Niklas Vainio

About

Hi there! My name is Niklas Vainio and I’m a student at Stanford University studying CS (systems track) with a minor in Aeronautics & Astronautics. I also love learning new languages - I studied German and French in high school, and I’m currently learning Japanese

I was born and raised in London to Finnish-American parents, so I had a very multicultural upbringing. I went to high school right in the center of London, so I was constantly exposed to diverse perspectives from a young age.

Scroll down to learn a bit more about me!

Projects

Take a look at some of my recent projects!

Game Boy Emulator

I have always been interested in retro video games, so during the pandemic I decided to dedicate my free time to developing a Nintendo Game Boy emulator.
This is a program that simulates the internals of a Game Boy (including graphics, controls, and sound) at the level of individual bytes, allowing 1980s Mario, Pokémon and Tetris to be played on a modern computer.
This project taught me a huge amount about the inner workings of computers, and the result was a program that kept me entertained for hours! My programming skills also massively improved along the way, as I learned C++ from scratch for this project.
As of December 2023, I’m actively working on a rewrite of this project in Rust!
Source Code

Weather Balloon Project

In my final year of high school, I helped design a weather balloon payload to fly to nearly 100,000 feet (3x higher than an airplane!) and collect the world’s first data on high altitude particulate matter (PM) pollution.
I mainly worked on the Pi Pico-based flight computer, designing the circuit board and writing embedded code in C/C++ to read data from sensors and send it over long range radio (LoRa).
Working on this project was incredibly fun, and chasing our balloon across the country was an unforgettable experience! The project has now been handed down to a group of current students, who I still help remotely from Stanford.
Source Code

Arduino Sun Tracker

Inspired by our interest in astronomy, a friend and I teamed up in 2021 to build a device that automatically tracks the sun through the sky.
The device was based around an Arduino microcontroller and used GPS data and the math of Earth’s orbit to calculate the exact position of the sun in the sky. I designed and 3D printed the main structure, which uses two motors to point a needle to this position, following the sun throughout the day.
This project was a really interesting fusion of hardware and software, and it was fun to see that the things I learned in physics class really did work in the real world!

Stanford Student Space Initiative (SSI)

I have always loved space and aviation, so as soon as I arrived at Stanford I joined SSI, the largest engineering club on campus.
I’m currently co-leading development of SAMWISE, a fully student-built 2U cubesat set to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 15 mission in October 2025. I previously acted as software lead, where I helped improve our flight and ground software, as well develop a brand new Raspberry Pi-based imaging payload. I’m looking forward to getting more involved with the team in my future years at Stanford.
I’ve had a wonderful time working with SSI so far, and I’ve made great memories and met amazing people along the way!

VEX Robotics

I was heavily involved with robotics throughout high school, and the culmination of this was the 2021 UK VEX robotics competition.
Our team designed a constructed robot capable of driving around (with a 3-axis H-drive) and stacking plastic balls inside tall vertical goals (shown in the photo above) both autonomously, and with remote control. We ended up placing in the 4th ranked alliance nationally.
Working on this project taught me a huge amount about engineering and design, and the final crunch before the competition was also a great bonding experience for me and my teammates.

Snake (in Assembly)

As part of my A-level electronics coursework, I had to develop a device based around a PIC microcontroller.
Inspired by my love of retro video games, I decided to develop a primitive version of snake. I based the project around an 8x8 LED matrix, and designed all the auxiliary circuitry to read user inputs and drive the display (shown above). I programmed the entire thing in assembly, which was challenging, but a great way to further my low-level programming skills.
The end result was a fun game that had me and my friends competing for hours to set new high scores!

Muse Step

Motorized Music Instrument

As a final project for a Stanford class called “Computer Systems from the Ground Up” (CS 107E), me and two friends created a new kind of mechanical music instrument, which plays music by spinning 8 stepper motors at varying speeds.
The system can play music from pre-recorded MIDI files or an attached keyboard, and visualizes the notes playing in real time.
The device contains 3 Raspberry Pi’s running bare-metal C, with all libraries created from scratch. They communicate using microsecond precise commands over a custom communication protocol, with one Raspberry Pi acting as a MIDI controller, and the other two controlling the graphics and motor drivers respectively.
The end result was a fun project, which our classmates and professors greatly enjoyed using!
Video Demo
Source Code

DeutschBlox

In the Summer of 2021, I developed DeutschBlox, an iOS app designed to help students learn German.
The app is based around the main feature of breaking down compounds words into “blocks” (as in the image above), making it easier to internalize the structure of words. It also incorporates several language learning principles, like spaced repetition, where words are automatically shown for review at increasing time intervals.
Working on this project was extremely rewarding, and a great way to further my UI/UX design skills!
Source Code
App Store Page

Other Interests

Languages
I have always loved learning new languages - I took French and German in high school (alongside some Latin and Ancient Greek!), and I’m now studying Japanese at Stanford. What I love most is that learning languages has allowed me to connect with people across the world. In high school, I participated in an exchange program with students from Berlin, and I acted as Vice President of the Stanford Japan Exchange Conference (SJEC), which organizes an annual on-campus exchange program for Japanese students.
Aerospace
Aerospace has always been a passion of mine. From a young age, I started learning rocket science by playing Kerbal Space Program and in 2020 I started taking piloting lessons in single-engine planes. I completed roughly half of the training needed for a private pilot’s license, and I hope to complete my license in the near future! I also had the opportunity to go paragliding in September 2022, which was an unforgettable experience!
I got to use put my knowledge into practice in Summer 2024, as I interned at SpaceX on the Starlink GNC team. At Stanford, as well as being involved with the Student Space Initiative (SSI) at Stanford, I’m currently taking aerospace courses with the goal of doing a minor in Aeronautics & Astronautics.
Martial Arts
I love martial arts as a way to exercise, build community, learn new skills, and develop my self-control. I started a little-known martial art called Shen Chi Do at age five, and have continued since then, achieving my 1st-Dan Black Belt in July 2022. I was also involved with the Stanford Taekwondo Club, which was a fun way to meet new people and broaden my martial arts skillset!
Rubik’s Cubing
I have been fascinated by Rubik’s Cubes since getting my first one for my eleventh birthday. Since then, I have gradually pushed my solves faster and faster, learning new algorithms and improving my skill and dexterity. I achieved my personal best of 25.44 seconds a few years ago, and in September 2022, I learned how to solve a cube blindfolded.