George Haworth

Electrical engineer and embedded systems developer.

As an electrical and embedded systems engineer I operate at the intersection of disciplines that are often siloed. I am equally comfortable writing low-level firmware for MCUs as I am designing and building BS EN 61439 compliant control panels, or designing safety circuits. This positions me to take the lead on projects spanning multiple engineering disciplines, and to draw lines of connection not necessarily visible to those working within their respective silos.

I approach my work by seeking first to understand deeply the underlying mechanisms and principles involved, rather than relying on received practice. I treat the quiet, understated discipline of actually figuring things out for myself, rather than reaching for a packaged solution, as a capability worth defending. Tolerating the discomfort of being stuck or wrong is the prerequisite for actual personal and professional growth.

In a field where most engineers work hard to demonstrate how much they know, regardless of whether this demonstration has been requested, I’m comfortable being the least knowledgeable person in the room. If I don’t know something, it’s most likely because I haven’t seen it before; not because it’s beyond my capabilities. I’ve grokked enough irreducibly difficult concepts to no longer feel embarrassed about asking questions. My self-worth is not dependent on appearing to know.

Employment

March 2018 to present. Robust AE Ltd.

Electrical engineering and embedded systems consultancy.

Safety circuit design, component selection, and control panel build for a CNC router used in a council wheelie bin load cell retrofit trial. The circuit implemented a solenoid lid interlock preventing access while the gantry was away from the parked position, and a self-holding contactor cutting power to gantry and spindle on lid breach or maintenance door access.

Audit and redesign of the control panel for an air-source heat pump prototype, brought into conformity with BS 7671 and BS EN 61439. Work covered relay selection, MCB selectivity, and fuse sizing for the 24VDC control circuits.

Control systems for urban vertical farms: automated pump, fan, and grow light sequencing with integrated level monitoring and leak detection.

C++ DNP3 client reading process data from a Siemens RTU in a remote leak detection system, with Rust handling data parsing and RTU time synchronisation.

Microcontroller-based smart shelving for an industrial laundry application. Sorting efficiency improved approximately 6-7x with near-zero error rate.

May 2022 to June 2025, concurrent with Robust AE Ltd. Wessex Water Services Ltd.

Contract controls engineer. Siemens TIA Portal (SCL), Modbus TCP/RTU across water treatment works and pumping infrastructure.

Designed and commissioned Wessex Water’s first servo-driven alkalinity dosing system, integrating third-party mechanical components.

Wrote process simulation code to verify control system behaviour before deployment. Testing covered unit testing of individual control modules, regression testing, and factory and site acceptance testing.

Produced User Requirements Specifications and associated technical documentation.

June 2013 to March 2018. Self-Employed.

Bespoke control systems for a range of clients.

Signal processing for musical bicycles: a project with the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), using BeagleBone single-board computers.

Automated fish feeder in collaboration with Green Lab London.

Embedded software for Arduino-based control systems.

December 2005 to November 2009. Linedata (BFT) Ltd.

Release analyst for hedge fund trading platform software handling multi-billion pound transactions. Responsible for testing and deployment of critical software releases. SQL, version control, enterprise software QA.

Education

2016. MSc Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London. Distinction.

Dissertation: hardware audio effect processor implementing real-time signal processing algorithms. Student representative for Computing department postgraduate students.

2004. BSc (Hons) Mathematics, Loughborough University. 2:1.

Final project in neural system modelling.

Certifications and licences

2023. University of Cambridge (online). Control Engineering. MATLAB/Simulink modelling of dynamic systems. Model-based controller design, deadzone compensation, anti-windup.

2022–2023. EIT Advanced Diploma, Industrial Automation (IET-accredited).

2022. Profinet Engineer and Installer, Profibus and Profinet International.

Electrical: 18th Edition wiring regulations (2382-18), 17th Edition (2382-15), inspection and testing (2393-10), portable appliance testing (2377-22/23), EV charging installation (2919-01), EAL Level 3 (600/4337/4 and 600/4338/6).

MIET, Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Personal projects

FPGA development, Basys 3. Working through Advent of Code 2025 challenge problems implemented in Verilog RTL on a Digilent Basys 3 (Xilinx Artix-7), using the open-source openXC7 toolchain (Yosys, nextpnr). Work has covered FSM design, BRAM integration, DSP48E1 slice targeting, timing closure, and the iverilog/GTKWave simulation workflow.

Embedded Rust. Advent of Code 2024 solutions in Rust (github.com/ghaworth/aoc-2024). Firmware development on nRF52840 using the RTIC framework, including USB device work. Completed Ferrous Systems Introduction to Rust and Embedded Rust courses.

Volunteering

January 2010 to June 2013, full-time resident. June 2013 to present, occasional project work. Kagyu Samye Ling.

Electrical installation work across Samye Ling’s network of centres: renovation of a former public library in London into a Buddhist centre, the main Eskdalemuir centre, and a hydroelectric generation scheme on the Isle of Arran.

George Haworth. robust-ae.com. github.com/ghaworth.