SEAN BALBALE.
I build systems that work — and study the ones that shouldn't. Hardware, cloud, and the ethics of what connects them.
About Me
Engineer by training. Builder by instinct.
I'm a rising senior at Trinity College pursuing dual degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science — drawn to the problems that sit at the boundary between systems and the real world.
I got into engineering because I wanted to understand how things actually work — not just how to use them. That instinct runs through everything I build. I've written bare-metal Assembly for an 8051 microcontroller, implemented real-time firmware in C++ on an Arduino platform, and I'm currently designing a senior capstone around a fatigue-prediction algorithm running entirely on a Nordic nRF52840 microcontroller — no cloud offload, sub-100ms latency. The constraint of the edge is something I find genuinely satisfying; it forces precision that higher-level abstractions let you avoid.
On the other side of the stack, I've spent the last two summers in enterprise software. At Bullhorn I owned a major backend framework migration from Spring Boot 2 to 3 across multiple production Java services. This summer I'm joining Sonos to build the backend microservices powering user identity and subscriptions across the platform. The problems are different at each layer — but the methodology isn't.
Beyond the implementation, I research the systems we're building toward. "Embodied Harms and Inferred Data: Redefining Privacy in Extended Reality" argues that existing legal frameworks are structurally inadequate for immersive environments that passively extract behavioral biometrics, and proposes a "Bodyright" framework that protects human autonomy by design rather than by policy. It won the Alumni Prize in English Composition at Trinity's 2026 Honors Day and is forthcoming in The International Journal of Law, Ethics, and Technology.
Outside the lab, I compete on Trinity's varsity rowing team and am the Technology Chair for the Accidentals, Trinity's premier a cappella group. Rowing and a cappella look nothing alike on paper — one is about power and synchronization at 5 am on the Connecticut River, the other is about blending twelve voices into something that sounds like one. That said, the underlying discipline is identical: precise timing, collective execution, and zero tolerance for even the slightest deviation.
EXPERIENCE.
Sonos
Incoming Cloud/Service Software Engineering Intern
Trinity College
Teaching Assistant (ENGR 212)
Instructed students in foundational engineering laboratory practices, focusing on systems analysis and hardware implementation. Guided students through hardware experimentation and objective data analysis to reinforce core ECE concepts.
Bullhorn
Software Engineering Intern
Engineered backend architecture across the Shield and Builders teams for enterprise-scale systems. Owned a major framework migration from Spring Boot 2 to 3, handling complex javax-to-jakarta namespace transitions and refactoring the proprietary data access layer. Led a critical security initiative to upgrade core logging dependencies to Log4j2.
Cherrybrook Networks
Founder & IT Consultant
Founded and managed an IT consulting business providing physical network and hardware solutions. Designed and built custom computers, deployed residential Wi-Fi systems, and automated secure cloud backup infrastructures.
East Coast Metrology
Metrology Intern
Conducted high-fidelity calibration of precision measurement equipment, including large-volume scanners, laser trackers, and portable CMMs. Validated manufactured engineering parts against SolidWorks CAD models with micron-level tolerance to ensure strict adherence to physical design specifications.
Titan Advanced Energy Solutions
Engineering Intern
Architected Python software to parse JSON output from ultrasound sensors. Transformed raw sensor data into waveform visualizations to verify heat maps, directly accelerating the validation workflow for detecting physical defects in electric vehicle batteries.
Weston Public Schools
Engineering Teaching Assistant
Assisted in developing course curriculum and facilitating instruction for high school engineering and physics courses. Maintained and calibrated precision workshop equipment, including FDM 3D printers, laser cutters, and power tools.
SELECTED PROJECTS
Embedded Heart Rate Monitor
Designed and wired the complete hardware system for a clinical heart rate monitor and click counter. Wrote low-level Assembly language firmware for an 8051 microcontroller to read external analog inputs, process signals, and display the real-time count.
Embodied Harms and Inferred Data: Redefining Privacy in Extended Reality
The emergence of Extended Reality (XR) represents a massive shift in human-computer interaction, transitioning data collection standards from seeking active user input to the passive, continuous collection of "behavioral biometrics." While existing privacy frameworks (such as BIPA and GDPR) focus on identification and secrecy, this paper argues that they are structurally obsolete in an environment defined by inference and manipulation. By deconstructing the "inference gap," the paper reveals how immersive architectures bypass cognitive defenses to extract sensitive psychometric traits, ranging from health status to sexual orientation, without user awareness. Through a comparative analysis of the Apple-Meta dichotomy, the study demonstrates that market-led "privacy-by-design" functions primarily as an anti-competitive moat—a "Walled Garden" paradox in which privacy becomes a luxury good, and domination is centralized rather than eliminated. Furthermore, by applying the legal doctrines of "undue influence" and "defect of consent" to the "Proteus Effect," the article establishes that XR environments possess a unique capacity to vitiate user autonomy through subliminal behavioral modification. Therefore, the paper proposes a pivot from the "notice-and-choice" legal paradigm to a "Bodyright" framework. This rights-based model reclassifies biometric data not as a raw material for extraction but as an inalienable extension of the human sovereign, ensuring that the integration of the metaverse does not necessitate the commodification of human consciousness.
PROFICIENCIES_
Hardware
- Microcontrollers & Embedded: 8051 Microcontroller, Arduino, Intel Cyclone V FPGA.
- Low-Level Languages: Assembly (8051), Verilog, C/C++ (Embedded).
- Circuit Analysis & Tooling: Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers, LTspice, Instrumentation Amps.
- Mechanical & CAD: SolidWorks, FDM 3D Printing, Laser Cutters, Precision Metrology Calibration.
Software
- Languages: Java, Python, TypeScript, SQL, MATLAB.
- Enterprise Backend: Spring Boot 3, Jakarta EE, JUnit 5, Mockito.
- Frontend & Full-Stack: React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS.
- Architecture: Object-Oriented Design, Proprietary Data Access Layers, Zero-Knowledge Architectures.
Cloud & DevOps
- Infrastructure & Deployment: AWS, Docker, Linux.
- Version Control & CI/CD: Git, GitHub, managing feature branches and merge requests to improve pipeline efficiency.
- Security & Logging: Log4j2 deployment, legacy framework migration, dependency hardening.
Let's Talk
Whether you're working on something interesting or just want to connect — reach out. I read everything.