Jason Sinaga

Teaching

STEM Head Tutor

Worked as a head tutor for UW-Madison's Undergraduate Learning Center. Tutored students in group and private settings and ensured the smooth operation of nightly tutoring activity. Subjects tutored:

Computer Science

Electrical and Computer Engineering

General Physics I and II

General Chemistry I

Calculus I, II, III

Calculus II Facilitator

Worked as a Calculus II facilitator under the ULC. I was responsible for leading two groups where each group meets twice a week. In each session, I presented mini-lectures on each topic and lead group exercises. I addressed questions, gave tips and tricks. Furthermore, I also ran three practice exams for engineering students in which I invigilated and discussed the answers afterward. Topics covered are:

Integration by parts

Trigonometric Integrals

Series

Taylor and MacLaurin Series

Vectors

In-Class Peer Coach for ECE 203 (Signals, Information, & Computation)

In-Class Peer Coach for ECE 376 (Electrical and Electronic Circuits)

Worked as an In-Class Peer Coach together with Professor Joseph Andrews in Spring of 2024 to assist students in in answering in-class exercises. The topics included:

Ohm's Law, Kirchoff's Law, Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits, opamps, capacitors and inductors in first-order circuits, sinusoidal steady state, phasors, complex power, transformers

English Teacher

Taught English to elementary students part time for one year and full time for six weeks. the basics of reading and phonetics, in addition to writing, speaking, and listening. Responsibilities included:

Creating lesson plans and summaries

Tracking student progress

Communicated with parents regarding student growth

Discussed teaching strategies with colleagues and managers

SystemVerilog

ChatbOoOt

In a group of 6, we aimed to design a chatbot that is powered by an Out-of-Order processor mapped on a DE1-SoC. The chatbot will detect the user's input and will communicate with the processor via a SPART unit. The processor will then look for keywords and send a text response and an audio response. The audio responses are played via the on-board audio codec and play .wav files stored in memory. The Out-of-Order architecture is based on the MIPS R10K architecture. We implemented a 7-stage pipeline that runs on a 50 MHz clock. We also won the Instructor's Choice Award for our project for the Digital Laboratory class.

Segway

In a group of 3 and under the guidance of Professor Eric Hoffman, we developed a Segway. He instructed us in SystemVerilog and guided us in synthesis with Synopsys. We utilized Quartus to map it to a DE0-Nano. We developed modules for SPI, UART, Piezo, Integrator, A2D interface, and other minor components. Additionally, we tested these modules in ModelSim and ensured that they met timing and size requirements.

Multi-cycle Pipelined CPU

In a group of 3 and under the guidance of Professor Joshua San Miguel, we developed a CPU that uses a custom ISA that takes in 16-bit instructions similar to the MIPS ISA. The instructions supported include arithmetic operations, memory instructions, and branches. We developed modules for the ALU, Forwarding Control, Register File, Pipeline Registers, and Control units. Testbenches were made for smaller modules and register values were traced from the testbench.

Java

UW Student Database

In a group of 4, we implemented an application that allows users to access a database of students with a Red Black Binary Tree implementation. The application allowed for importing, adding, removing, and searching UW Madison students based on their ID number. The data assocciated with each student are their names, majors, and years.

Reddit Post Search Engine

In a group of 4, we implemented a search engine for Reddit posts by using a hashtable. We used Linear Probing and Linked Lists for collision handling when storing posts based on their words in their titles and body. Users can search for these posts by typing in the relevant key words. Users can also import reddit posts to store into the search engine.

Subway Navigator App

Implemented an app with JavaFX that implemented Dijkstra's Algorithm to find the shortest path between two subway stations on Linux. Users can write down the starting point of their journey and their end point. They will receive information on the stations they would need to pass by and also the associated cost. Furthermore, users can also receive the map's Prim's Algorithm representation.

C

Key Hunter

Created a game with Tim R. Wang called Key Hunter. Used an MSP432P401R Launchpad and Development Kit that employed the joystick, buttons, accelerometer, light sensor, speaker, and LCD Display. The goal of the game is for the player to acquire all keys in each level. More levels will be unlocked as more levels are completed by the player. However, they need to avoid protruding spikes and patrolling enemies that can hurt the player.

Heap Allocator

Created a program that simulated memory allocation following the IA-32 architecture. Header and Footer blocks were incorporated and immediate splitting was done during memory allocation. Memory block coalescing was user-initiated.

Linux Shell

Created a shell that runs on the Linux terminal. The shell can store local and environment variables, piping, and run parent and child processes.

Python

Cashier App

Created a GUI-based application that acts as an advanced cash register that uses the libraries openpyxl, xlsxwriter, and customtkinter. The app reads an excel file that loads the inventory. From the app, the user can add items, put items in the shopping cart and sell them, and generate a new excel report with the new inventory count. You can look at it here.

Quantum Password Generator

Participated in the Wisconsin Quantum Computing Club Quantum Hackathon. Utilized Qiskit to complete several notebooks on quantum circuits and made a Random Password Generator using a quantum circuit with multiple Hadamard gates. Certificate can be found here.

LaTeX

Intro to LaTeX handout

Created a handout that teaches beginners important notes about LaTeX for making mathematical documents (particularly for discrete math courses). A target file is also provided to practice using LaTeX with the goal of replicating it. You can access the handout and the target file here.

Undergraduate Research

Laboratory for Computing with Unconventional Technologies

Conducted research under Professor Akhilesh Jaiswal in the COMPUTE lab (Spring & Fall 2024). In Spring 2024, I worked on reengineering a CMOS circuit that can detect Object Motion Sensitivity. Object Motion Sensitivity is a retinal feature that can detect whether an object is moving against a moving background. In the new design, reconfigurablity was introduced and the circuit was simulated using Cadence Virtuoso. Our paper was accepted by the International Conference of Neuromorphic Systems 2024 and can be accessed here.
In Fall 2024, I worked on reengineering another CMOS circuit that supports Looming Detection. Looming Detection is another retinal feature that can detect whether an object is moving towards or away us. In the new design, I also implemented reconfigurablity and simulated its functionality using Cadence Virtuoso.

Energy Transport & Conversion Laboratory

Conducted research under Professor Eric Tervo in the ETC Lab (Fall 2024). I was asked to investigate Solcore and design the base code to simulate Fluctuational Electrodynamics with the Solcore library.

PCB Design and Assembly

Printed Game Board

Designed a PCB together with its schematics on Altium. Connected the ports through orthogonal routing. PCB was then printed and then assembled the PCB with all its components. The components included the MCU, capacitors, resistors, LEDs, switches, and MOSFETs. The PCB is programmed for players to attempt to press the button when the green LEDs are on. If successful, the player will continue to the next round but the LEDs will light up faster.

USB Equalizer

Designed the schematic of a USB equalizer and its PCB layout using EasyEDA. Assembled Professor Giri Venkataramanan's PCB design and its components. The components included op amps, capacitors, resistors, potentionmeters, and audio jacks. Used a reflow oven and soldering iron to place the components onto the PCB.