Hi, my name is David.

ABOUT

I'm a junior at the University of Michigan majoring in Electrical Engineering. My focus is on embedded systems and hardware design, with hands-on experience in avionics, PCBs, and hardware verification. I'm especially drawn to the intersection of hardware and quantum technology, exploring how quantum principles can drive the future. While my foundation lies in building hardware, I'm also passionate about software and firmware.

Relevant Coursework:

- Circuit Analysis
- Signals and Systems
- Electromagnetics
- Intro to DSA
- Intro to Computer Organization
- Principles of Optics
- Intro to Quantum Information Technology
- Electrical Engineering System Design
              

Quick Facts:

name:  David Sanico
class: 2027
major: Electrical Engineering
minor: Computer Science
GPA:   3.66/4.00
experience: Electrical Engineering Intern @ Rocket Lab
            Avionics Hardware Lead @ MASA
            Data Science Intern @ Pair Tech
Headshot

Skills

PCB Design

Hardware Validation

Circuit Analysis and SPICE

Low-Level Programming

High-Level Programming

Hardware Assembly and Integration

TIMELINE

IBM Quantum
Hardware Developer Intern @ IBM | (Incoming) Jun. 2026 - Aug. 2026

Incoming Hardware Developer Intern on the Quantum Firmware team at IBM.

MASA Avionics Hardware Lead
Avionics Hardware Lead @ MASA | Apr. 2025 - Dec. 2025

I helped manage the development of all hardware projects in MASA. I oversaw timelines and goals of multiple projects simultaneously, wrote and maintained new documentation to improve team-wide standards, conducted technical design reviews, and provided guidance to new team members.

I also contributed to a novel Hardware-in-the-Loop system that emulates analog sensors, digital sensors, and loads by helping to architect the system-wide design and drafting initial board-level designs for multiple PCBs.

Rocket Lab Internship
Electrical Engineering Intern @ Rocket Lab | May 2025 - Aug. 2025

As a member of the Space Systems Avionics Team, I carried out the design verification process of a satellite PCB including assembly, physical testing, and SPICE analysis. I also designed three new PCBs for testing integration, which included leading a professional PCB lifecycle from requirements capture to validation as well as assembling the PCBs. Additionally, I wrote firmware to assist in the bring-up of a flight PCB by validating an ADC.

MASA Avionics Hardware Lead
Bay Board PCBs Project Lead @ MASA | Aug. 2024 - May 2025

I led a team of 4 to develop a 501-component PCB to control valves and receive sensor data in our rocket. I designed over 85% of schematics and layout, managed task distribution and deadlines, optimized multi-vendor BOMs, and coordinated with structures and plumbing subteams for cross-team collaboration.

TEK Hackathon
ATD/KTP/TEK Hackathon | Apr. 2025

I created the beginnings of a Quantum Circuit Simulator (QuaCS) project (still in the works) at a hacakathon as a member of Tau Epsilon Kappa.

MASA Avionics Hardware Lead
Flight Recorder PCB Project Lead @ MASA | Mar. 2024 - Jan. 2025

I was the designated Responsible Engineer for the flight recorder PCB for MASA. It was my first time designing and assembling a PCB!

Pair Tech Internship
Data Science Intern @ Pair Tech | May 2024 - Aug. 2024

I developed and tested three multi-stage Azure pipelines and five Python scripts to automate the scraping and ingestion of license data. I containerized scripts using Docker and Kubernetes for efficient deployment, and processed over 100 million datapoints from multiple state databases into Cosmos DB.

ADDITIONAL BIO

hobbies: watercoloring
         weightlifting
         reading
         breakfast
facts:   has a corgi
         LeBron fan
         former debater (NSDA Academic 
         All-American, NCFL Grand Nationals Finalist '22, 
         7x Tournament of Champions Bid Recipient)
          
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EECS 370
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EECS 230
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EECS 215
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EECS 398