# Fernando L. Garcia Bermudez > Staff Software Engineer at Google Location: Berkeley, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/fernandolgarciabermudez I got my PhD from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department at UC Berkeley advised by Professor Ron Fearing in the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab. My dissertation work focused on robust indoor navigation of unsteady robots using optical flow and on learning control policies for efficient locomotion of legged robots over rough terrain. This last project was a collaboration with Professor Pieter Abbeel. During my time at Berkeley, I was also affiliated with the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience headed by Professor Bruno Olshausen. I'm fascinated by the challenging subject of autonomous robot navigation, which draws me to the fields of computational biology, active perception, computational neuroscience, and adaptive control. In a previous life, I studied Aerospace Engineering at Florida Tech. Advised by Professor Hector Gutierrez, I did undergraduate research on real-time closed-loop control of a Maglev launch vehicle developed by NASA. I'm currently an embedded software engineer at Yaskawa, where I hack on the real-time firmware of industrial controllers. ## Work Experience ### Staff Software Engineer @ Google Jan 2018 – Present ### Embedded Software Engineer @ Yaskawa America, Inc. Jan 2013 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco, CA ### Graduate Student Researcher @ UC Berkeley Jan 2006 – Jan 2013 | Berkeley, CA Principal Investigator: Ronald S. Fearing Compensation for camera motion on unsteady robots for optical flow – Improved quality of on-board camera information on unsteady, chaotic robots by developing solutions using sensor fusion, mechanical isolation, novel optics, and sensory adaptation. Used biologically inspired approaches to create low-complexity algorithms appropriate for our small robotic platforms. Efficient locomotion over rough terrain – Implemented policy gradient reinforcement learning to search for efficient gaits of the VelociRoACH legged robot on three distinct terrains. Quantified the robot’s rotational dynamics to understand how they affect locomotion and exteroceptive sensing, including data from an on-board camera. Designed a 1 gram board with integrated sensing and control electronics, which has evolved to become the de facto electronics platform of every mobile robot project in our lab for the past 4 years, enabling dozens of publications. Set up and maintained public GitHub repositories for the lab’s embedded code projects and its PCBs. Championed code sharing while reducing fragmentation of the lab’s codebase, which prevented duplication of effort across projects. ### Graduate Student Instructor @ UC Berkeley Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 | Berkeley, CA EE20: Structure and Interpretation of Systems and Signals – Managed weekly laboratory sessions for 29 students where projects were conducted in LabVIEW. Prepared and hosted additional discussion sections and office hours. ### Graduate Student Instructor @ UC Berkeley Jan 2009 – Jan 2009 | Berkeley, CA CS9: Self-Paced Center – Tutor for C, C++, Python, as well as MATLAB and Unix. Developed visualization of student progress vs recommended progress and class average progress to motivate students and reduce stress during peak work periods. ### Undergraduate Research Assistant @ Florida Tech Jan 2002 – Jan 2005 | Melbourne, FL Principal Investigator: Hector M. Gutierrez Real-time closed-loop control of a Maglev vehicle – Developed, constructed, and programmed a LabVIEW-based data acquisition system for sensing current in the levitation coils of NASA’s Maglev track. Worked on a MATLAB simulation of the 5-DOF vehicle control system and on its implementation on a digital signal processor. Designed and constructed Maglev vehicle mockups and experimentally investigated the plausibility of a supersonic Maglev launch system. ### Web Development Intern @ Industrias Wamco SAIC Jan 2004 – Jan 2004 | Buenos Aires, Argentina Worked on a re-design of the company’s website using XHTML/CSS, PHP, and MySQL. ### Teaching Assistant @ Florida Tech Jan 2001 – Jan 2002 | Melbourne, FL MAE4316: Mechatronics – Class focused on Microchip PIC microcontrollers. Prepared homeworks and exams, including the final. Held office hours for individuals to go over homework and final research projects. ### Technical Support Intern @ Industrias Wamco SAIC Jan 2001 – Jan 2001 | Buenos Aires, Argentina • Researched on web-based content management using a PHP interface to the database of products (ODBC and MySQL) • Maintained and repaired hardware and software for 50 computers on LAN. ### Technical Support Specialist @ Instituto Tecnológico Philips Argentina SA Jan 1999 – Jan 1999 | Buenos Aires, Argentina Hardware and software maintenance of 75 computers on LAN. Repaired and deployed four donated but broken laser printers. Wrote weekly progress reports. ### Programming Intern @ Industrias Wamco SAIC Jan 1998 – Jan 1998 | Buenos Aires, Argentina Designed program to automate printing product labels to realize significant time savings. ## Education ### Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences University of California, Berkeley ### Master of Science (MS) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences University of California, Berkeley ### Bachelor of Science (BS) in Aerospace Engineering Florida Institute of Technology ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/fernandolgarciabermudez - Portfolio: https://fgb.github.io/ - GitHub: https://github.com/fgb/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/fernandolgarciabermudez JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/fernandolgarciabermudez/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-12