Álvaro C.
Satuée Crespo

I build reliable embedded systems for aerospace, e-mobility, and research — from bare-metal firmware to DO-178 certified software.

Seville, Spain Open to contracts

Engineer by training,
scout by instinct

I'm an Electronics & Control Engineer from Seville with a decade of hands-on experience bridging the gap between physics and firmware. My work spans safety-critical avionics (DO-178B/C), high-voltage e-mobility powertrains, and academic research — always with the same goal: systems that work when it matters most.

The scout mindset — prepare, observe, adapt — shapes how I approach every project: I read the problem before writing a line of code, I keep a clean trail so the next engineer can follow, and I never ship something I wouldn't trust my own name to.

Outside work I'm drawn to energy systems, autonomous vehicles, and algorithmic trading — areas where control theory meets real-world uncertainty.

10+ Years embedded experience
3 Domains — aerospace · e-mobility · research
DO-178 Safety-critical certification experience
ICUAS Best Paper Award 2022

Technical expertise

Embedded & Languages

  • C (bare-metal)
  • C++
  • Python
  • VHDL
  • MATLAB/Simulink
  • Assembly (ARM/AVR)

Protocols & Buses

  • CAN / CANopen
  • ARINC 429
  • MIL-STD-1553
  • SPI
  • I²C
  • UART / RS-422
  • Ethernet

Tools & Processes

  • GCC / LLVM
  • JTAG / OpenOCD
  • Git
  • Docker
  • CMake
  • Jenkins / CI
  • Jira

Standards & Domains

  • DO-178B/C
  • DO-254
  • ARP4754
  • IEC 61508
  • AUTOSAR basics
  • ISO 26262 (basics)

Career timeline

Embedded Software Engineer

Aerospace Contractor

Aerospace 2021 — present
  • Developed safety-critical firmware for avionics data concentrators under DO-178C Level B.
  • Implemented ARINC 429 and MIL-STD-1553 drivers in C on bare-metal RTOS.
  • Conducted requirements-based testing, traceability matrices, and MC/DC coverage analysis.
  • Supported DO-178 audits and DER review cycles.

Control & Power Electronics Engineer

E-Mobility Startup

E-Mobility 2019 — 2021
  • Designed and validated the EEVAM bidirectional DC-DC converter for EV auxiliary systems.
  • Wrote closed-loop control firmware (PI + feed-forward) for TMS320 DSP.
  • Performed hardware-in-the-loop testing and FMEA analysis.
  • Collaborated with mechanical team on thermal management and EMC compliance.

Research Engineer — UAV Systems

University of Seville

Research 2018 — 2020
  • Co-designed a bio-inspired ornithopter UAV; responsible for flight control and actuation electronics.
  • Implemented attitude estimation (EKF) and position hold on STM32.
  • Published research at ICUAS 2022, receiving Best Paper Award.
  • Mentored undergraduate students in embedded systems lab.

Electronics Engineer — Formula SAE

ARUS Andalucía Racing Team

E-Mobility 2016 — 2018
  • Led electronics sub-team for the electric ARUS car competing at Formula Student Spain.
  • Designed the low-voltage CAN bus topology (BMS, inverter, dashboard).
  • Wrote CAN bootloader and diagnostic tools in Python and C.
  • Vehicle passed technical scrutineering and completed dynamic events.

Selected projects

E-Mobility 2017

ARUS Formula SAE Electric Car

Full-vehicle electronics architecture for a student electric racing car competing at Formula Student Spain. Designed the CAN bus topology, BMS integration, and diagnostic tooling.

  • CAN
  • C
  • Python
  • BMS
  • Formula Student
Research 2019

Bio-Inspired Ornithopter UAV

Flight control and actuation electronics for a flapping-wing UAV. Implemented EKF-based attitude estimation and position hold on STM32. Published at ICUAS 2022.

  • STM32
  • EKF
  • C
  • UAV
  • Control
E-Mobility 2020

EEVAM Bidirectional DC-DC Converter

Design and validation of a bidirectional DC-DC converter for EV auxiliary systems. Closed-loop PI control on TMS320 DSP, HIL testing, and FMEA analysis.

  • DSP
  • Power Electronics
  • HIL
  • FMEA
  • C
Research 2023

Algorithmic Trading System

Python-based algo trading infrastructure connected to Interactive Brokers via ib_insync. Strategy backtesting, risk management, and automated execution with full audit trail.

  • Python
  • ib_insync
  • SQLite
  • Backtest
  • Docker

Awards & publications

Award 2022

Best Paper Award — ICUAS 2022

Received the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS 2022) for research on bio-inspired ornithopter flight control.

ICUAS 2022 · Dubrovnik, Croatia

Publication 2022

Flapping-Wing UAV: Attitude Control and Flight Stabilisation

Peer-reviewed paper presenting the EKF-based attitude estimator and the embedded control architecture developed for a bio-inspired ornithopter platform.

IEEE ICUAS 2022 Proceedings

Work with me

Available for embedded systems contracts, DO-178 consulting, and short-term research collaborations. Drop me a line and I'll reply within two business days.