I'm Will Gao.

Coursework: Data Structures & Algorithms, Functional Programming, Systems Programming, Machine Learning, Entrepreneurship for Engineers, Digital Product Design, Backend Development, Inventing an Info Society, Oceanography

Had a short tenure but still managed to move fast and break a few things. Here are some examples:

- Owned defense of P0 metrics for the rollout of end-to-end encryption on Messenger. Built relationships with SMEs much more senior than me to drive down regressions.
- Delivered a presentation in <2 weeks of joining on a core piece of our technical stack. Received so well that the recording is now immortalized in the Messaging Platform Onboarding group.
- Performed technical and product research on BeReal, including attempting to reverse engineer their system architecture. Was about to deliver a presentation to a director-level audience before Zuckerberg gave me his blessing to explore my love for startups.

Some econ & gov professors interviewed me to be a full stack engineer for their climate/sustainability startup. By the end of the interview they asked me to take over.

- Led 6 teammates to build a gamified social media app with React Native, Typescript, MongoDB, and Express to help individuals lower their carbon footprint. Started alpha tests before I graduated.
- Designed interview protocol and talked to lots of users to identify target market and pain points.
- Defined data schema and system architecture for modeling communities, users, posts, and comments.

Was super grateful to work on sustainable water treatment solutions as a student. Wanted to bring that same opportunity to other colleges in the US. Had 0 marketing experience but learned on the job.

- Initiated marketing and outreach strategy to bring AguaClara research programs to other universities.
- Performed market research on US research institutions to develop GTM strategy and strong leads.
- Recruited and managed 14 volunteers to produce marketing materials and ideate outreach methods.

Made a video-game over the course of a semester. Learned C++ and networking on the fly which was really rewarding. Rallied a burned out team to the finish line which was even more so.

- Led 4 engineers and designers to build an online multiplayer game that's PC/mobile cross compatible.
- Implemented data-driven animations, collision detection, and pseudo-RNG map generation.
- Collaborated with design lead and tech lead to construct timeline and prioritize features.
- Built a python script to convert spreadsheets into map jsons to allow designers to build levels.

Worked on sustainable water treatment solutions for ~80,000 people in low-connectivity areas.

- Led 4 engineers to build a web app (React, ODK) for plant operators to upload data to the cloud (Firebase) and share with other plant operators.
- Implemented python script to send regular emails to plant operators summarizing data and delivering chemical dosing recommendations based on local weather (Dark Sky API)
- Presented work at multiple symposiums and represented AguaClara at the NYWEA (New York Water Environment Association) technical conference.