Curiosity is learning

I'm Damien Staebler, a computer engineering student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They say curiosity killed the cat, but I like to destroy stuff, figure out how it works, and put it back together. So far, I'm still alive.

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

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Tools & Technologies

C++

Python

TypeScript

Java

HTML

Linux

mongoDB

Neovim

Robotics

High-Performance Computing

Next.js & React

Wireshark

Arduino

Embedded Systems

Git & Version Control

Projects

Featured Work

University of Tennessee Knoxville Student Space Systems Association Lunabot

Student Space Technology Association (SSTA) Lunabot

Member of the control systems team for the Lunabotics Challenge at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, I focused on designing and implementing the robot's autonomous navigation and control systems using ROS2 and C++.

ROS2

C++

Python

NVIDIA Jetson

ESP32

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SoundcoreDesktop

A desktop application that emulates the official Soundcore mobile app. This involved reverse-engineering Bluetooth communication protocols using Wireshark to enable desktop control of hardware features.

Reverse-engineered Bluetooth traffic and implemented desktop controls for hardware features normally locked to mobile.

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Python

Tkinter

Wireshark

Bluetooth

GitHub

TouchPortal-API

A Python library created to streamline the development of TouchPortal plugins. It abstracts complex socket communication, allowing developers to build hardware-software integrations with minimal boilerplate code.

Designed the socket abstraction layer used to reduce plugin boilerplate and make TouchPortal integrations easier to build.

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Python

Sockets

API Design

Libraries

GitHub

SmilesBot

An open-source Discord bot designed for students and educators to visualize chemical structures. It renders SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System) strings into high-quality molecular images in real-time.

Built a Discord workflow that turns chemistry notation into shareable molecular images for students and educators.

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60+ servers30,000+ users

Python

RDKit

Discord.py

Google VM

Engineering Experience

May 2025 – Aug 2025

AI/ML Intern

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

May 2025 – Aug 2025

Built a scalable, end-to-end computational pathology pipeline on Frontier, adapting CUDA-based research workloads to AMD ROCm and parallelizing preprocessing, feature extraction, and training.
Integrated histopathology-pretrained ViT-MAE embeddings with TransMIL, achieving 96.77%-100% test accuracy compared with 86.04% for the ResNet50 baseline in the reported experiments.
Learned the complete ML research lifecycle from experienced mentors, from dataset preparation and distributed training to validation, statistical evaluation, and presenting the results at SMC25.

Aug 2024 – Present

Software Mentor

RoboGenesis

Aug 2024 – Present

Mentoring a San Diego-based FTC team on electronics selection, sensor integration, and Java programming for autonomous control.
Guiding the team on software best practices and troubleshooting to enhance competition performance.

Jun 2024 – Aug 2024

Freelance Web Developer

Rockin Community Cats

Jun 2024 – Aug 2024

Developed a custom website using TypeScript and Bootstrap, replacing a Wix subscription to save the non-profit over $500 annually.
Managed site deployment and hosting via Cloudflare to ensure high availability and performance.

May 2024 – Aug 2024

Tech Internship

Pellissippi State Community College

May 2024 – Aug 2024

Guided and supported high school students throughout their tech internships to help them succeed.
Coordinated with program staff to keep internship running smoothly and address any challenges.

Academic Background

Education & Honors

Recognition

Dean's List

Academic recognition

3.95 GPA

University of Tennessee

3.92 GPA

Pellissippi State Community College

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering • 2025 - 2027

Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Related Coursework

COSC 303 AlgorithmsDigital Logic Design / FPGACalculus IIIDifferential EquationsLinear Algebra

Associate of Science • 2023 - 2025

Pellissippi State Community College

Knoxville, Tennessee

PSCC tech internship mentoring high school internsRedesigned and developed a website for a local nonprofit cat rescueCo-founded Engineers of PSCC; built a rocket and avionics systemEarned Oak Ridge National Laboratory AI/ML cancer detection internship

Connect

Get in Touch

Feel free to reach out to me for any questions.

Email Me Download Resume