Software Development Engineer

Hong Yi Zhang

About Me

I'm an Electrical & Computer Engineering student at Olin College who loves doing cool stuff :D

When I'm not coding, you'll find me taking photos, going on a new adventure, or going to the gym!

Resume

Work Experience

May 2026 — Aug 2026

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Incoming Software Development Engineer Intern

    Jan 2026 — Present

    CG Creative Studios

    Technical Consultant & Project Manager

    • Directed a 4-person engineering team to architect an automated Scope of Work (SOW) generation pipeline, replacing manual documentation workflows with a scalable, AI-assisted system.
    • Engineered a standardized SOW library with integrated pricing data, reducing drafting time and version errors.

    Jan 2026 — Present

    Town of Wellesley, MA

    Strategy Consultant

    • Advised city leadership on optimizing municipal waste logistics, evaluating financial, environmental, and operational tradeoffs between centralized drop-off and modernized curbside collection models.
    • Conducted stakeholder analysis and lifecycle modeling to measure greenhouse gas emissions and costs, presenting data-driven recommendations in weekly client briefings.

    May 2025 — Aug 2025

    Amazon — Seattle, WA

    Software Development Engineer Intern

    • Designed and deployed an AI-powered Jira root cause analyzer using Amazon Q (LLM), adopted organization-wide, reducing bug triage time by an estimated 50% across teams.
    • Processed over 1,000 real-world Jira tickets through a multi-stage ML pipeline (parsing, retrieval, root cause prediction) with 90–95% fix prediction accuracy.
    • Implemented secure authentication via AWS Secrets Manager, replacing legacy token methods and improving security across multiple teams.
    • Identified and resolved a critical MCP bug that prevented proper Jira tool visibility, directly enabling broader usage across the org.
    • Extended MCP server capabilities by building a Jira attachments integration, unlocking AI-powered log and media analysis for faster debugging.

    Aug 2024 — Feb 2025

    Olin Public Interest Technology (PInT) — Needham, MA

    AI/ML Researcher

    • Fine-tuned ASR models on 10,000+ audio samples to mitigate bias against non-standard speech, leveraging Hugging Face models to advance to the AAAS Science Competition.
    • Reduced Word Error Rate (WER) from 20.4% to 6.2% for stuttered English and Character Error Rate (CER) from 66.4% to 19.0% for stuttered Mandarin.
    • Demonstrated model robustness across various stutter types, addressing challenges like word and sound repetition.

    Aug 2024 — Feb 2025

    Olin Rocketry — Needham, MA

    Avionics Engineer

    • Developed a custom radio PCB in KiCad and programmed avionics in Arduino IDE, enabling real-time telemetry over a 10,000+ ft range with zero packet loss, improving data logging by 40%.
    • Integrated antenna interfaces and wireless data transmission for competition-grade rocket systems.
    • Assisted in CAD modeling and 3D printing of radio box components to enhance durability and functionality.

    Dec 2022 — May 2024

    Tone Tutoring — New York, NY

    Founder

    • Established a volunteer tutoring organization dedicated to supporting low-income elementary and middle school students across NYC.
    • Developed personalized learning plans tailored to individual strengths, challenges, and goals to enhance academic performance.
    • Partnered with 12+ schools citywide to expand access to educational resources and ongoing support.

    Education

    Olin College of Engineering — Needham, Massachusetts

    2024 — 2028

    Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer EngineeringGPA: 4.0/4.0

    • Relevant Coursework: Computer Architecture, Applied Calculus, Software Design, Software Systems, Principles of Integrated Engineering, Data Structures, Machine Learning, Probability and Statistics
    • 50% Off Tuition Merit Scholarship: Awarded merit-based scholarship covering 50% of tuition costs, recognizing academic excellence and leadership potential
    • ICPC Qualifier: Ranked Top 10 regionally and Top 25% overall in the International Collegiate Programming Contest
    • Participated in Stanford SERIS Program: Summer Engineering Research Internship at Stanford University, gaining hands-on research experience in engineering
    • Board Member of Ascend Olin Chapter: Served as board member contributing to leadership initiatives and professional development for Pan-Asian students
    • Social Media Intern of Olin Admission and Financial Aid: Created engaging content and managed social media presence to attract prospective students and support enrollment initiatives

    Babson College (Cross-Registration)

    2024 — Present

    Certificate of Entrepreneurship

    High School for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at City College — Manhattan, New York

    2020 — 2024

    High School DiplomaGPA: 4.0/4.0

    • Relevant Coursework: AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C: Mechanics
    • Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship: $40,000 for tuition and a guaranteed paid internship at Amazon as a freshman (selected from 5,000+ applicants)
    • Outstanding Research Award, NYU STEP: Published a 15-page paper and presented research on the impact of AI in cybersecurity
    • Co-Founder — Coding Club; Co-President — Asian Cultural Society
    • Participated in NYU CS4CS, a month-long summer program teaching cybersecurity through projects and CTF competitions

    Projects

    Canary — Digital Mine Safety System

    Canary — Digital Mine Safety System

    Real-time hazard detection system for mines. Won 3rd in Social Impact and 4th in Hardware at Yale's YHack against 700+ participants. Features a live data pipeline integrating gas sensors and depth cameras via Raspberry Pi, plus a simulation to map tunnel geometry and model gas diffusion.

    PythonRaspberry PiSensorsSimulation
    RV32I Multicycle Processor

    RV32I Multicycle Processor

    32-bit RISC-V integer microprocessor with Harvard architecture, designed in SystemVerilog. Features an FSM-based multicycle control unit, full RV32I instruction set support, and hardware peripheral I/O. Verified with Icarus Verilog and deployed on an iCE40UP5K FPGA.

    SystemVerilogRISC-VFPGAIcarus Verilog
    Disc Golf Disc Cleaner

    Disc Golf Disc Cleaner

    Fully automated cleaning station combining AI-powered dirt detection, rotary encoder-based disc handling, and servo-actuated brush control. Built as a complete mechatronic system for Olin's PIE course, featuring a Python state machine, Roboflow CV model, and real-time LCD feedback.

    PythonRoboflowOpenCVRaspberry PiRobotics
    Rocky — Self-Balancing Robot

    Rocky — Self-Balancing Robot

    Inverted pendulum balancing robot built on a Pololu Balboa platform. Designed a 5-pole PI controller for simultaneous angle stabilization and stationary position hold, modeled in MATLAB/Simulink, then empirically tuned on hardware to handle real-world motor delay and saturation.

    MATLABSimulinkC++ArduinoControl Systems
    AI.gamo — Agri-Tech Robot

    AI.gamo — Agri-Tech Robot

    Bio-inspired, weed-uprooting robot for rice fields. Won 1st Place and $5,000 in seed funding at the Babson College Buildathon out of 500+ participants. Uses a trained Computer Vision model to differentiate invasive weeds from crops, with Arduino-driven motor control for targeted uprooting.

    Computer VisionPythonArduinoC++Motor Control
    Balloon Tower Defense

    Balloon Tower Defense

    A fully playable tower defense game built from scratch in Python using Pygame. Features multiple tower and balloon types with strategic gameplay mechanics.

    PythonPygameOOP
    Hand Gesture Recognition

    Hand Gesture Recognition

    A desktop application that maps real-time hand gestures from webcam input to emojis using computer vision and machine learning.

    PythonOpenCVMediaPipePyQt6
    Arduino Line-Following Robot

    Arduino Line-Following Robot

    Designed and built an autonomous robot to navigate a taped track using closed-loop feedback control with sensor integration.

    C++ArduinoPythonRobotics

    Skills

    Languages

    PythonCC++JavaTypeScriptMATLABHTML/CSS

    AI & ML

    Machine LearningComputer VisionLLM OrchestrationAgentic WorkflowsMCP Servers

    Web & Frameworks

    ReactNext.jsGitKiCadArduino

    Hardware & Systems

    Embedded SystemsRaspberry PiSolidWorksRobotics

    Other

    CybersecurityPhotographyDigital Editing

    Let's Connect

    I'm always interested in new opportunities and exciting projects. Feel free to reach out!