Mehdi Bouzguenda

Embedded systems · FPV · IoT engineer

I design the board, solder it, write the firmware, fly it — and ship the platform it talks to.

  • PCB design
  • ESP32 firmware
  • FPV pilot
  • Edge AI
  • Full-stack

Istanbul, Türkiye · working remotelyOpen to freelance projects and engineering roles

Hands on, from copper to cloud.

Mehdi Bouzguenda soldering a board at a lab bench, wearing a magnifier

I’m an embedded systems engineer with R&D experience across IoT, custom PCB design, firmware and the web platforms around them.

One month that means SMD-soldering an energy-metering chip onto a meter board and extending its ESP-IDF firmware. The next, it means CAD-modelling an enclosure, printing it, and shipping the Nest.js backend the device reports to.

Between projects I build, tune and race FPV drones: six national drone-challenge wins, and nine workshops teaching others to do the same.

Based in
Istanbul, Türkiye
Roots
Sfax, Tunisia
Now
Freelance engineer, since June 2026
Speaks
Arabic · English · French

One signal, end to end.

Most engineers own one block of this chain. I build every block, so the parts actually talk to each other.

  1. Design

    • Custom PCB layout
    • SolidWorks enclosures
    • 3D printing & laser-cut fabrication
  2. Hardware

    • SMD soldering
    • ESP32 / ESP8266
    • Raspberry Pi
    • Jetson Nano
  3. Firmware

    • ESP-IDF
    • C / C++
    • Arduino
    • PID control
  4. Radio

    • ESP-NOW
    • Wi-Fi
    • NFC / RFID
    • GPS
  5. Cloud

    • Nest.js · REST APIs
    • n8n automation
    • GitLab CI/CD
    • Self-hosted VPS
  6. Interface

    • Angular
    • Next.js
    • Kiosk & touch UIs
    • Telegram bots

Hardware lab

Devices I designed, printed, soldered, flashed and handed over. Most went straight into live events.

Buzzer game

Wireless team-building buzzers

A giant press-button with a two-digit score display, linked to the others over ESP-NOW. Modelled in CAD, 3D-printed and laser-cut, then wired and flashed.

  • ESP32
  • ESP-NOW
  • 7-segment
  • 3D print
  1. CAD
  2. Printed
  3. Shipped
Buzzer game: CAD
Buzzer game: Printed
Buzzer game: Shipped

Touchscreen kiosk

Self-service registration

A check-in kiosk built around an all-in-one touchscreen PC: modelled in SolidWorks with a human figure for ergonomics, then the metal frame, then the finished unit on site.

  • SolidWorks
  • Touchscreen PC
  • Fabrication
  1. CAD
  2. Printed
  3. Shipped
Touchscreen kiosk: CAD
Touchscreen kiosk: Printed
Touchscreen kiosk: Shipped

From CAD to the venue floor

Drag the line to compare each SolidWorks model with what was delivered.

Smart lectern: CAD
Smart lectern: Built

Smart lectern

A speaker’s lectern with a built-in screen, modelled around a human figure and built to the drawing.

Display kiosk: CAD
Display kiosk: Built

Display kiosk

A free-standing screen kiosk with a lockable service door, installed at a venue.

Buzzer remote: CAD
Buzzer remote: Built

Buzzer remote

The host’s remote for the buzzer game: start, reset, true and false, in a printed case.

JARSS

“Just A Rather Scanning System”

An end-to-end handheld QR scanner for event entry: custom PCB, ESP32 firmware and a printed pistol-grip enclosure with a light ring.

  • ESP32
  • Custom PCB
  • QR
  • 3D print

Smile camera

Raspberry Pi vision

A photo booth that waits for you to smile: face and smile detection on a Raspberry Pi, then the shot is taken automatically.

  • Raspberry Pi 5
  • OpenCV
  • Python

People counter

Edge AI on Jetson Nano

Counts and analyses crowds at live events with camera vision running on the device itself.

  • Jetson Nano
  • Camera vision
  • Edge AI
Meeting-room controller

Meeting-room controller

Booking at the door

Shows whether a room is free, starts a meeting from the keypad, and lights an LED ring to match. A round-display version sits by the door.

  • ESP32
  • LCD · round TFT
  • NeoPixel
  • Web app
Access controller

Access controller

Portable event entry

Handheld keypad-and-NFC terminals and a desk reader for checking people in at the door.

  • ESP32 / ESP8266
  • NFC
  • Keypad
  • APIs

Order terminal

Delivery status by keypad

A handheld terminal for couriers: type an order ID, then mark it delivered, cancelled or out for delivery.

  • Microcontroller
  • 20×4 LCD
  • Keypad
Custom boards

Custom boards

PCBs, prototypes & wiring

Boards I designed and assembled, ESP32-CAM modules, and the hand-wired prototypes that come before them.

  • PCB design
  • SMD
  • ESP32-CAM
  • Prototyping

Competition robots

Line followers & combat bots

Robots built for national competitions: PID-tuned line followers and off-road and combat robots.

  • Microcontroller
  • PID
  • Chassis

Goggles on.

I build, tune and fly FPV drones: racing quads, freestyle 5-inches and cinewhoops for filming live events.

Take-off and climb past the building, one of my own builds.

The hangar

Drag or swipe

Race results

National drone and robotics competitions, plus hackathons. Drones built, tuned and flown by me.

08First places

02Second places

Mehdi holding a drone and a prize cheque from a drone competition
A first-place medal held up in front of a laptop
Mehdi and a teammate holding their off-road robot at an all-terrain robot competition
  1. P1Aéro ISET v1.0 · Drone Challenge2024
  2. P1ENIT AeroClub · Drone Challenge2024
  3. P1ENIT AeroClub · Drone Challenge2023
  4. P1CST “City Drones” v1.0 · Drone Challenge2023
  5. P1ENIM Aerospina v8.0 · Drone Challenge2023
  6. P1Enetcom Aero Cup v1.0 · Drone Challenge2022
  7. P2INSAT Aeroday · Drone Challenge2021
  8. P2ISGIS Robots v1.0 · Off-Road Robot2021
  9. P1OpenGeoData Hackathon (with AGEOS)2021
  10. P1DevCamp Coding Hackathon, Gabès2019

Also competed: ENISROBOT 4.0 (2021), ULT_Robots 5.0 (2021), ENIM Aerospina 5.0 (2021), INSAT TUNIROBOTS (2017, 2018, 2020 24H).

Things that talk.

Devices, radios and the servers behind them. Every node here is something I built and connected.

Self-hosted server

Select a node

Buzzer mesh

Wireless buzzers that pair and report presses peer-to-peer over ESP-NOW, with no router needed.

Timeline

Read it like a logic analyzer: each channel goes high while the role was running.

  1. Freelance EngineerIndependent · Remote · Istanbul – Details
    • Built a full production platform: Angular front end and Nest.js back end, deployed through a GitLab CI/CD pipeline onto a self-hosted VPS. Delivered and running.
    • Built a GPS tracking system on the open-source Traccar project: a custom map front end on the Traccar API for live and historical data, plus an admin panel to control it.
  2. R&D LeadVayetek · Tunis · hybrid – Details
    • Key member of a new R&D department bridging technical innovation and commercial strategy.
    • Built an n8n automation bot linking Dolibarr ERP to Telegram: staff log task time by text or voice message, managers create tasks, and late arrivals get automatic reminders.
    • Developed and documented new REST API endpoints in Dolibarr (Swagger / OpenAPI).
  3. Embedded Software DeveloperSotunec Saraya · Tunisia – Details
    • Upgraded and maintained smart energy-meter firmware with ESP-IDF, adding features and improving performance.
    • SMD-soldered the STPM energy-metering IC onto the main meter PCB.
    • Worked with the hardware and software teams to troubleshoot integration issues.
  4. R&D DeveloperEventizer · Tunisia – Details
    • Designed and built JARSS, an end-to-end QR-code scanner: custom PCB, ESP32 firmware and a 3D-printed enclosure.
    • Built a portable access controller, a Jetson Nano people counter, a smart meeting-room controller, kiosks and a wireless ESP-NOW buzzer game.
    • Built a scalable e-learning platform with Nest.js, Next.js and BigBlueButton on a self-hosted Linux server.
    • Built two Python/Tkinter desktop apps for event logistics: bulk email and print-queue management.
    • Filmed live events flying custom-built 5-inch and 3-inch FPV drones.
  5. Workshops & clubs 2021 – 2024
  6. Podiums 2019 – 2024

The other end of the wire

Every device needs somewhere to report to. These are the platforms and sites I designed and shipped for clients.

Teaching others to fly

Clubs I founded, workshops I ran, and talks on stage about drones and robotics.

Robology is the robotics club I co-founded with a friend in Sfax in 2020, around three fields: mechatronics, aeronautics and aerospace. We run workshops, build competition robots and drones, and took on our most ambitious project together: a CubeSat.

A CubeSat, built with the Robology team

A small satellite on a 3D-printed frame with solar-panel faces. Its sensors send telemetry over radio to a ground-station app that shows altitude, temperature and position on a map.

The assembled CubeSat
The assembled CubeSat
Soldering and testing the electronics
Soldering and testing the electronics
Solar-panel faces on printed frames
Solar-panel faces on printed frames
Ground station: live packets, altitude and temperature
Ground station: live packets, altitude and temperature
Mounted under one of our drones for testing
Mounted under one of our drones for testing
Mehdi on stage at a Robology talk: “Isn’t it time to fly!”
Mehdi presenting at a Robology event
Mehdi presenting an FPV drone at a Robology workshop
  • Technical trainer: 9 workshops on Arduino, IoT (ESP32) and FPV drone building for IEEE chapters and university clubs (ESPRIT, ENET’Com, ISSATSo, INAT)2021–2024
  • Founder, Robotics Club, Majida Boulila High SchoolSfax · 2022
  • Co-founder, Club RobologySfax · 2020
  • Co-founder, Microsoft Tech Club LMBSfax · 2019
  • Participant, Spark Entrepreneurship Program2019, 2020

Education

  • ESPRIT, School of Engineering and TechnologyComputer Science, two years completed. Left to pursue Electrical & Electronic Engineering / Embedded Systems abroad.Tunis
  • Baccalaureate in Computer ScienceMajida Boulila High School. Graduated with honours (Mention Bien).Sfax · 2022

Languages

  • ArabicNative
  • EnglishB2
  • FrenchA2

Let’s build the next one.

A board, its firmware, a drone, or the whole platform: tell me what you need.