The work
I'm a vehicle controls and powertrain engineer focused on hybrid and battery electric systems, with growing work in fuel cell powertrain architecture. Day to day that means sitting at the intersection of physics, software, and systems thinking — building the control logic that decides how power flows between motors, batteries, and the wheels.
I write code in Python and C mostly as engineering tools: model validation, data processing, scripting test harnesses around Simulink models. Lately I've been building more software for its own sake — command-line tools, macOS apps, AI agents — because it turns out the habits of an embedded systems engineer transfer reasonably well to software.
How I got here
The short version: I've always been drawn to systems where the math is hard and the stakes are physical. Powertrains are a good fit for that. You're working at the edge of thermodynamics, electrochemistry, and real-time control — and the validation loop involves an actual car on an actual dyno.
The fuel cell side of my work is newer and honestly more interesting right now. The architecture is different enough from BEV to feel like a new problem space — stack management, humidification, compressor control, H₂ storage. I'm still learning it.
Outside the job
I travel when I can. I've been across the US, spent time in South America and Australia, and in December 2024 drove Detroit to Los Angeles and back in a Tesla — in winter, to see what that actually means in practice. Writing about it is on the blog.
In Michigan I'm probably at a trail or a coffee shop with a terminal open. I try to keep the context switches deliberate — engineering mode, coding mode, being-outside mode. It doesn't always work.
This site
ravi.tumu.news is a place to think in public. Engineering notes, travel writing, software experiments. No niche, no schedule, no SEO strategy. Just stuff I find worth writing down.
If something here is interesting or wrong, feel free to reach out.