Ian Carmenates
I'm a Mechanical Engineering student at FIU with three years of hands-on experience in component-level repair, automotive performance work, and self-hosted software — from arcade PCB fixes to BMW builds to homelab infrastructure. I fix things, then figure out why they broke in the first place.
Education
Coursework in statics, thermodynamics, and mechanical design, applied directly to automotive and electromechanical side projects outside the classroom.
Resume
Ian Carmenates — Resume
Mechanical Engineering @ FIU, component-level repair background, automotive and self-hosted project work. Full one-page PDF.
Where I've worked.
Objective: Maintain high operational uptime across a 128-machine arcade fleet with integrated electromechanical hardware.
Result: 95% sustained uptime through logic-level diagnostics and component-level PCB repair, rather than blanket part replacement.
Objective: Support store operations across asset protection, retail sales, and stock logistics in a high-traffic store.
Result: Covered loss prevention as Front Door Associate checking receipts and monitoring security cameras, sold computers and electronics by explaining the tech to customers, and kept stock moving by unloading trucks and organizing the warehouse.
Objective: Lead a 2-person technical team responsible for all facility-wide mechanical and electrical equipment at an indoor sports venue.
Result: Kept the facility running — diagnosed and fixed equipment fast, tightened up maintenance scheduling, and reorganized the floor plan to work better for guests.
What I've built.
Objective: Handle my own automotive repairs and performance modifications, including tuning, rather than outsourcing them.
Result: Hands-on experience across mechanical repair, part upgrades, and tuning work, applied directly to my own vehicle.
Objective: Mount engine covers on the wall as display pieces instead of leaving them boxed up — built a modular hub-and-arm system to hold them at any angle.
Result: Functional printed parts and fixtures, modeled in Fusion 360 and produced via FDM on a Bambu Lab P1S. Current hub locks arm angle and mounting height with a rosette-tooth joint.
Objective: Build a personal finance PWA with full control over the data and infrastructure it runs on.
Result: A Dockerized Node/Express backend on a home Proxmox server, synced live across devices over a private Tailscale mesh network.
Objective: Build a self-hosted tool to track internship applications and automate company research with an AI agent, instead of managing it all in a spreadsheet.
Result: A Node/Express backend and Claude-powered research agent running in Docker on a home Proxmox server, tracking 180+ companies with a live filterable dashboard.
Objective: Build and host this site from scratch — no template builder, no CMS — with a custom domain and a deploy pipeline I control.
Result: A hand-built multi-page site on Netlify with a Porkbun-registered custom domain, deployed straight from a local build folder.
What I've been up to.
Just hit 1,000 miles on my new Tacoma, which means break-in period is done, and did the first oil change myself instead of waiting for the factory 10K interval.
As a kid I was always taking things apart and putting them back together. I've always been into cars especially, that's what pushed me toward an ME degree.
A materials engineering class made me realize break-in isn't a myth, it's tolerances. New internal surfaces wear each other down under load until they settle into clearance, shedding metal into the oil in the process, which is exactly why the first oil change matters, especially on a turbo where the margin for error is small.
Coming from a turbocharged BMW with a 2.0L turbo inline-4 before this truck, I already knew how much oil condition matters on a turbo — the Tacoma's the same setup, just 2.4L of displacement instead. Learning the materials science behind it is what connected "I like fixing cars" to "I want to understand why."
Small maintenance job, good reminder of why I picked this major.
Let's build something.
Open to summer 2027 internships and co-ops in automotive and engine engineering.
