ENGINEERING AT RICE UNIVERSITYPROJECT FILM / 00:15

Evan
Girard–Sun.

I’m interested in robotics
and embedded hardware.

Explore the work
SELECTED WORK, 2023–2026PHI LAB / FLIGHT TEST

ABOUT

About me

Evan Girard-Sun

I’m an engineering student at Rice University with an interest in robotics. I like working across the hardware and software of a system, then testing how it behaves in practice. My own projects include FireWatch, a drone-mounted fire detector. For FRC, I designed the robot’s complete mechanical assembly in CAD and directed its manufacturing.

I previously interned with NASA’s ER4 robotics group, where I contributed to lunar vehicle chassis revisions and processed ROS odometry data for a RealSense camera project. I now research camera-based drone control at Rice’s Phi Lab, using an analog video feed processed on a laptop. I’m interested in internships involving robotics or embedded hardware.

Résumé ↗

SELECTED WORK

A closer look at what I’ve been working on.

01 / NASA ER4 · SUMMER 2026

Vehicle chassis
& perception ↗

Chassis CAD contributions and ROS odometry work within a collaborative robotics team.

Onshape · ROS · RealSenseCAD, vSLAM footage & contribution ↗

02 / PHI LAB · RICE UNIVERSITY · 2026–ONGOING

Camera-based
drone autonomy ↗

Using the drone’s analog camera feed to estimate pose and send control commands from a laptop.

BetaFPV Air75 platform used for camera-based navigation researchAIR75 / VISION & CONTROLFlight experiments ↗
Python · OpenCV · AprilTags · CRSFFlight footage & control pipeline ↗

03 / FIREWATCH · 2024–ONGOING

Fire & smoke
detection ↗

A drone-mounted vision module for fire and smoke detection.

YOLO11 · Raspberry Pi 5 · Jetson Orin NanoHardware, detection & interface ↗

04 / FRC ROBOTICS · 2025–2026

Competition
robot ↗

I designed the robot’s complete mechanical assembly in CAD and directed its manufacturing.

Fusion · Mechanical design · Fabrication

Mechanisms & build footage ↗
Presentation visualization based on the original FRC CADCAD-BASED PRESENTATION VISUAL

05 / RICE ELECTRIC VEHICLE · 2026

Central
vehicle ECU ↗

A controller carrier board bringing power, CAN, and telemetry connections onto a single PCB.

KiCad · STM32 Nucleo · CAN

Schematic & design decisions ↗
ECU carrier board preview

BOARD MODELDrag to rotate ↔

Revision B camera synchronization board renderREV B BOARD / REV C SCHEMATIC IN DEVELOPMENT

06 / BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · ONGOING

Camera
synchronization ↗

A modular synchronization system for multi-camera epilepsy research recordings.

ATmega2560 · Schematic design · Daisy-chain architecture

System architecture & schematics ↗

07 / EARLIER PROJECT · 2023

Autonomous
mini-vehicle ↗

An early vehicle project linking a learned driving model to physical steering and throttle control.

TEST COURSE / 2023 PROJECTDriving model & hardware ↗
DonkeyCar · Raspberry Pi · TensorFlow · EV3Driving footage & documentation ↗

TOOLS & METHODS

Skills in practice

Vision & control

Python, OpenCV, AprilTags, ROS, YOLO11, TensorFlow

Drone autonomy ↗

Embedded electronics

KiCad, STM32 Nucleo, ATmega2560, CAN, Raspberry Pi, Jetson

ECU design ↗

Mechanical design

Fusion, Onshape, CAD assemblies, 3D printing, fabrication

FRC mechanisms ↗
Evan Girard–SunPROJECT DOCUMENTATION

Project footage.