electronics, bench testing, programming infrastructure teams
mentors: ethan swint, greg stevenson, nick vasquez

tools: python (pandas, numpy, inventree, streamlit), kicad
company website

intro

team photo

Tau Motors is a hardware startup developing software-defined power conversion systems to accelerate global electrification. The company leverages this core technology to build highly efficient, rare-earth-free electric powertrains (utilizing dual-sided electromagnets on both the rotor and stator), modular power converters, and smart grid integration systems.

board development/testing

I contributed to the end-to-end development of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for both traction power electronics and testbench diagnostics. My role involved resolving routing and schematic bugs in KiCad, assembling prototypes through precision surface-mount (SMD) and through-hole soldering, and validating system behaviors directly on the motor testbench. Additionally, I worked to streamline our internal PCB fabrication and sourcing pipelines.

inventory system

To improve operational efficiency, I architected and implemented Tau’s centralized inventory management system. I cataloged and audited our hardware components, migrating the workflow to an open-source platform integrated with custom Python automation. This system minimized supply bottlenecks, enabled real-time stock tracking, and significantly accelerated our hardware prototyping iterations.

acknowledgements

team photo
Tau team photo, August 2023

Thank you to the whole Tau team for summers of philosophical debates, pineapples on pizza, and El Gru tacos. It was an honor being the company’s first intern! In particular, Greg Stevenson, Ethan Swint, and Nick Vasquez taught me many engineering, organization, and life skills; thank you also to Zach Jones and Wes Pennington for allowing me the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group!