Preethi Haleshappa
Embedded firmware and security engineer · Bengaluru
I write firmware that runs on aircraft and in medical devices, and I spend most of my time finding out why it behaves the way it does.
I'm a firmware engineer with five years of production work, from bare-metal STM32 boards to embedded Linux gateways. I've worked on secure boot, certificates and device provisioning, wireless drivers, over-the-air updates and the hardware debugging in between.
I like the part of the job where a symptom looks unrelated to its cause. I'm now studying for a Master's in Computer Science at Georgia Tech, focused on systems and edge AI.
Path
Firmware engineer · 2025 – now
- Firmware for in-flight connectivity gateways on embedded Linux, from bootloader and kernel interfaces up to network daemons and fleet-wide OTA updates.
- Wi-Fi operating-mode framework, mesh networking and cellular connectivity.
- Bare-metal STM32 firmware for a battery and power-management co-processor, built for small code size.
- Python tooling for factory provisioning: certificates, serial validation and SSH automation.
Firmware engineer, then solution architect · 2021 – 2025
- Designed PKI-based secure connectivity for a drug delivery device: X.509 chain of trust, encrypted BLE and NFC certificate exchange.
- Implemented secure boot, secure-element key storage and device provisioning.
- Firmware for a biometric wearable: sensor drivers, heart-rate signal processing, FMEA and state-machine design.
- Started as a hardware engineer: schematics, PCB design and board validation.
B.E., Electronics and Communication · 2017 – 2021
- Autonomous docking and multi-robot coordination for omnidirectional AGVs using ROS. A self-balancing robot with closed-loop control.
- Semi-finalist, e-Yantra Robotics Competition, IIT Bombay.
MS Computer Science (online), Georgia Tech · 2026 –
- Computer architecture, operating systems and security, aimed at edge AI platforms.
Toolbox
- Languages
- C, C++, Python, Bash, JavaScript
- Embedded
- Bare-metal ARM Cortex-M (STM32), FreeRTOS, embedded Linux (OpenWrt, Buildroot), U-Boot, device drivers, OTA design
- Security
- X.509 PKI, TLS, WolfSSL, MbedTLS, secure boot, secure elements, device provisioning, package signing
- Wireless
- Wi-Fi 802.11 (hostapd, wpa_supplicant), mesh, cellular, BLE GATT, NFC
- Buses
- I2C, SPI, UART, ADC
- Debug
- JTAG / SWD, Ozone, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, Wireshark
Now
- Studying computer architecture, operating systems and security.
- Learning 64-bit ARM: exception levels, TrustZone, and how a secure boot chain hands off from stage to stage.
- Learning modern C++ for systems code, next to the C I use every day.
- Planned: a secure boot chain on a dev board, and an edge AI model on a small board with measured latency and power. Both will be written up in Blogs.