Hi! I am Colin Zhou.....
Local Time: 6/30/2025, 10:55:27 PM
I am a software developer with experience in full stack web development and cloud services. Previously, I worked at Nuclearn.ai (nuclear power startup) as a full stack engineer, and did multiple internships in the civics, telecom, environmental, and educational sectors. I graduated from UIUC with a Masters in Computer Science, and obtained my bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Bellevue College. I was born in Canada, but grew up in the Bay Area and now live near Seattle, Washington.
When I'm not sitting at the computer, you can find me solving Rubik's Cubes of various sizes, practicing a difficult piano piece and posting it on my Instagram, doing 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles with my sister, or taking long walks around my neighborhood.
Education
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Masters in Computer ScienceActivities: CS 411 Database Project Team Lead
Relevant classes: User-Interface Design, Databases, Advanced Data Management, Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Systems, ML + Data Systems
Bellevue College
B.S. in Computer ScienceActivities: CS Student Advisory Board Treasurer
Relevant classes: Data Structures, Algorithms, Cloud Computing, Operating Systems, Software Engineering, Computer Architecture, Internet of Things, Computer Networks, Linear Algebra, Senior Capstone I, II, III, Discrete Math, Calculus III
Cupertino High School
High School DiplomaActivities: Speech and Debate Club Member, Sophomore English Tutor
Relevant classes: AP Computer Science A,, AP Statistics,, AP Physics C: Mechanics,, AP Chemistry,, AP United States History, AP Calculus AB
Experience
Software Engineer II
Nuclearn
12/2024 - 02/2025 • Phoenix, Arizona, United States (Remote)
• Utilized FastAPI/SQLAlchemy to develop backend functionality for retrieving up to 25 most similar records in a dataset using 500+ embeddings generated through natural language techniques. Architected a back-end workflow with new SQLAlchemy datamodels to migrate 100+ YAML configurations across five config files into PostgreSQL, enabling dynamic updates via a React frontend, eliminating the need for Nuclearn’s developers to restart the web backend during development if such configurations were changed.
• Optimized markdown processing for artifacts displayed across 10+ tool calls in AtomAssist, Nuclearn’s proprietary AI chatbot. Implemented role-based access control with error handling for consumer, admin, and contributor roles, ensuring secure access to 10+ unique web app features on the frontend like Cap AI, AtomAssist, Capitalizer, and Cluster Analytics
Open Source Software Engineer
PolicyEngine
03/2024 - present • Issaquah, Washington, United States (Remote)
• Worked with 3 contributors on PolicyEngine’s web app project on GitHub (over 600 visits monthly).
• Assisted in migrating the front end component library to the newest version of Ant Design. Streamlined 150 Jest unit tests by refactoring 5 metadata API calls to occur in the beginning of testing runs.
Software Engineer Intern
EcoLogical
09/2023 - 12/2023 • Champaign, Illinois, United States (Remote)
• Using Ant Design components to improve the front-end experience of the flagship web app.
• Set up 10 mutations and queries to AWS Amplify backend for the user signup workflow.
Software Engineer Intern
IOIntelligence
07/2022 - 09/2022 • Bellevue, Washington, United States
• Developed a 5 page application dashboard that displays networking analytics from company's wireless devices worldwide.
• Used Chakra UI, React for frontend and Express.js and MySQL for the backend.
Software Engineer Intern
Molloy Moreno LLC
06/2021 - 09/2021 • Issaquah, Washington, United States
• Developed a serverless web app for New York school teachers to track the academic progress of at-risk students.
• Made final design choices for UI components.
• Used React to implement UI components on the frontend and AWS for storing media on the backend.
CS Student Advisory Board Member
Bellevue College
08/2021 - 06/2022 • Bellevue, Washington, United States
• Met with 3 members of faculty to discuss how to grow Bellevue College CS (currently at 150 students).
• Helped facilitate constructive communication between faculty and students with regards to curriculum.
• Planned out $1000 budget for CS department use in 2023. Tracked all expenses using Microsoft Excel.
Open Source Web Developer
DemocracyLab
05/2021 - 08/2021 • Issaquah, Washington, United States
• Used Figma to design 3 wireframes for the CodePDX project, which is a web app that develops applications to improve the lives of people living in Portland, Oregon.
• Used React to redesign 5 components for the Accessibility Ratings Project, which aims to help users submit accessibility feedback to big tech companies regarding their app offerings.
• Designed 3 wireframes for the iSeaTree mobile app project, which aims to help young kids explore the indigenous tree species of the Pacific Northwest.
Freelance Writer
Quora
08/2017 - 03/2020 • Issaquah, Washington, United States
• Writing about history, and other topics, with over 30 million answer views since 2017.
• Managing own blog about futuristic technology, over 30k followers.
• Admin and moderator of multiple blogs about finance and interesting information.
Projects
A desktop application that allows you to query 4 LLM's at once for a single input. Supports Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini and more! As someone who uses LLM's a lot in my day to day life, I wanted an easy and convenient way to ask multiple LLM's at once, and it resulted in this project.
For my senior year capstone project in undergraduate, I worked with three others to create a Yelp-like app that will empower and enable food truck vendors to more easily attract customers and run their business. I worked with mostly Typescript and React.js on the front end for developing the UI and used Adobe XD for the initial mockups. On the backend, I helped with writing SQL queries and making sure the AWS services were linked up seamlessly with the frontend.
In my first internship, I helped create an educational web app that helps at risk high school students track their future career goals. I utilized various front end technologies like React.js along with backend tools like AWS for hosting. After the internship was completed, this app is now in beta testing in a high school of a couple hundred students in New York City.
A web application with a React frontend and three backends written in different languages that are all connected to a common MySQL database. Users will be able to send repetitive queries to any backend that they choose and see how fast the server responds after the completed operation.
I created a Google Chrome Extension leveraging the Google Sheets API that allows me to quickly identify the specific companies that I have already submitted job applications for. This was a response to a problem I had where after submitting 1000+ job applications, I would often apply mistakenly to companies twice. This extension highlights companies that I have applied to in orange, which helps me streamline my job search and become more efficient.
Skills
Frontend
Backend
Tools
Designs
*These are several futuristic looking UI designs that I created for fun, in early 2020, along with some UI wireframes from my various internships.
