Hello! I’m Aram Dergevorkian

I’m an Electrical Engineer at the Amazon Web Services Center for Quantum Computing in Pasadena California. I’ve been working there as a mixed signal designer since December 2024.

Since 2022, I’ve also been running Luminavolt LLC, my electronics consulting business. My work spans animatronics and control systems for live entertainment, as well as custom electronics design for product development applications.

Previously, I had worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, starting in 2016 as an intern and transitioning to full time in 2021. My most recent project before my departure in 2024 was designing the instrument Command and Data Handling system for the Surface Biology and Geology mission’s TIR (Thermal InfraRed) satellite’s OTTER (Orbiting Terrestrial Thermal Emission Radiometer) instrument. From approximately 2021 through 2024, I worked on the MEM (Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram) instrument for the EZIE (The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission as the Digital Backend Electronics Cognizant Engineer. From 2016 to 2021, I worked on low power instrument control applications, culminating in the delivery of the Command and Data Handling, and Motor Electronics assemblies for the PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) CubeSat as Motor Electronics Cognizant Engineer.

In late 2023, I joined the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum. The railroad is unique in that it’s the only fully signal controlled scale railroad in the United States. As we like to say: we’re a real railroad, just a small one. I enjoy repairing and upgrading signal infrastructure with friends, and, of course, operating scale trains!

From 2011 to 2019, I volunteered with the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association, serving on the electronics and construction teams as well as the board of directors. Over nearly ten years, my work ranged from hydraulic and mechanical construction to electronics, including the complete design and assembly of a new animatronic control system and a data logger for the float’s hydrostatic drive.

From 2017 to 2018 I worked part time at Artistic Entertainment Services developing TwinkleWorks LED lighting products. The scope of my work also involved UL 508A industrial control panel work for various entertainment industry applications.

From 2015 to 2016, I worked on UCLA’s ELFIN (Electron Losses and Fields Investigation) CubeSat. As part of the communications subsystem team, I tested the spacecraft’s prototype and flight radios, performed antenna testing in the field, and aided in tests between spacecraft models and UCLA’s ground station.

A current resume can be found here.