Texas Tech University · Lubbock

AI that lives inside the hardware.

A Texas Tech student organization building embedded intelligence. We design the hardware, train the models that run on it, and carry both to a working prototype.

Edge AIComputer visionEmbedded systems Biosignal sensingFPGARobotics

How this started

Tech Innovation Labs began with a group of students building hardware projects outside of coursework.

We wanted a place to keep doing that alongside people with the same interest, so we registered the organization around one principle: projects belong to the students who build them.

Capabilities

A single technical focus

Tech Innovation Labs develops embedded intelligence: machine learning models deployed on hardware we design, integrated into working products. The scope is deliberately narrow, and every project runs on physical silicon.

On-device inference

Models execute on the target hardware rather than a remote server. That constraint governs model architecture, quantisation, latency budget, and processor selection.

In-house hardware

Analog front ends, embedded platforms, and FPGA logic developed internally, so the model and the hardware are co-designed against shared requirements rather than integrated after the fact.

Production intent

Each project targets an identified user and is carried to a functional prototype: assembled, powered, and evaluated against its requirements.

Process

Member-driven project selection

Projects are not assigned. Each cycle opens with a pitching period, the membership votes, and approved proposals receive a team, bench allocation, and budget.

Pitch

Proposal

Any member may submit a proposal stating the problem, the affected users, and a feasibility assessment scoped to one semester.

Vote

Selection

The membership votes. Approved projects receive a team, bench space, and a budget allocation. The remainder return to the queue for the next cycle.

Build

Development

Hardware, models, and integration proceed concurrently under scheduled design and code reviews, so subsystem interfaces are validated as they are built.

Show

Review

Demonstrations and technical presentations to faculty, industry partners, and competition judges. External deadlines set the schedule.

Active programs

Active development

Active build

EMG neural interface

BiosignalFPGA Embedded AIProsthetics

A wearable surface electromyography system that decodes intended movement. The target application is a myoelectric controller: acquire signals from the residual muscles of a partial-hand or transradial amputee, classify the intended action, and actuate a prosthetic hand.

Surface EMG is difficult to acquire. The signal occupies the microvolt range beneath mains interference, motion artifact, and electrode drift.

An FPGA performs acquisition timing and onset detection at deterministic latency and timestamps each muscle event. Embedded cores run the grasp classifier. Grounding topology dominates the design effort; at these amplitudes the fault is almost always the interface rather than the sensor.

Active build

Modular AI helmet

Edge AIComputer vision Sensor fusionIndustrial

Industrial head protection has addressed a single failure mode for a century: impact. It does not record, infer, or reconstruct an incident after the fact.

We are not manufacturing headgear. We develop the AI core and sensor stack that integrates into existing shells, so one architecture serves construction, oil and gas, warehouse, and sport variants. Inference runs on-device, so detection is independent of network availability, and events are written to a timestamped log that neither party can alter.

Additional projects enter the same way: a member proposal, a membership vote, then a team. Nothing is listed here before it has been approved and started.

28

engineers, designers, and builders

Drawn from electrical and computer engineering, computer science, mechanical and industrial engineering, with business and media roles supporting each build.

Founder

Karim Mahdi

Texas Tech Electrical & Computer Engineering.

Founder

Caleb Schaunaman

Texas Tech Electrical & Computer Engineering.

Build teams

Hardware & sensingSensor front-ends, embedded boards, enclosures, power.
AI & visionModel training, computer vision, on-device inference.
Product & marketUser research, validation, competition strategy.
Integration & testSystem architecture, field testing, demo preparation.

Executive board

Elected by the membership each April.

PresidentDirection, chairs meetings, liaison to advisors and the university.
VP of OperationsOperations, calendar, lab and room reservations, equipment.
TreasurerBudget, purchasing, reimbursements, financial reporting.
Director of ProjectsRuns the pipeline, sets technical standards, leads design reviews.
SecretaryMinutes, roster, documentation, version control.

Faculty advisor

Dr. Hamed Sari-Sarraf

Electrical & Computer Engineering. Computer vision and artificial intelligence.

Where we compete

Y CombinatorNVIDIA GTC Microsoft Imagine CupNASA Space Apps KaggleNVIDIA AI City Challenge AWS DeepRacerAMD Pervasive AI Apple Swift Student ChallengeIBM Call for Code

Membership

Join Tech Innovation Labs

No prior experience required. Sustained contribution expected. Two intake routes, either one sufficient.

Route one

Interest form

Records your major, year, and technical interests. Team assignment is made from these responses, so this is the faster route.

Fill out the interest form

Route two

TechConnect

Registers you on the official Texas Tech roster for the organization through the university portal.

Join on TechConnect

Either route reaches us. Completing both places you on the roster and on a build team.

What happens next

Join the DiscordDay-to-day coordination: build channels, proposal threads, and technical discussion. Open the invite
Come to a general meetingThursdays at 5:00 PM in ECE Room 118 during the academic term. The pitching period is open to every member, so bring an idea. Upcoming dates
Team assignmentHardware and sensing, AI and vision, product and market, or integration and test, plus business and media roles. Assignment follows from your form responses.

Staying in good standing

  • A Texas Tech student in good academic standing
  • At the general meetings, most of the time
  • Contributing to at least one committee or project team
  • Representing the organization and the university well

Your work stays yours to talk about. Once a project has been shown publicly, members can describe their own contribution on a résumé.

Membership is open regardless of race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, citizenship, or veteran status. We hold a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination and harassment, in line with Texas Tech University policy.

Partnerships

Sponsor a build. Meet the engineers.

Sponsorship places your organization on a prototype presented to faculty, investors, and competition judges, and puts your recruiters in front of Texas Tech engineering students while they are still building.

Meetings
Thursdays, 5:00 PM, ECE Building Room 118
Upcoming dates on TechConnect
Campus
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Mail
Texas Tech University – SGA, Box 42032-22
Lubbock, TX 79409