JH / Engineering / Projects / Experience

Electromechanical Engineer

Joshua Hofer / Selected work

Joshua Hofer.

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln underway at sunset.
Naval engineering
The submarine USS San Juan surfaced in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mechanical systems. Electronics. Controls. Manufacturing.

Scroll to explore
Joshua Hofer smiling in his cap and gown at Wentworth graduation.
Wentworth Institute of Technology / 2026

01 / The person behind the work

Engineer.
Builder.
Still curious.

I’m Joshua, an electromechanical engineer and first-generation college graduate from Wentworth Institute of Technology.

This is my personal record of engineering, projects, professional experience, building, and entrepreneurship. There’s more of the story to come.

View résumé PDF LinkedIn

02 / Featured project

Plant Wizard

Hydroponics, controls, and robotics in one cabinet.

Final Plant Wizard CAD model showing the green cabinet, horizontal growing channels, reservoirs, and camera gantry.
Final CAD model
Plant Wizard team members assembling the growing channels, frame, and plumbing.
Building it together
The assembled Plant Wizard prototype with green channel mounts, plumbing, enclosure panels, and a vertical gantry.
The physical prototype
Final CAD model01 / 03

01 / The design

One cabinet.
Many systems.

Plant Wizard brings hydroponic growing, nutrient delivery, environmental sensing, lighting, and a moving camera into a refrigerator-sized appliance.

The final design combines three main growing modules and nursery positions with an aluminum frame, separate fluid reservoirs, and an X/Z camera gantry.

Final CAD / Wentworth capstone, 2026

02 / My contribution

Making the
pieces work.

I led electrical and systems integration: the control architecture, power distribution, sensor interfaces, and communication between the embedded controllers and the Jetson computer.

That meant turning component choices into schematics, wiring, controller responsibilities, and interfaces our mechanical and irrigation systems could work with.

Controls
Distributed ESP32 controllers
Integration
Jetson, USB serial, and JSON messaging
Electrical
Fusion schematics, power, and sensing

03 / The prototype

From model
to machine.

The assembled prototype demonstrated fluid routing, environmental monitoring, lighting and airflow control, local interface operation, and repeatable camera movement.

Full crop-cycle validation, complete quantitative calibration, and trained plant-health models remain future development work.

Built with Kannon Behrens and Jeffrey Caldwell. Project scope and contributions documented in our August 2026 final report.

03 / Industry experience

Engineering,
on the shop floor.

Two co-ops. Different manufacturing environments. Real experience designing, testing, and improving physical systems.

A foundry portrait beside a glowing crucible.
From my foundry archive
01

Dynalec

Electromechanical Engineering Co-opMay 2025 – January 2026

Designing test fixtures, working with technicians, and troubleshooting hardware in a manufacturing environment.

What I worked on
  • Electromechanical fixture design and assembly.
  • CAD, electrical documentation, and PCB layout.
  • Production testing and practical improvements with operators.
02

CPP / Wollaston Alloys

Foundry Engineering Co-opMay 2024 – January 2025

Learning the work behind a casting, from process simulation to manufacturing improvement on the foundry floor.

What I worked on
  • A hot-topping and riser-efficiency study.
  • MAGMASOFT analysis of mold filling and solidification.
  • RFID sensor testing, calibration, and manufacturing support.