When I’m not coding, you’ll probably find me sipping coffee or tea while diving into reading random Wiktionary/Wikisource pages or other articles, experimenting with new food recipes for my next meal, or having fun on my Nintendo Switch. I enjoy brain-teasers — from solving crossword metas to playing tabletop and board games or online games like Wordle and Connections. I’m endlessly curious, whether it’s learning a new skill, reading obscure facts, or discovering the little joys in everyday life.
That same curiosity drives my aspiration as a versatile and self-driven computer scientist, where I explore both the technical and creative aspects of software development. I like to approach challenges playfully and thoughtfully, blending logic, experimentation, and imagination to build solutions that are both functional and elegant.
Programming Journey
Beginning
Learned the basics of HTML and a bit of JavaScript, sparking an early interest in web development and the intersection of creativity and technical problem-solving.
Creative Phase
Explored Adobe Creative Suite, ActionScript, ColdFusion, and Dreamweaver for web design and frontend development. Began experimenting with low-level system manipulation techniques.
High School Coding Years
Studied Visual Basic and Java in high school courses. Discovered Capture the Flag challenges through PicoCTF, which deepened my passion for applying logic and creativity to technical problems.
Exploration
Pursued an Associate’s degree while advancing skills through online courses in ES6 JavaScript and ReactJS, staying current with emerging technologies.
Continued Exploration
Learned React Native for mobile development. Developed experience maintaining wikis and writing in Markdown and BBCode.
Mobile Development
Experimented with Expo Go and TestFlight for app deployment and testing. Gained practical experience in developer workflows and user interaction design. Worked with testing frameworks like Mocha and Postman.
Backend Development
Developed proficiency in Redux, Redis, Express.js, GraphQL, and Solidity. Contributed to a blockchain project exploring Ethereum-related technologies, gaining insights into decentralized systems.
Security Focus
Joined a security-focused community, utilizing tools like BurpSuite and Postman to analyze web applications and understand system vulnerabilities.
University Studies
Earned a B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Cybersecurity (Summa Cum Laude, 4.0 GPA) and an M.S. in Computer Science. Key coursework included Python, C, and C++.
Led a senior design project on autonomous racing vehicles, integrating FPGA, LIDAR, and reinforcement learning for simulation and real-world testing.
Undergraduate Research
As an Undergraduate Research Assistant, studied cryptocurrency market dynamics. Developed web scrapers, data analysis tools using Pandas, and algorithms to detect market patterns.
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Supported courses in Operating Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, and Applied Cryptography, assisting with grading, office hours, and technical guidance.
Independent Work and Self-Learning
Continually learning Rust, DevOps, etc. and experimenting with new projects.
Teachings and Research
Classes Taught
During my time as a graduate teaching assistant, I supported multiple courses through grading, teaching meetings, and office hours. I aided students in understanding complex concepts, troubleshooting technical documentation, and completing assignments. I’ve also written Python gradescripts to facilitate evaluating program correctness and I managed a Portainer server that hosted class assignments. Courses I assisted with include:
| Semester | Course | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | Applied Cryptography | Full Class |
| Spring 2024 | Operating Systems | Full Class |
| Fall 2023 | Operating Systems | Half Class |
| Fall 2023 | Human‑Computer Interaction | Half Class |
Research
As an undergraduate research assistant, I investigated the stability of altcoins in the cryptocurrency market, comparing them with established coins using statistical analysis. My contributions included categorizing coins by trade volume, developing a peak‑finding algorithm based on a sliding window approach, implementing and improving web scraping tools (Selenium) to collect repository data, and building tools to compare altcoin and parent coin files. I organized research findings in Notion and collaborated with a graduate research assistant to refine the project.
Tools Used:
| Python | Pandas | Matplotlib |
| Numpy | Scikit-learn | Selenium |
Additional Interests
- Linguistics — particularly evolutionary linguistics, studying how words change, split, or vanish across time, but also interested in the mathematical-side of linguistics (regular expressions, Turing Machines, etc.).
- Classic and Medieval Literature — fascinated by old stories.
- Cybersecurity — continuously developing a secure mindset. Ooh, a CTF? (¬‿¬)