Computer Engineering Undergraduate • FPGA Systems • Real-Time Instrumentation • Physics-Driven Computing

Research-focused engineering in deterministic digital systems, embedded instrumentation, sensor fusion, and computational modeling.

Academic and engineering work is centered on the study of real-time digital systems that must remain structured, interpretable, and physically grounded under implementation constraints. A recurring theme across projects is the translation of physical sensing problems into mathematically explicit, computationally efficient, and hardware-realizable pipelines.

Current work emphasizes:

• deterministic FPGA architectures
• real-time telemetry and visualization
• multi-sensor data acquisition and fusion
• explicit clock-domain crossing discipline
• fixed-point and resource-aware implementation
• physics-based simulation and spatial data structures
• rigorous documentation and verification methodology

Research workflow
physical system → mathematical model → algorithmic structure → hardware/software realization → instrumentation → verification → analysis

Research interests include real-time digital systems, FPGA-based instrumentation, sensor-fusion architectures, embedded scientific measurement platforms, fixed-point numerical methods, and physics-informed computational design. Particular interest lies in systems where correctness depends not only on functional behavior, but also on timing discipline, synchronization boundaries, data validity semantics, and interpretable visualization of internal state.

Ongoing technical themes include deterministic rendering pipelines, telemetry publication contracts, low-level sensor interfacing, resource-conscious embedded computation, and structured simulation methods such as Barnes–Hut spatial hierarchy techniques. These interests align broadly with graduate study and research in digital systems, embedded hardware, cyber-physical systems, scientific computing, sensing and perception, robotics instrumentation, and real-time computational architectures.

• Deterministic FPGA Instrumentation
  Architectures for sensing, telemetry publication, synchronization, and visualization in real time.

• Sensor Fusion and Environmental Awareness Systems
  Integration of sonar, camera, and mapping pipelines into interpretable embedded platforms.

• Physics-Driven Simulation and Structured Computation
  Numerical and spatial methods for scalable simulation, especially tree-based N-body frameworks.

• Verification and Observability Methodology
  Design approaches in which protocol visibility, timing contracts, and debug instrumentation are first-class outputs.

• synchronous RTL design
• clock-domain crossing discipline
• real-time VGA / HDMI rendering pipelines
• UART, I2C, PWM, and sensor-interface design
• fixed-point and resource-aware arithmetic

• register-level peripheral control
• protocol timing analysis
• measurement-driven hardware bring-up
• observability and debug architecture

• N-body simulation
• quadtree and octree structures
• approximation methods
• performance-conscious C/C++ implementation
• model-to-implementation translation

• LaTeX technical writing
• architectural contracts and timing documentation
• verification-first development workflows
• reproducible build and implementation flows

Expand figures and implementation snapshots

FPGA Implementation

Top-Level RTL Schematic

Bench Setup

MATLAB Telemetry and Modeling

Real-Time HUD Output

A major component of the work is formal engineering documentation intended to unify:

• physical motivation
• mathematical formulation
• implementation contracts
• timing and synchronization semantics
• verification strategy
• instrumentation and empirical validation

This documentation style is used to bridge design, implementation, and analysis in a way that supports both development and technical communication.

Featured Documents
AquaFusion_Sonar_Vision_System_Phase_4_Stage_A_Report
AquaFusion_Sonar_Vision_System_Phase_1_Report
Caelum_Sufflamen_IEEE_Report
A Study of the Barnes Hut Approximation Algorithm
FPGA_Signal_Control_System_Report
Automated_CSV_Data_Analysis_Framework
Fourier_Series_Harmonic_Circles_Epicycle_Visualization
Voltage_Regulator_Design
Real-Time Quadtree Barnes-Hut N-Body Simulation
ECE-370_Assignment_1_Quadratic_Quiz_Generator
ECE-370_Assignment_1_Quadratic_Quiz_Generator_Report

• AquaFusion_Sonar_Vision_System
  Deterministic FPGA sonar-camera fusion platform with synchronized telemetry, HUD rendering, and spatial mapping.

• FPGA_Signal_Control_System
  Real-time FPGA sensing, control, and VGA visualization with fixed-point physical-unit pipelines.

• Generic_Quadtree_BarnesHut_Simulator
  2D Barnes–Hut N-body simulator using adaptive quadtrees for scalable physics-driven computation.

• Hashed_Octree_3D_BarnesHut
  3D Barnes–Hut simulation using Morton-encoded hashed octrees and structured spatial aggregation.

• Automated_CSV_Data_Analysis
  Structured C-based data analysis framework for modeled, measured, and telemetry-oriented datasets.

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/david-richardson-0099281b6
• Email: 02richardsondavid@gmail.com
• Portfolio: davidrichardson02.github.io

Interested in research opportunities in digital systems, embedded instrumentation, real-time computing, and scientific hardware/software co-design.