Firmware and logic

  • C
  • C++
  • VHDL
  • STM32 (Cortex-M4)
  • AVR (ATmega328PB)
  • ESP32 / Arduino
  • SPI / UART / PWM
  • DMA and timers
  • Interrupt handlers (ISRs)
  • Betaflight

Systems and tools

  • Xilinx Vivado 2024.2
  • Linux (POSIX, IPC)
  • Python
  • MATLAB
  • OpenCV
  • Git
  • Soldering and SMD reflow

Build log

A running diary of the flight controller build, mistakes included. Status: v1 flying, v2 (iris) ordered.

  1. v2 is orderedBlack boards this time, and about half the size.
  2. Routing v2About a week of moving parts around and rerouting the same few traces.
  3. Figuring out what v2 isSmaller, a camera, and eventually holding position. Most of the changes are fixing v1 stuff.

Read all 16 entries

Get in touch

If you're hiring for hardware or embedded work, or you just want to talk about a board, email me. The form goes to the same inbox.

Email

ethan.suttor@louisville.edu

LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/ethan-suttor