Charlie Chen

charliechen@college.harvard.edu

About Me

Hi! I'm a rising senior at Harvard studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

I'm currently interning at General Dynamics Applied Physical Sciences, where I'm expanding an underwater communication system to support two additional ~10kHz bands. Most of my time is currently spent designing PCBs in Altium and running simulations in LTspice.

I'm passionate about developing technologies that both push the boundaries of innovation and make a difference in people's lives.

Outside of work, I enjoy hiking, going on runs, and cooking.

Education

Harvard University

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Minor in Computer Science

GPA: 3.97/4.0

Expected May 2027

MIT Cross-Registration

Solid-State Circuits

Semiconductor Electronic Circuits

Intro to Machine Learning

Relevant Coursework

Circuits, Devices, and Transduction

Signals & Communications

Computing Hardware

Systems and Control

Physics Electromagnetism

Systems Programming

Data Structures and Algorithms

Experience

General Dynamics Applied Physical Sciences

Electrical Engineering Intern

Summer 2026

Expanded underwater acoustic communication system to support 2 additional ~10kHz differential bands at ~5kV / 5A

Routed amplifier outputs to frequency-appropriate magnetics & hydrophones via opto-isolated control signals

Owned schematic capture, layout, library, & DRC across 3 PCB versions (4-layer, 2×4”) with varying switching topologies

Designed hydrophone-test board with an overcurrent latching-protection circuit utilizing comparator hysteresis

Harvard University ECE1410: Computing Hardware

Teaching Fellow

Spring – Fall 2026

Rewrite problem sets covering CMOS transistors, digital logic, FSMs, memory, RTL debugging & testbench writing

Hold weekly office hours & review sessions, grade problem sets for 50 students, conduct FPGA hardware lab interviews

Harvard Ability Lab

Undergraduate Researcher

Summer – Fall 2025

Prototyped wearable mounting & data recording system to collect 10,000+ frames for supernumerary-arm VLA study

Skills

EDA & Design Tools

Altium Designer

LTspice

Cadence Virtuoso

Spectre

KiCad

Lab & Test

Oscilloscopes

Function Generators

Spectrum Analyzers

Power Supplies

Multimeters

Soldering

Board Bring-Up

HDL & Digital

SystemVerilog

Xilinx Vivado

FPGA

Programming

Python

MATLAB

Git

Featured Projects

Differential Amplifier (TSMC 65nm)

Designed, simulated, and taped out a bus-addressable differential amplifier in TSMC 65nm CMOS with DRC/LVS-clean layout.

Cadence Virtuoso

Spectre

+4 more

Reverb Karaoke Machine

A mixed-signal real-time audio effects processor featuring custom analog active filtering, discrete 10-bit converters, and MCU-based DSP.

Mixed-Signal Design

Analog Signal Conditioning

+3 more

NAND-Gate Logic Demo PCB

A 2-layer demonstration PCB implementing all basic logic gates from 74-series NAND ICs, focused on power integrity and discrete digital design in KiCad.

KiCad

PCB Design

+2 more