carla✳codes

CARLA GAVILAN / APPLIED SOFTWARE & AI ENGINEER / FOUNDER

An engineer.
A maker.
Always curious.

I connect AI, data, hardware, and craft. Two Texas Instruments internships. Founder of Lana Robotics, a crochet product used by 25 customers, with end-to-end automation in development.

Follow my work

Engineer by training.
Maker by instinct.

An illustrated worktable of stained glass, embroidery, cross-stitch, yarn, a painted 3D form, and an open bookMANY INTERESTS. ONE CURIOUS MIND.CODE × CIRCUITS × CRAFT
Software with purposeHardware with possibilityAlways something new to try

A LITTLE PLAY, BEFORE THE WORK

Different materials.
Shared curiosity.

Scroll to assemble a little collection.
A crochet swatch. Glass. A layered form.
Drag a piece and see what connects.

A collection of glass, stitches, a painted print, and books

Software, signals, and physical systems. Three projects, connected by a maker’s curiosity.

01Look & Control ↗02Morse Code Tutor ↗03Pump Monitoring ↗
00 / 03 IDEAS CONNECTED

A tiny playground for a very real obsession with making things. Drag with a mouse, or use the buttons.

01 / IDEAS IN PRACTICE

Ideas made
tangible.

More independence. More approachable learning. Earlier warnings. I’m interested in what engineering can make possible for people.

MORSE CODE TUTOR / LEARNING THROUGH SIGNAL
C A R L A

02 / SOFTWARE MEETS HARDWARECompleted · May 2026

Morse Code Tutor

Learning a new skill should be approachable. My interest in free or low-cost Morse learning led to a React tutor with keyboard and Arduino paddle input, built with a three-person team: 46 characters and six playback speeds from 10-30 WPM. After two debugging iterations, we passed 9/9 final functional checks and earned an A+.

  • React / Vite
  • Material UI
  • Arduino
  • Raspberry Pi
  • IndexedDB
Explore the project
  • Co-developed a low-cost React/Vite and Material UI tutor integrating keyboard practice, Arduino paddle input, and Raspberry Pi polling; supported 46 characters and 6 playback speeds from 10-30 WPM.
  • Built hardware-check and reference pages, merged feature branches, and resolved Git conflicts; collaborated on fixes for missed fast paddle inputs, quiz timing, and progress updates after repeat attempts.
  • Persisted practice attempts, settings, and scores through the team's IndexedDB implementation; completed 2 debugging iterations and passed 9/9 final functional checks as a team. Earned an A+.

The audio interaction above is a demonstration created for this site.

Try the interactive demo ↗

PUMP MONITORING / FROM READINGS TO REASONING
Sense.
Understand.
Respond.3 SENSOR CHANNELS
ONE CONNECTED PIPELINE
03 / DATA & PHYSICAL SYSTEMSAugust - December 2025

Pump Monitoring & Early-Warning Pipeline

How can we notice trouble earlier? A pump-monitoring pipeline connects temperature sensors, historical trends, and a failure-prediction model to explore early warnings and better system monitoring. Built in a three-person team and completed with an A+.

  • Python
  • Raspberry Pi
  • PostgreSQL / SQLAlchemy
  • pandas / scikit-learn
  • Plotly Dash
  • Twilio SendGrid
  • MCP3008 / SPI
Explore the project
  • Co-developed an early-warning prototype for abnormal pump temperatures using 3 TMP36 sensors, an MCP3008 ADC over SPI, and a Raspberry Pi 4; built Python/SQLAlchemy ingestion to store timestamped voltage and temperature readings in PostgreSQL.
  • Developed pandas feature processing and scikit-learn Random Forest experiments using rolling means and temperature/voltage changes; saved the model, median imputer, and feature order for consistent live inference.
  • Integrated Plotly Dash temperature/history views and Twilio SendGrid warning notifications in the team system, with distinct anomaly and failure audio alarms. Completed the three-person project with an A+.

The replay below uses synthetic readings. It is a demonstration, not measured project performance or live telemetry.

Try the synthetic sensor replay ↗ · Explore the source ↗

IMAGE → PATTERN → POSSIBILITYIllustrative pattern study · not a screenshot of the app
04 / SOFTWARE × CRAFTInteractive maker tool

Before the first cut.

A stained-glass studio for turning images and SVG artwork into glass patterns. Try a sample, recolor individual pieces, explore a 3D preview, and export SVG or DXF before committing to materials.

The idea grew out of my own interest in stained glass. I wanted to help makers see what a composition could look like, explore possibilities, and make decisions before the hands-on work began.

That space between a creative question and a useful tool is a place I like to work.

Try the interactive demo ↗ · Explore the source ↗

02 / BUILT ON EXPERIENCE

Real systems.
Real impact.

Two summers at Texas Instruments, connecting enterprise automation, AI experiments, and legacy data. Now building Lana Robotics with direct customer feedback.

2025

Data Engineering Intern

Texas Instruments · May - August 2025 · Richardson, TX

  • Researched approximately 6 enterprise tools for mapping thousands of Oracle tables and a multi-million-line legacy codebase; tested candidate tools' data-processing efficiency under proprietary-data restrictions.
  • Fine-tuned an open-source LLM and built an evaluation system; one-week prototype results reached 85% accuracy versus 64% for the comparison model, informing the team's legacy-data roadmap.
  • Mapped dependencies for approximately 30-40 legacy batch jobs, each with about 10 subtasks; used PL/SQL to validate data and document ownership for consolidation, outdated-data cleanup, and mainframe migration.
2024

Software Engineer Intern

Texas Instruments · May - August 2024 · Richardson, TX

  • Built 5 JavaScript/SAPUI5 screens for an internal SAP Fiori tool replacing decades-old Excel-based data entry and workflow selection for financial and resource-allocation reporting.
  • Worked directly with employees across multiple departments to understand recurring, time-sensitive workflows; translated requirements into desktop and handheld Figma layouts and documented edge cases.
  • Contributed to the team's system that reduced a recurring employee workflow from roughly a week to about 2 hours, saving hundreds of hours of manual work.
NOW

Founder

Lana Robotics · In development

  • Develop a crochet product used by 25 customers; end-to-end automation is in development.
  • Speak directly with customers to understand their needs and translate feedback into product improvements.

Visit LanaRobotics.com ↗

Download my resume ↗

03 / A LOT OF DIFFERENT INTERESTS

A technical mind.
A hands-on heart.

A circuit on the desk.
Paint on my hands.
Another idea to try.

I’m Carla, a Computer Engineering student at Texas Tech University, graduating in December 2026. My work moves between applied software, AI, embedded systems, and data, with a particular interest in connecting digital ideas to the physical world. I'm also the founder of Lana Robotics, where customer conversations shape the product as I work toward end-to-end crochet automation.

I’m happily eclectic. I crochet, cross-stitch, embroider, and make random 3D prints to paint. I’ve gone down a stained-glass rabbit hole and would love to return to it. Knitting is on my someday list. And there’s usually a nerdy book waiting for one more chapter.

I like the analytical side of figuring things out: processing data, noticing patterns, and improving a system. I also like trying a material or technique just to see what happens. Both start with curiosity—and the patience to learn as I go.

Education
Texas Tech University · B.S. Computer Engineering · Expected December 2026 · GPA 3.4/4.0
Honors College; Dean's List, Fall 2022 - Spring 2024
New Mexico Junior College · Associate of Arts · August 2023 · GPA 4.0/4.0

A FEW TOOLS IN MY KIT

Python · JavaScript · SQL · Oracle PL/SQL
React · Vite · Node.js · SAP Fiori · SAPUI5 · PostgreSQL · SQLAlchemy · IndexedDB
LLM fine-tuning · Evaluation systems · MediaPipe · pandas · scikit-learn · Plotly Dash
ESP32 · Raspberry Pi · Arduino · MCP3008 · SPI · Twilio SendGrid
Git · GitHub · Figma · VS Code · Unit and integration testing

AN OPEN-ENDED COLLECTION

Room for one more interest.

Things I make, things I keep coming back to, and things I haven’t tried yet.

IN MY ROTATION

Crochet

Building a little at a time, with a hook and a length of yarn.

IN MY ROTATION

Cross-stitch & embroidery

A counted pattern or a line of thread. Two different ways to make a surface my own.

MAKE IT, THEN PAINT IT

3D prints

Sometimes a print starts with a practical idea. Sometimes I just want to make something and see where the paint takes it.

WOULD LOVE TO REVISIT

Stained glass

Color, light, and pieces coming together. An interest that also sparked a software idea.

ON MY SOMEDAY LIST

Knitting

A new technique to learn. I like leaving space for the next thing that catches my attention.

ONE MORE CHAPTER

Nerdy books

Intricate worlds, big ideas, and the pleasure of getting absorbed in something unfamiliar.

04 / LET’S MAKE A CONNECTION

What are you
curious about?

Have an idea, a thoughtful problem,
or a shared love of making things?

Download my resume Say hello on LinkedIn Explore my GitHub