My story through systems, from repair to integration.

I began repairing phones at 12 years old. What started as cracked screen replacements quickly expanded into a more complete device repair workflow involving batteries, charging ports, cameras, speakers, housings, and other modular components.

More importantly, it became my first real introduction to systems thinking. Even without full documentation, I had to identify how components interacted, isolate faults efficiently, and make practical repair decisions based on how the device behaved as a whole.

That work also funded what came next. The money I made repairing and reselling phones gave me the ability to take on my first major mechanical project and begin working at a much larger system scale.

At 15, I began restoring my first car, a 1968 Dodge Charger. It was the first project where I had to think beyond isolated repairs and manage a long-form build across multiple electrical and mechanical subsystems.

The restoration included a complete wiring harness installation, interior restoration, brake system conversion from drum to disc, and substantial work across hydraulic, electrical, and body systems. It required sequencing work correctly, sourcing parts within budget, and learning how changes in one subsystem affected the rest of the vehicle.

I eventually sold that car and used it to fund the next stage: a salvage-title Jeep rebuild that introduced a higher standard of validation and accountability.

At 17, the Jeep project raised the stakes because the goal was not just to make the vehicle run and drive, but to bring it back to certified, road-legal condition. That meant working toward state inspection and rebuilt-title requirements rather than relying only on my own judgment.

This was an important shift in how I approached projects. It required working backward from external standards, validating repairs more carefully, and treating electrical, drivetrain, suspension, and safety systems as parts of a larger integrated platform.

It also strengthened the habits that still define how I work: planning around constraints, sourcing intelligently, documenting what matters, and executing with the expectation that the result must hold up to real scrutiny.

After graduating with a degree in physics, I began working in amplifier repair, bringing that same mindset into a more explicitly electrical setting. It required structured signal tracing, rail verification, bias analysis, protection-circuit awareness, and component-level diagnosis across both solid-state and tube platforms.

It was also where troubleshooting became more disciplined. Rather than simply replacing what appeared faulty, the work required isolating failure modes, validating assumptions with measurement, and understanding why a system had failed before calling it repaired.

In practice, this included reliability-critical work for professional touring acts, where turnaround time and repair quality both mattered. That environment reinforced the importance of methodical testing, technical judgment, and stable operation under real-world demands.

My current project work reflects a more advanced phase of this same progression. The Porsche 944 build is not only a repair or restoration effort, but an integration problem involving architecture, tradeoffs, and system compatibility.

The drivetrain approach was selected deliberately to preserve the platform’s original balance characteristics while increasing performance. That means the project is as much about system decisions as it is about fabrication or installation. Mechanical interfaces, wiring, control systems, and sensor behavior all have to be considered together.

More broadly, this is the direction I am interested in continuing: work that combines hands-on execution with deeper system reasoning, especially in power electronics, hardware integration, testing, and aerospace-adjacent engineering problems.

Alongside technical work, I have also spent time on projects centered on finish, presentation, and visual precision — including custom painting and detail work on shoes, phones, and furniture.

Although those projects are different in application, they draw on the same underlying habits: patience, consistency, attention to detail, and the expectation that finished work should look intentional as well as functional.

That balance matters to me. Good engineering is not just about making something work — it is also about making decisions carefully and carrying them through to a finished result that reflects thought, discipline, and care.