Status: Online

Jay Collins

Electrical Engineering student at CU Boulder from Waimea, Hawaii, building embedded systems from bare metal to enclosure — circuits, firmware, and the boards that hold them together.

Portrait of Jay Collins
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U1 — Projects

Built, soldered, debugged.

Three systems spanning firmware, embedded UI, and motor control — each taken from breadboard to a working, enclosed device.

U1.1 / ESP32-S3
Worst Alarm Clock Ever hardware

Worst Alarm Clock Ever

An ESP32-based alarm clock with a real-time state machine, interrupt-driven encoder/button input, SPI OLED display, NTP-synced RTC, and live weather over REST. Built from breadboard to a soldered protoboard in a custom 3D-printed enclosure, with an MQTT hub demonstrating pub/sub IoT architecture.

C++ESP32SPIMQTT3D Printing
View repo
U1.2 / STM32
STM32 Casino Game hardware

STM32 Casino Game

Blackjack and roulette modes on an STM32 microcontroller with an LCD display and touchscreen input. Game logic in C, including random number generation and interaction handling, tuned for a responsive feel.

CSTM32LCDTouchscreen
View repo
U1.3 / Arduino
BLDC Controlled Driving Robot wiring

BLCD Controlled Driving Robot

An Arduino-driven robot that plays music through PWM-driven audio while executing driving patterns — motion control and audio output integrated on a custom motor-control PCB, hand-soldered for reliable connections.

ArduinoPWMCustom PCBMotor Control
View repo
U2 — Experience

Where the hours went.

Teaching, tours, and troubleshooting — on campus and at sea.

Engineering Learning Assistant
CU Boulder — Jan 2026 – May 2026
  • Learning Assistant for Linear Systems, supporting 70+ students in weekly office hours
  • Explained convolution and Fourier transforms in clear, accessible language
Deckhand
Hawai'i Nautical — May 2024 – Current
  • Crew member aboard a 54 ft sailing/snorkeling catamaran — bartending, maintenance, and passenger safety
  • Assisted with maintenance and monitoring of onboard electrical systems, catching issues before they impacted operations
  • Lifeguard and CPR certified, with hands-on emergency response experience
Restaurant Host
Foster's Kitchen Waikoloa — Dec 2023 – May 2024
  • Managed front-of-house flow during peak tourist season, coordinating seating for high-volume dinner service
  • Handled over-the-phone take-out orders
Beach Hut Attendant
HYPR HAWAII — April 2021 – Aug 2023
  • Drove retail sales of outdoor equipment and apparel, consistently upselling lessons and rentals using POS systems and cash handling
  • Instructed first-time paddlers in board and kayak technique, prioritizing safety and customer confidence
U3 — Skills

The parts bin.

What's on the bench and in the toolchain.

Languages 06
CC++PythonRISC-V ASMVerilogLaTeX
Software 05
LTspiceSTM32 CubeIDEVS CodeGitHubExcel
Hardware & Testing 08
PCB DesignSMDTHTSolderingOscilloscopesFunction Gen.DMMPower Supplies
Core Engineering 04
Circuit DesignEmbedded SystemsDigital LogicAI
Professional 04
Technical Comm.Team CollaborationPresentationDocumentation
U4 — Education

Boulder, Colorado.

University of Colorado Boulder

B.S. Electrical Engineering — Expected May 2027 · Dean's List

Circuits I & II (A) · Linear Systems (A) · Electronics Design Lab (A–) · Embedded Software Engineering (A) · Data Structures (A) · Programmable Digital Systems (A) · Microelectronics (A) · Fields and Waves (A–) · Calculus I–III · Probability & Statistics (A)

Cumulative GPA
3.82
U5 — Résumé

The one-page version.

Jay Collins — Résumé.pdf

Full education, experience, and project history in one document — for recruiters, professors, or printing.

Download PDF
U6 — Contact

Let's talk hardware.

Open to embedded systems, hardware, and firmware internships. Based in Boulder, CO — reachable anywhere.