B.S. Computer Engineering · UCSD · Expected Jun 2028

Alex Palecki

Figuring out which layer of the stack I want to live on - probably a low one.

Rising junior at UC San Diego. I've spent the last year diagnosing hardware down to the component level, and I'm now building embedded systems and tooling of my own. I'm drawn to lower-level work - embedded systems, digital design, anything closer to the hardware - and still figuring out exactly where I'll specialize.

View resume See projects Email me

Location: San Diego, CA
Education: UC San Diego - B.S. Computer Engineering
Technical Interests: Embedded systems · digital design · figuring out the rest
Elsewhere: LinkedIn · GitHub

Experience

Jun 2024 - Jun 2025

Hardware & Systems Technician Intern

SD-Bytes, San Diego, CA

Diagnosed and repaired laptops, desktops, and embedded devices across hardware and software layers, cutting turnaround to same-day for common repairs such as OS reinstalls, virus removal, and minor component swaps/solder rework.
Used multimeter probes to trace power rails and voltage levels on PCBs, isolating failed chips and confirming component-level faults.
Applied schematic knowledge and soldering skills to perform rework on intricate circuits, restoring device functionality.
Performed system-level recovery tasks, including BIOS configuration, OS reinstallation, virus removal, and drive cloning.
Maintained detailed repair logs tracking diagnostics, resolutions, and system performance to support quality assurance.
Developed accurate invoices and billing documentation, ensuring consistent and professional customer transactions.

Mar 2023 - May 2023

Lead Developer / PM

PiWars Robotics Competition, San Diego, CA

Led a team designing and programming a Raspberry Pi 4-powered robot from scratch to compete across diverse autonomous and manual challenges.
Wrote Python control software for sensor integration, motor control, and challenge-specific autonomous behavior.
Managed project milestones, delegated tasks across team members, and coordinated testing cycles to meet competition deadlines.
Diagnosed and fixed hardware-software integration issues live during competition runs, keeping the robot operational between rounds.

Projects

IoT Temperature Monitor for Remote Pet Care

In progress

Prototyping an ESP32-based embedded sensor device on breadboard to monitor ambient temperature and trigger real-time mobile notifications when unsafe thresholds are exceeded, aimed at remote pet-safety monitoring.
Implementing a WiFi-based notification pipeline for proof-of-concept, with planned migration to a self-hosted home server for production-level notification delivery.
Exploring an STM32F407 devboard as a future production-oriented hardware platform alongside the ESP32 prototype.

ESP32 Embedded C WiFi STM32F407 (exploring)

Network Traffic Monitoring Tool

In progress

Building a C++ engine that captures live network traffic with Npcap and logs device and event data to a local SQLite database.
Building a Flask-based dashboard that reads the same database to display network activity in the browser.

C++ Npcap SQLite Python Flask