Computer science · UIC · Chicago, IL
I'm finishing a B.S. in Computer Science at UIC in three years. Alongside classes I fix computers and appliances for people around Chicago. It's where I learned to actually sit with a user and figure out what's wrong before touching anything.
I'm looking for a backend or full-stack team where I'd be reviewing code with people who know more than I do. That's how I've learned fastest so far, and I'd rather be the least experienced person in the room than the most.
Where I've worked and studied
PayPal
Projects
A four-factor scoring model that treats income from several sources as a sign of stability rather than a red flag. Built with a 6-person team at Capital One Launchpad; we placed first. I wrote the scoring engine and its testing engine.
Code on GitHub →Scans a grocery receipt with EasyOCR, cleans up the misreads with an LLM pass, and texts you over Twilio before things go bad. My household has been running it for a few months, roughly 500 items so far. OCR accuracy sits around 93% on our receipts.
Code on GitHub →Replaced a paper sign-in sheet for 40+ field employees, with alerting when a check-in fails.
Code on GitHub →Built a check-in system for 40+ field employees to replace a paper process, and worked on the team's CI/CD pipeline with another engineer. Last I heard it's still running.
Built the data-collection pipeline for 500+ trials — containerized resets, cache flushes, health checks — so runs wouldn't contaminate each other. The results went into a paper my advisor got accepted to AGI-2026 (Springer LNAI).
One of 60 scholars selected. A week of system design workshops at Capital One HQ, ending in a team project — mine built GigScore and placed first.
A 6-month fintech program on event-driven microservices, taught by PayPal engineers. Currently partway through it.
On the exec board of a 200+ member org. Brought in $2,000+ in sponsorship, ran 8 technical workshops, and started a mentorship program that paired up 25+ first-years.
PC hardware and home appliance repair, almost entirely by referral. 35 clients, 15 or so hours a week alongside classes.
FAQ
Backend or full-stack engineering, ideally somewhere I'd get real code review. I'm available for internships and full-time starting June 2027.
GigScore, from Capital One Launchpad. Traditional credit models penalize gig workers for having variable income from several sources, so we built one that reads that as diversification instead. I split the scoring engine into four modules that could be tested independently. Six of us worked on it over a week and it placed first.
Python and JavaScript most days, plus SQL, C/C++, and Java from coursework. Flask, PostgreSQL, Celery, Docker, and GitHub Actions are the ones I've actually shipped with. I've used LLM APIs in both research and side projects. I haven't actively worked with Go, Rust, or F# yet, but I'd like to through my expreience within coursework.
A few things. The check-in system I built at Archon in 2024 is still being used. The pantry manager has been running in my house for a few months across 500+ items. My research pipeline held up over 500+ trials without me watching over.
What began as a way to earn money in high school evolved into a genuine passion. I realized that for most people, a broken device isn't just an inconvenience—it's a barrier to work, learning, and connection. I started taking on repair jobs because I wanted to be the person who could bridge that gap. There's something meaningful about restoring someone's access to their digital life, whether that's fixing a laptop, maintaining an appliance, or building a custom PC. Over time, I discovered I'm better at problem-solving when it directly helps someone, and that's kept me doing this work alongside my education.
Contact
Happy to go into more detail on any of this, or send over code. Call me at (815) 710-7359, or use one of the links.