what i optimize for
Readable systems, strong UX judgment, and measurable impact.
$ cat intro.txt
Nolan Mai
Software engineer focused on data-heavy tools, clear interfaces, and products that stay usable when the problem gets messy.
I am pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Utah, expected May 2027, and I build across research tooling, mobile apps, backend systems, native desktop software, and interactive visualizations.
$ sed -n '1,40p' about.md
about
I'm Nolan Mai, a builder who likes translating complicated systems into interfaces people can actually understand. The work I enjoy most sits in the middle of engineering and product: dashboards for research teams, mobile flows for real users, and backend services that make the front end feel effortless.
I tend to gravitate toward projects with a lot of signal buried inside noisy data. That is why my recent work spans computer architecture visualization, health-tech product development, and ML-assisted analysis tools.
what i build with
Python, React, SvelteKit, Django, ASP.NET Core, PostgreSQL, Qt.
what i like
Developer tooling, system mapping, data visualization, and thoughtful product work.
$ ls projects/featured
selected work
Typing Dungeon
Terminal-first dungeon crawler where typing speed and accuracy drive a tactical roguelike combat loop across branching floors, event rooms, bosses, perks, relics, and persistent save slots.
show notes
- Built layered combat systems including enemy intent, poise and stagger, shield timing, feint interrupts, quickstep bonuses, and word debuffs.
- Designed modular boundaries across game logic, UI rendering, input handling, entities, and word-assignment systems.
- Added local JSON saves, a top-10 leaderboard, optional audio, and a mechanics suite with 172 passing tests.
Desktop Code Editor
Native desktop code editor with multi-tab editing, split panes, drag-and-drop tab movement, file explorer workflows, and save-state aware document management.
show notes
- Built a 6.1K+ line editor focused on real developer workflows.
- Improved large-file opening by 99.9% and replace-all by 99.6% on profiled workloads.
- Added 25 file extensions, 6 themes, and reliability coverage with 709 tests at 96% coverage.
LMS Role-Based System
Full-stack learning management system supporting registration, courses, classes, submissions, grading, GPA calculation, and secure role-based access.
show notes
- Built 24+ controller actions for end-to-end LMS operations.
- Separated auth and academic records with 2 EF Core DbContexts.
- Implemented weighted grade recalculation across 10 relational entities.
sParky
AI-powered wildfire and air quality web app that turns live environmental data into risk predictions, localized forecasts, and health guidance.
show notes
- Trained and deployed an AWS SageMaker model with 78.6% accuracy.
- Generated personalized advisories with AWS Bedrock.
- Built map-based risk views for 50+ Utah locations.
TreeTableApp
Terminal-first tool for rendering hierarchical JSON data in both tree and tabular forms, designed for large supercomputer datasets.
show notes
- Built for research workflows at the SCI Institute.
- Turns deeply nested data into readable terminal output.
- Balances structure discovery with quick inspection.
Qt Sprite Editor
Desktop sprite editor with pixel-level drawing, real-time animation preview, and project save/load support.
show notes
- Implemented RGBA editing with QImage and QPainter.
- Added animation playback controls with custom widget rendering.
- Designed a clean event-driven architecture with Qt signals and slots.
Snake Game + Stats Server
Multiplayer snake client paired with a database-backed score server and web pages for surfacing sessions and player stats.
show notes
- Connected real-time gameplay with persistent match storage.
- Built dynamic pages for inspecting historical game data.
- Used the project to sharpen end-to-end systems thinking.
$ tail -n +1 experience.log
experience
Software Engineer Intern
Sep 2025 - Dec 2025
- Designed and built a Python static analysis platform for legacy C# applications across 10+ internal projects.
- Extracted 7+ artifact types including endpoints, ORM models, database relations, call sites, and service dependencies.
- Built a React Flow architecture explorer that cut manual code tracing from hours to minutes.
- Integrated Python microservices with a local LLM pipeline to generate consistent business-level documentation.
Assistant Research Engineer
Aug 2024 - Dec 2025
- Built web-based analytics dashboards for computer-architecture experiments using D3.js, SvelteKit, and Python.
- Transformed thousands of raw telemetry metrics into structured datasets and actionable visualizations.
- Reduced analysis turnaround by 80% through cleaner data pipelines and better visual interfaces.
- Improved visualization rendering throughput by 20% with preprocessing, incremental updates, and DOM or Canvas optimization.
Fullstack Software Engineer Intern
Jan 2025 - May 2025
- Developed React Native and TypeScript flows that contributed 20% toward MVP completion.
- Integrated the mobile front end with a secure Django and PostgreSQL backend over REST APIs.
- Supported real-time synchronization for health and lifestyle data handling.
Software Engineer Intern
Jun 2024 - Aug 2024
- Built an API-driven IELTS passage analysis tool that accelerated launch readiness.
- Maintained a MongoDB vocabulary pipeline feeding the company's LLM workflow.
- Implemented REST endpoints handling 2,000+ daily data queries.
$ cat stack.txt
stack
languages
Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, C#, C++, Kotlin
frontend
React, React Native, SvelteKit, D3.js, Blazor, ASP.NET Core MVC
backend + data
Node.js, Django, Spring Boot, REST APIs, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, SQLite, Supabase
tools
Git, Docker, AWS SageMaker, AWS Bedrock, AWS Location Services, React Flow, pytest
$ ./reach-out.sh
contact
I'm open to thoughtful engineering opportunities, collaborative side projects, and teams that care about both technical depth and user clarity.
If you have something interesting in progress, I'd love to hear about it.