Elija Peters

Industrial engineering student at Purdue. I work on how products get sourced, stocked, and moved, and I build the mechatronic hardware on the side: closed-loop motion, motor control, and the firmware underneath it.

Elija Peters
Program
Industrial Engineering
Institution
Purdue University
GPA
3.16
Graduating
May 2029

What I work on

I came to industrial engineering from the hardware side, and I like problems where a system has to hit a target and stay there. On a machine, that's a control loop holding a setpoint. In a supply chain, it's inventory: forecast demand, set a reorder point, and keep enough stock on hand without tying up cash. I run a resale business that gives me real data to practice on, and I still do CAD, PCB layout in KiCad, and firmware in C. Long term I'm aiming for operations and systems roles in aerospace, defense, and automotive, where the process matters as much as the part. Outside coursework I'm on Purdue Electric Racing and Purdue Space Program.

Projects

Resale supply chain & inventory analytics

Complete · 554 sales, 92 days

My Depop business buys used clothing in 100-piece bulk lots and resells it item by item, so it runs on the same questions as any distribution operation: how much demand to expect, how fast stock turns, and when to place the next order. I took a full quarter of sales data and built the analysis in Excel. The model measures how much daily demand varies and backtests a moving-average forecast. It then sets a reorder point with safety stock, sized for a supplier that takes anywhere from 7 to 14 days to deliver.

The main result is a reorder point of 90 sellable units at a 95% service level. A 7-day moving average beat a naive forecast by 13% on mean absolute error. Inventory turns quickly: the median item sold 4 days after listing, but about 10% sat for more than a month, and that's the stock to mark down.

Data
554 item-level sales, Mar to Jun 2026
Methods
Demand forecasting, reorder point, safety stock
Lead time
7 to 14 days, modeled as variable
Tools
Excel model and dashboard
Reorder point
90 units95% service
Avg demand
6.0 / daySD 3.1
Median time to sell
4 days
Landed cost
$2.67per item
Dashboard: 554 items sold, $7,038 in item sales, 6.0 units per day, 4-day median time to sell, daily demand chart with a 7-day moving average, a reorder point of 90 units, inventory velocity, category mix, and top brands.

Summary dashboard. Click for full size. Buyer data removed.

Full-size dashboard Download the Excel model

Face-tracking servo turret

Operational · demo below

A two-axis pan/tilt platform that locks onto a face and keeps it centered. Vision runs on a host machine in Python with OpenCV; the frame-space error is fed to a PID loop that drives pan and tilt independently. Tuning the derivative term was the whole game. Too little and it hunts around the target; too much and servo noise turns into visible jitter.

Actuation
2× hobby servo, PCA9685 driver
Control
Independent PID per axis
Vision
Python, OpenCV
Compute
Arduino over serial

Tracking a moving target, unedited.

Desktop CNC router

In development

A three-axis router built from the frame up, running motion-planning firmware I wrote in C rather than an off-the-shelf sender. Trapezoidal acceleration and arc interpolation are handled on the controller, and a lookahead planner carries feedrate through consecutive moves so the machine doesn't decelerate into every corner.

Axes
3, stepper-driven
Firmware
Custom, written in C
Motion
Trapezoidal accel, arc interpolation
Planner
Lookahead across moves
Build in progress, photos to follow

Motor driver board

Operational

A standalone driver board taken from schematic capture through PCB layout in KiCad, built to run DC, stepper, and servo motors rather than being tied to one project. The work was in the selection of driver ICs, power stage, and protection circuitry, then validating the board on real motors on the bench.

Tool
KiCad
Drives
DC, stepper, servo
Includes
Power and protection circuitry
Status
Fabricated and validated
Board photos to follow

Experience

Purdue Electric Racing

Battery housing co-lead · brake systems · January 2025 to present

For the 2026-27 car I co-lead the battery housing subsystem with a second lead, setting its design, packaging, and structural requirements. I also work on the brake system: the hydraulic side, plus integration with regenerative braking so the two blend without the pedal feel falling apart. It's the closest thing I do to real vehicle engineering: fixed packaging, a hard safety case, and a team that has to agree on the interfaces.

Lead
Battery housing subsystem
Also
Brake design, regen integration
Context
Student-built electric race car

Independent resale business

Owner · June 2024 to present

A textile recycling and resale operation on Depop doing five-figure annual revenue, with 500+ orders in a single quarter. I source 100-piece bulk lots about every two weeks and run the whole flow: receiving, quality inspection, SKU tracking, listing, pricing, and shipping. That data drives the supply chain project above.

Retail

Fresh Thyme Market, Walmart · 2023 to present

Receiving, stocking, and front-end work alongside school. At Walmart I trained new associates and moved up to team lead.

Get in touch

elijajp07@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/elija-peters Resume