portfolio

back to the michael lai fan club

experience

the duke chronicle

  • developer / director of online development
  • jan. 2013 — present

I worked on development of the site of my school news paper, The Duke Chronicle. The site was custom built using Ruby on Rails. Some of the projects I worked on were implementing our API, implementing polls, and implementing embedded media in articles.

ebay

  • software engineering intern
  • jun — aug 2014

I worked on the eBay Now team, doing mostly backend work in Scala and Python.

Kloudian Systems Inc.

  • intern
  • jun — aug 2013

Worked on various web tasks in Python (Django), Javascript, and Java.

Medical University of South Carolina

  • intern
  • jun — jul 2012

Built a dashboard for staff to keep track of patient locations and statuses using Python (Django).

hackathon projects (almost unabridged)

Khode Academy

  • hackduke fall 2014

A site that allowed people to create their own custom code tutorials in Ruby. People using the site to learn can write code in the browser and evaluate it for correctness, based on parameters given by whoever made the lesson. The site was built using Ruby on Rails.

Call Me Maybe

  • pennapps fall 2014

An Android app that speeds up navigation through voice phone menus. Phone menus are transcribed and displayed in the app, so the user does not have to listen through all of the different options.

bitifi

  • greylock hackfest
  • summer 2014

An (tragically ambitious) Android app that allows you to share unused mobile data on your phone with others by opening it up as a hotspot, with a paywall.

homecrowd

  • hackduke spring 2014
  • grand prize (education track)

Through our custom website students take control of the class by uploading course notes and other study guides. Participation is encouraged through a gamification model, which rewards points based on actions completed on the site. The site was built using Ruby on Rails.

idiscover

  • duke big byte challenge
  • fall 2013

Sample Timeliner

  • hackblue spring 2013

A site that displays a graphical timeline of samples used in songs. Built with Ruby on Rails, and Javascript on the frontend.

Concslides

  • american underground hackathon
  • fall 2012

A website that allows you to create presentations using markdown, and also lets you present them by controlling your presentation with your mobile device. This was my first hackathon. Built with Ruby on Rails.