Chris Rinard
Co-Founder at Standard Kernel Co.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolChris Rinard is a software engineer and entrepreneur in Cambridge, MA, currently co-founder of Standard Kernel Co. He brings 16 years of experience spanning venture-backed startups, MIT research, and industry roles in AI, edge computing, and high-performance systems, with a focus on embedded and aerospace-grade workloads. An MIT EECS graduate, he excels at prototyping and building reliable, scalable systems, with notable open-source contributions—from BLE enhancements for Firmata firmware on Arduino platforms to backend and architecture work in neuroscience software like Open-Ephys. His experience includes a MosaicML research internship where he helped optimize memory settings for improved model and hardware utilization, along with leadership and teaching roles at MIT CSAIL. Outside of work, he enjoys surfing, piloting, and climbing, bringing a practical, hands-on mindset to multidisciplinary engineering challenges.
16 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Senior, Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Senior at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Nueva School
Github Skills (25)
bluetoothle10
debug10
firmata10
c-language10
plugin-development10
bluetooth-le10
xcode10
btle10
sys10
embedded10
bluetooth-low-energy10
arduino10
c-programming-language10
xcode1010
architecture9
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
firmata/arduino
Mar 2018 - Nov 2021
Firmata firmware for Arduino
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:3 reviews, 8 commits, 5 PRs in 3 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Chris primarily contributed to adding and adapting Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support within the Firmata firmware for Arduino. Their work involved configuring BLE connection intervals, advertising settings, and flushing mechanisms. They integrated support for various BLE hardware, including the Arduino 101, Adafruit Feather M0 Bluefruit LE, and Arduino Nano 33 BLE, and adjusted configurations for compatibility with Apple devices. The user refactored code for better organization, specifically moving hardware-specific settings into dedicated configuration files.
firmwarearduino-libraryesp8266firmataarduino
open-ephys/GUI
Apr 2015 - Nov 2015
Software for electrophysiology data acquisition (deprecated)
Role in this project:Back-end Developer & System Architect
Back-end Developer & System ArchitectContributions:19 commits, 9 PRs, 7 comments in 6 months
Contributions summary:Chris primarily focused on fixing bugs, resolving compiler warnings, and improving code quality within the `open-ephys/gui` repository. They added missing `const` declarations and fixed misplaced parentheses in the codebase, indicating a focus on code correctness. Furthermore, the user addressed issues in the `DEBUG_EMULATE_HEADSTAGES` code path and implemented a critical fix in the `SmartSpikeCircularBuffer::addSpikeToBuffer` function, showcasing their ability to debug and resolve core functionality problems. They also designed and added event broadcaster sink, which suggests involvement in the overall system architecture.
data-acquisitionpythoncomputational-neuroscienceelectrophysiology-dataopen-science
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