Nikhil Thankasala

Intern @ Charge Robotics | M.S. Robotics @ UCSC @ Ambi Robotics

About

Robotics Engineering senior at UC Santa Cruz, graduating June 2026, with a Minor in Electrical Engineering. Incoming Electrical and Computer Engineering MS at UCSC with a concentration in Robotics, Controls, and Cyber-Physical Systems. I'm currently building FORTIS, an inspection robot for General Atomics' DIII-D tokamak fusion reactor that performs debris retrieval and visual inspection inside the reactor vessel. I lead the software stack and simulation of this platform. My work spans the full robotics stack, from embedded motor control and sensor integration up through ROS 2, simulation, and computer vision pipelines. I'm most interested in the layer where intelligent behavior meets the constraints of real machinesSeeking robotics, firmware, or embedded engineer roles on teams building systems that operate in the real world. github.com/nthankas

Country

United States

City

San Francisco Bay Area

Industry

Information Technology & Services

Skill

Embedded Systems, Python (Programming Language), C (Programming Language), C++, ROS2, IsaacSim, MuJoCo, Algorithms, Computer Vision, Oscilloscope, Motor Control, Sensor Integration, Signal Processing, Firmware, SOLIDWORKS, Microcontrollers, Embedded C, Git, OpenCV, Docker

Experience

Robotics Test Intern

Ambi Robotics

2025-11 - Present · 11 mos

Berkeley, CA

Embedded with the software and research teams, validating autonomous robotic sorting systems (AmbiSort, AmbiStack) across development branches in Docker-containerized environments. Diagnosing hardware-software integration failures by analyzing neural-network and learned behavior, Rerun 3D visualizations, and telemetry dashboards, tracing issues across pipelines to root cause.

Technical Lead

University of California, Santa Cruz

2025-10 - Present · 1 yr

Santa Cruz, CA

Leading all technical development for FORTIS, a remotely operated tokamak inspection robot for the DIII-D fusion reactor, sponsored by General Atomics. Sole technical owner across embedded controls, full-robot physics simulation, software architecture, and AI perception on a 5-person cross-functional team. Architecting the onboard compute and motor control stack for an omnidirectional drive chassis and 4-DOF inspection arm. Building high-fidelity simulation in NVIDIA Isaac Sim to validate drivetrain dynamics, terrain traversal, and arm kinematics against real reactor geometry before hardware integration. Developing a Python controls and communications library covering fieldbus motor protocols, drive kinematics, and state estimation. Integrating grasp quality estimation and vision segmentation models for semi-autonomous manipulation of inspection targets.

Group Tutor

University of California, Santa Cruz

2025-9 - Present · 1 yr 1 mo

Santa Cruz, CA

Assisting professors for multiple electrical and computer engineering courses (ECE8, ECE13) in teaching course curriculum and labwork while grading occasionally. ECE8 is Intro to Robotics, Automation, and Dynamic Control, ECE13 is Computer Systems and C Programming. Teaching students embedded C, Python, MATLAB, and CoppeliaSim through MCU based deployment, and pre-built robots for modeling, analysis, dynamic systems.

Sales And Service Associate

24 Hour Fitness

2025-1 - 2025-9 · 9 mos

Sales rep for 24 Hour Fitness including marketing and lead management for memberships, personal training and more

TAPS Student Corps

University of California, Santa Cruz

2023-9 - 2024-9 · 1 yr 1 mo

Santa Cruz, California, United States

Logistical and physical management of parking, transportation, and event management with UCSC.

Coding Instructor

Brains & Motion Education

2022-7 - 2023-8 · 1 yr 2 mos

Saratoga, CA

Taught introductory programming concepts to K-12 students in Python, building foundational computational thinking skills through project-based learning.