# Chris Blust

> Embedded Software Engineer at Zipline

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/chrisblust

I'm a Firmware Engineer with broad experience in embedded systems. I've taken on design and development of firmware architectures, PCBs, software-in-the-loop testing frameworks, tooling, and more.

## Work Experience
### Embedded Software Engineer @ Zipline
Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States

### Firmware Engineer @ Aptera Motors
Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | San Diego, California, United States
-Designed and implemented a layered software architecture for a solar panel charge controller.
-Led integration and initial testing of solar charging within an Aptera vehicle.
-Developed custom multi-system Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) testing framework for Aptera made software.
-Inserted Hardware Abstraction Layers into existing Aptera embedded codebases, and re-implemented them for Linux
-Developed simulation for CAN and LIN bus communication between systems in SIL.
-Designed Python interface for engineers to write tests using the SIL framework
-Established an Aptera continuous integration server using Jenkins and AWS to automatically run builds and tests on each software change made

### Electronics Firmware/Hardware Development @ RIT Racing
Jan 2017 – Jan 2022 | Rochester Institute of Technology
-Learned Altium CAD software to design a custom embedded system using AVR microcontroller for displaying information to the race car driver
-Designed and wrote modular C drivers and application modules for dashboard display
-Developed CAN interface for receiving data from other ECUs and displaying it on the dashboard
-Tested dashboard off-vehicle using custom Arduino Hardware-in-Loop testing interface
-Greatly improved visibility and robustness of dashboard display over previous iterations
-Assisted in programming sensors over CAN bus using Vector CANalyzer

### Battery Management System Firmware Lead @ RIT Racing
Jan 2017 – Jan 2022 | Rochester Institute of Technology
-Led firmware development and testing for our electric race car's battery pack monitoring system 
-Practiced modular, real-time firmware design using C and FreeRTOS for an stm32 microcontroller
-Developed custom Software-in-the-Loop framework capable of simulating firmware in docker container using FreeRTOS linux port
-Defined a CAN bus description using a DBC file for auto-generation of CAN related source code
-Utilized SCons for intuitive, low maintenance building and testing of firmware and dependencies
-Set up AWS server running Jenkins for automatic continuous integration testing
-Utilized Docker for repeatable build environments on developer machines and build server
-Wrote unit tests for firmware modules using CMock and Unity
-Developed simulation framework I/O using google protobuf encoding over TCP sockets
-Integrated simulation framework with pytest for readable, imperative integration testing
See https://github.com/RITRacingSoftware/f29bms

### Chassis Controls Intern @ Tesla
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Palo Alto, California, United States
-Designed and implemented Rust/Python based tool for detecting invalid vehicle behavior in simulation
-Created opportunity to reduce risk of missing unexpected vehicle behavior in hundreds of automated tests

### Chassis Controls Intern - Summer 2020 @ Tesla
Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Palo Alto, California, United States
-Learned SCons and Docker to improve error checking of firmware build system
-Assisted in debugging firmware simulation framework using Vector CAN software
-Increased simulation flexibility through modification of source code and build scripts

### Powertrain Firmware Integration Intern @ Tesla
Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Palo Alto, CA
-Designed and Executed a comprehensive test plan to assess if wall charger firmware met engineering requirements
-Developed Hardware-In-Loop, and System Level tests between Tesla vehicles and wall chargers
-Debugged firmware changes at a vehicle level using real-time and historical CAN data and Vector CAN tools
-Investigated and wrote fixes for wall charger firmware in C

### Embedded Software Engineering Intern @ RailComm
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Rochester, New York Area
-Utilized software design patterns and principles to write a maintainable, versatile, and robust algorithm for detecting train car types using axle sensor readings
-Assisted in this algorithm’s integration, replacing an existing codebase for deployment in rail yards

### Embedded Software Engineering Co-op @ Saab, Inc.
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Syracuse, New York Area
-Implemented an embedded C application for a soft microprocessor for calibrating and monitoring an aircraft interrogation system
-Improved BASH build scripts
-Modified FPGA logic written in VHDL for optimized firmware access of hardware


## Education
### Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chris-h-blust

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Source: https://flows.cv/chrisblust
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/chrisblust/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-29