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Recruiting — Summer 2026 Internships

Swabir
M. Bwana

I write software and embedded firmware. Some weeks that means shipping a full-stack web platform with frequent production releases; other weeks it's writing interrupt-driven C on an ARM microcontroller and profiling latency down to the microsecond. Computer engineer at Dartmouth, currently recruiting for Summer 2026.

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15+
Projects Shipped
10+
Languages & Frameworks
1
Published Paper
2027
Expected Grad.
Swabir M. Bwana
Dartmouth College • Class of 2027
Engineering Sciences + CS — Software & Embedded
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Swabir on a dune buggy
Swabir in the desert
Swabir on a boat

About Me

Software first.
Hardware too.

I'm a junior at Dartmouth studying Engineering Sciences with a Computer Science focus. My work splits between two worlds: building full-stack web applications that ship to real users, and writing firmware for microcontrollers with real-time constraints. I don't really separate the two — the best engineers I've seen are comfortable on both sides.

I led a 4-person team to build SwipePlate — a campus food delivery platform with a React/TypeScript frontend, a Node/Firebase backend, and a live delivery tracking map — zero to deployed in 6 weeks. That same term I was writing interrupt-driven C on an STM32 for the embedded systems lab. That's a normal week for me.

"Growing up in Mombasa, Kenya gives me a different lens on what technology is actually for. I build things I'd want to exist — which is why I've also done bioelectronics research and designed surgical tools, even though software and firmware are where I want to work professionally."

Outside building things, I'm a CS10 Teaching Assistant (OOP in Java), was a TA for ENGS 28 Embedded Systems, and spent a summer teaching Python to Kenyan scholars through KenSAP. Teaching is how you find out if you actually understand something.

Dartmouth '27 Mombasa, Kenya Full-Stack Dev Embedded Firmware Systems Programming Computer Engineering ARM / STM32 React & Node

What I Work With

Skills & Technologies

From Linux kernel-level debugging to Webpack builds. I've shipped across the full chain.

⚛️
Web & Frontend
React 18TypeScript Next.jsTailwind CSS Framer MotionReact Router v6/v7 ZustandSocket.io (client) ViteWebpackHTML / CSS
🖥️
Backend & Databases
Node.jsExpress.js Firebase FirestorePostgreSQL MongoDB / MongoosePrisma ORM Socket.ioREST API Design JWT AuthDocker AWSGo (Golang)
⚙️
Systems & Languages
C / C++Java PythonJavaScript / TypeScript Bash / ShellSQL ARM AssemblyPOSIX / Linux GDB / ValgrindMake / CMake
🔌
Embedded & Hardware
STM32 (ARM Cortex-M0/M4) Embedded CFreeRTOS SPI / UART / I²C JTAG / SWDCAN / LIN GPIO / ADC / PWM BTLE / NimBLEESP32-C3 STM32CubeIDEQEMU Oscilloscope / Logic Analyzer
🧠
ML, FPGA & Data
TensorFlow / KerasScikit-learn Vitis HLSVivado AXI StreamFixed-Point Quantization MATLABJupyter Notebooks Pandas / NumPy
🛠️
Tools & Fabrication
Git / GitHubPostman Render / Vercel / Netlify SolidWorksFusion 360 3D Printing (FDM) Laser CuttingCNC Milling React Native / ExpoFlutter / Dart

What I've Built

Projects that actually ship

Web · Full-Stack · Team Lead (CS52 Capstone)

SwipePlate — Campus Food Delivery Platform

Led a 4-person team from idea to deployed product in 6 weeks. SwipePlate lets Dartmouth students order from all 4 dining halls and have meals delivered by other students. I built both repos: a React/TypeScript frontend with live map tracking via React Leaflet and Framer Motion transitions, plus a Node/Express backend with Firebase Firestore handling users, wallet balances, and the full order lifecycle. We had frequent production releases throughout — this wasn't a demo, it ran on real campus data from Dartmouth's dining API.

React 18TypeScript Node.jsExpress Firebase FirestoreTailwind Framer MotionReact Leaflet Vite
GitHub
SwabFlix streaming app
Web · Frontend · Personal

SwabFlix — Netflix-Style Streaming App

A Netflix-style streaming platform with live data from the TMDB API. Full TV season and episode browsers, "Continue Watching" history via localStorage, Top 10 ranked content with numbered badges, skeleton loading states, and a fully responsive mobile UI. Deployed on Render.

React 18TypeScript Tailwind CSSFramer Motion TMDB APIVite
GitHub
🔍
Systems · C · Algorithms (CS50)

Tiny Search Engine — Crawler, Indexer, Querier

A complete three-component web search engine written in C from scratch. The crawler does BFS across web pages using hashtable-backed URL deduplication. The indexer builds an inverted index mapping every word to per-document frequency counts with O(1) lookups. The querier handles boolean AND/OR queries with correct operator precedence (AND binds tighter than OR, matching real search behavior) and ranks results by summed frequency. Built on a custom memory-safe data structures library — bag, set, counters, hashtable — every allocation validated with valgrind. CS50 at Dartmouth.

CInverted Index BFSHashtable Boolean Query Parsing Memory Management ValgrindLinux
GitHub
📚
Web · Full-Stack · Personal

StudyPod — Study Group Finder

Match with classmates by course, study style, and availability. Real-time "Study Now" broadcasts via Socket.io, JWT auth, a reliability reputation system, and Google Calendar sync. React frontend, Node/Express backend, MongoDB with Mongoose.

React 18Node.js ExpressMongoDB Socket.ioJWT
GitHub
🎮
Systems · C · Network Programming (CS50)

Nuggets — Real-Time Multiplayer Game

26 simultaneous players plus a spectator over a custom UDP protocol. The server owns all game state — map layout, player positions, gold distribution. Each client is a terminal sending keypresses and receiving live ncurses frames. Line-of-sight visibility recomputed per player on every move. Written entirely in C.

CPOSIX Sockets UDPncurses Multi-threading
GitHub
Street food vendor
Web · React · CS52

Street Food Atlas — CRUD Recipe Platform

Global street food recipes with full CRUD. React Router v7 Data Mode — loaders pre-fetch per route, actions handle form submissions, router auto-revalidates after writes. Zustand manages UI state: search, filters, sort order, and an edit draft so canceling doesn't blow away the original.

ReactReact Router v7 ZustandTypeScript
📿
Mobile · React Native · Personal

Sharifas Family Dhikr App

Cross-platform mobile app (iOS, Android, Web) built with React Native and Expo. Audio playback, haptic feedback, AsyncStorage persistence, and stack navigation. Tested on Expo Go.

React NativeExpo TypeScriptexpo-av
GitHub
Marble maze hardware with STM32
Embedded · STM32 · Real-Time (ES28 Capstone, Spring 2025)

Marble Maze Game — Embedded Systems Capstone

A physical tilt-to-navigate LEGO marble maze running on STM32C031C6TX (ARM Cortex-M0+). Joystick ADC input drives 2 NEMA stepper motors to tilt the platform; a 30-second I²C countdown display adds pressure. I designed the full state machine (Waiting → Idle → Running → Finished), interrupt-driven finish-line sensors on PA5/PA6, and a 200-unit ADC deadzone to cut joystick noise without killing responsiveness. Motor latency under 10ms with the interrupt architecture — you can see the STM32 board and joystick wired up in the photo above.

Embedded CSTM32C031C6TX ARM Cortex-M0+ADC / GPIO I²CNEMA Stepper Motors Interrupt HandlersState Machine
GitHub
FPGA development board
FPGA · HLS · Hardware Acceleration (ENGS 62)

Neural Network Hardware Accelerator on FPGA

Synthesized a quantized neural network into actual hardware on an FPGA using Vitis HLS (C to RTL). Integrated the IP block into Vivado alongside the ARM processor core over AXI bus, wrote the C driver, then optimized throughput with loop unrolling and HLS pipelining (II=1). Tracked the bottleneck shifting from the accelerator to memory bandwidth as I removed each constraint — LUT/FF/BRAM/DSP profiled at each step.

Vitis HLSVivado AXI StreamRTL Loop UnrollingHLS Pipeline
STM32 microcontroller board
Embedded · TinyML · EdgeAI (ENGS 62)

Human Activity Recognition on STM32

Full TinyML lifecycle end to end: collected 3-axis motion data via SPI accelerometer, trained a classifier in Python (TensorFlow), converted weights to C arrays, deployed inference on STM32. Measured accuracy, latency in clock cycles, and flash/RAM footprint on real hardware — the resource-constrained reality check that most ML courses skip.

Embedded CTensorFlow SPI AccelerometerSTM32 TinyMLPython
ESP32 development board
SPI · BTLE · Multi-Peripheral (ENGS 62)

Interrupt-Driven SPI Driver + BTLE Bridge

Wrote an interrupt-driven SPI accelerometer driver from scratch — chip fires an interrupt on new data, no polling. Separately programmed an ESP32-C3 as a BTLE-to-UART wireless bridge, so a UART device talks wirelessly without knowing anything about BTLE. Combined GPIO, USART, ADC, SPI, and interrupts in one integrated multi-peripheral system.

SPIUART / USART BTLE / NimBLEESP32-C3 Interrupt ArchitectureADC
🔧
ARM Assembly · Bare-Metal · Quantization (ENGS 62)

Bare-Metal ARM Startup + Quantized NN in C

Bare-metal startup from scratch: linker script, startup code that copies .data from flash to RAM and zeros .bss, interrupt vector table — before main() runs. Then quantized a neural network with zero floating-point: float32 weights to int8 with scale factors, sigmoid replaced with a lookup table. The speed difference when you remove FPU emulation is dramatic.

ARM Thumb AssemblyLinker Scripts Fixed-Point Quantizationint8 QEMU
PEDOT:PSS electrode array on glass substrate
Biomedical · Microfabrication · Research (Ongoing)

Fully Polymeric PEDOT:PSS Bioelectronic Implants

Designing bioelectronic implants that eliminate gold electrodes entirely — replacing them with PEDOT:PSS, which is both conductive and body-compatible. Standard PEDOT:PSS-on-gold devices delaminate under cyclic stimulation. My work involves fabricating fully polymeric devices using photolithography, spin-coating, parylene-C CVD, and RIE, then characterizing with EIS and CIC testing. Manuscript in preparation. Lab: Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab, Dartmouth (Prof. Boys).

PEDOT:PSSPhotolithography Parylene-C CVDEIS Microfabrication
🔩
Biomedical · CAD · FYREE (Freshman Winter 2024)

Precision Surgical Holder for Rodent Surgery

Designed in SolidWorks and Fusion 360 — a holder for stabilizing both syringe and bioelectronic implant during rodent microsurgeries. V-shaped end for multiple syringe sizes, 45° flat-tipped screw for implant stability, adjustable arm. 3D-printed prototype worked. Next version in 316L stainless steel.

SolidWorksFusion 360 3D Printing316L Steel
View Poster →
Flexible PCB connector for bioelectronic implants
Biomedical · Materials · URAD (Soph. 2024–25)

Robust Connectors for Bioelectronic Implants

Sealed connector systems for implanted devices — resisting enzymatic activity, immune response, fluid infiltration, and mechanical disconnection. Shrink-wrap tubing filled with PDMS, heat-treated for compression and polymerization. Tested electrical performance and fluid infiltration in simulated physiological conditions. URAD-funded, supervised by Prof. Boys.

PDMS / SiliconeElectrochemical Testing Biocompatibility

Where I've Worked

Experience & Roles

Teaching, research, building, and mentoring — across the lab, the classroom, the machine shop, and two summers.

Spring 2025
Teaching Assistant — ENGS 28: Embedded Systems
Dartmouth College · Thayer School of Engineering
  • Ran office hours and lab sessions on STM32 firmware, GPIO, UART, SPI, I²C, ADC, and interrupt-driven architectures — the kind of TA who sits down with the oscilloscope next to you.
  • Debugged students' firmware directly in STM32CubeIDE, helping them trace timing issues and register misconfigurations that are invisible without hardware experience.
2024 — Present
Teaching Assistant — CS10: Problem Solving via OOP
Dartmouth College · Department of Computer Science
  • Lead weekly recitations on OOP design in Java — inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, data structures, and debugging strategy for 20+ students.
  • Hold twice-weekly office hours; students leave with working code rather than just a pointer in the right direction.
Winter 2025
Machine Shop Student Worker
Dartmouth College · Thayer School Machine Shop
  • Helped students prototype engineering projects using CNC milling machines, laser cutters, and FDM 3D printers.
  • Advised on design-for-manufacture tradeoffs: tolerances, material selection, and when to machine versus print a part.
Summer 2024
Coding Instructor — KenSAP
Kenya Scholars Assistance Program · Mombasa, Kenya
  • Taught introductory Python to Kenyan high school scholars preparing for university. Designed lessons from scratch — making abstract programming concepts stick for students with limited prior exposure is genuinely harder than it sounds.
Summer 2024
Research Intern — E.E. Just Program
Dartmouth College · Global Pediatric Hand Surgery Survey → SICOT 2025
  • Analyzed survey data from the Pediatric Hand Study Group (PHSG) to quantify global participation in pediatric hand surgery — cleaning data, running statistical analysis, building a world map (Figure 1) and summary table (Table 1) of participation rates across training levels and countries.
  • This work contributed to a research abstract accepted and presented at the 45th SICOT Orthopaedic World Congress in Spain (2025).
  • Received the 2024 Louis J. Setti International Intern Award for outstanding performance in international research placement.
Winter 2024
FYREE Undergraduate Research
Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab · Prof. Alex Boys, Dartmouth
  • Designed and 3D-printed a surgical holder for positioning bioelectronic implants and syringes in rodent microsurgeries using SolidWorks and Fusion 360. Presented through Dartmouth's First-Year Research in Engineering Experience (FYREE) program.
2024 — 2025
STEM Academic Fellow — FYSEP
Dartmouth College · First-Year Students Enrichment Program
  • Mentored first-generation and low-income students through the transition to college-level STEM at Dartmouth. Weekly sessions targeting the concepts that textbooks skip but exams do not.

Where I Study

Education & Coursework

B.E. Engineering Sciences modified with Computer Science
Dartmouth College — Thayer School of Engineering
Hanover, NH · Class of 2027 · Expected June 2027

Dartmouth's Engineering Sciences program is hardware, software, circuits, dynamics, and materials all in one degree. The CS modification adds algorithms, systems programming, and software design on top. The result is that I think like an engineer when I write code, and like a programmer when I design hardware — and I've actually tested both sides in real projects.

🏆
2024 Louis J. Setti International Intern Award
Awarded for outstanding performance in the E.E. Just research internship — the SICOT 2025 pediatric hand surgery survey work.
📄
Co-Author — 45th SICOT Orthopaedic World Congress (Spain, 2025)
Research abstract on global participation in pediatric hand surgery.
🔬
PEDOT:PSS Bioelectronic Research — Publication in Progress
Fully polymeric bioelectronic implant design, Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab. Manuscript in preparation.
🎓
FYSEP STEM Academic Fellow
Mentored first-generation and low-income students through Dartmouth's FYSEP program.
Relevant Coursework
CS10 · Problem Solving via OOP (Java) CS50 · Software Design & Implementation (C) CS52 · Full-Stack Web Development COSC 61 · Database Systems ENGS 28 · Embedded Systems (STM32) ENGS 62 · Microprocessors in Engineered Systems ENGS 20 · Scientific Computing (MATLAB) ENGS 31 · Digital Electronics ENGS 21 · Introduction to Engineering ENGS 22 · Systems ENGS 23 · Distributed Systems ENGS 25 · Thermodynamics ENGS 30 · Biological Physics MATH 8 · Calculus of Functions of One & Several Variables MATH 13 · Calculus II MATH 14 · Calculus III (Multivariable) MATH 22 · Linear Algebra MATH 23 · Differential Equations PHYS 13 · Introductory Physics PHYS 14 · Electricity & Magnetism CHEM 5 · General Chemistry

Publications & Lab Work

Research & Science

Bioelectronic Implants
Bioelectronics · Microfabrication · In Progress

Fully Polymeric PEDOT:PSS Bioelectronic Implants

Replacing metallic electrodes in bioelectronic implants with PEDOT:PSS — a conductive polymer that's both electrically active and body-compatible. Standard PEDOT:PSS-on-gold devices fail through delamination under cyclic stimulation. By eliminating the metal interface, the implant has better mechanical compliance with soft tissue, lower immune response risk, and more stable long-term performance. I'm doing the full microfabrication workflow: photolithography, spin-coating, parylene-C CVD, RIE etching, and characterizing with EIS and CIC testing under repeated stimulation cycles. Supervised by Prof. Alex Boys, Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab, Dartmouth. Manuscript in preparation.

🔬 Publication in Progress 🏛️ Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab
🌍
Global Surgery · Data Analysis · Published

Global Pediatric Hand Surgery Survey — SICOT 2025

Through the E.E. Just internship (Summer 2024), I analyzed survey data from the Pediatric Hand Study Group to quantify global participation in pediatric hand surgery — cleaning data, running statistical analysis, building a world map of countries visited by members and a summary statistics table. The paper was accepted and presented at the 45th SICOT Orthopaedic World Congress in Spain (2025).

📄 SICOT 2025, Spain · Accepted & Presented
🔗
Bioelectronics · Materials · URAD

Robust Connectors for Bioelectronic Implants

Sealed connector systems for long-term implanted devices — shrink-wrap tubing filled with PDMS, heat-treated for compression and polymerization. Tested electrical performance and fluid infiltration under simulated physiological conditions. URAD-funded, supervised by Prof. Boys.

🔬 URAD · Dartmouth Bioelectronics Lab
CAD / Prototyping · FYREE · Freshman Winter 2024

Precision Surgical Holder — Research Poster

Designed a holder for stabilizing both syringe and bioelectronic implant during rodent microsurgeries. The 3D-printed prototype demonstrated excellent stability and minimal friction. Next version in 316L stainless steel. Poster presented at FYREE, May 2024.

Surgical Holder for Bioelectronic Integration Research Poster

The Human Part

I'm not just
a GitHub profile.

I grew up in Mombasa, Kenya — coast kid, not capital city. That background gives me a different default frame for what "normal" is, and I think it makes me ask better questions.

I tend to be the person who won't let a question go until I understand it from the bottom. Not just "how does this work" — but "why was it built this way, and what do we lose if it was built differently." Annoying in group projects. Very useful when debugging.

I spent a genuinely embarrassing amount of time once thinking about why a cow is called a cow and not a goat. Like, who was the first person who looked at that animal and made that sound? And why did everyone else agree? This is the kind of question my friends tolerate, and it's also exactly why I'm decent at root cause analysis.

When I'm Not Coding

🏸
Badminton
Surprisingly competitive about it
🏊
Swimming
Best thinking happens in the water
🥾
Hiking
New Hampshire has the trails for it
🐱
Cats
Dogs are too agreeable
✈️
Traveling
Kenya set the bar very high
🤖
AI Trends
I follow papers like some people follow sports
🛠️
Side Projects
If I'm curious, I build it
🧩
First Principles
Why does this work? No, actually why?
🤝
People
Everyone has a story worth hearing

Let's Talk

I'm actively
recruiting.

Available for Summer 2026 internships & full-time roles (2027)

Whether it's a software role, firmware position, research collaboration, or just a conversation — I respond fast.

✉️
Email
swabir.m.bwana.27@dartmouth.edu
→
💼
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/swabir-mohamed
→
⚙️
GitHub
github.com/Swabir001
→
What I'm looking for
▸ Software Engineering Internships (SWE, backend, full-stack)
▸ Embedded Systems / Firmware Engineering
▸ Hardware-Software Integration & Testing
▸ Systems Programming / Low-Level C/C++
▸ Research (FPGA, TinyML, Edge AI)
Quick facts
Location
Hanover, NH
From
Mombasa, Kenya 🇰🇪
Graduation
June 2027
Work Authorization
F-1 (CPT / OPT)