Design meets Computer Science.
Innovation through intelligence.

I'm Shi Zhang (Simon), a founding software engineer at IDitor Inc—a San Francisco-based AI social app startup. With a Master's in Computer Science from Northeastern University and a background in architectural design, I bring a unique perspective to software development—blending creative problem-solving with technical expertise. I'm currently expanding my expertise through Northeastern's Master of Science in Data Analytics and Engineering program.

My Journey

From Architecture to Tech

My journey began with a Bachelor of Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Science in Design from University of Pennsylvania. In 2025, I completed my Master of Science in Computer Science at Northeastern University. This multidisciplinary foundation in design thinking and technical problem-solving now shapes my approach to software architecture and innovation.

Current Focus

As a founding software engineer at IDitor Inc, a San Francisco-based startup, I'm building cutting-edge AI-powered social applications that connect people in meaningful ways. Currently pursuing my Master of Science in Data Analytics and Engineering at Northeastern University, I'm passionate about full-stack development, computer vision, AI/ML applications, and creating user-centric solutions that bridge complex technology with intuitive design.

Unique Perspective

My architectural background has honed my abilities in project management, creative problem-solving, and systems thinking. As a founding engineer, I bring this multidisciplinary approach to every technical challenge—from designing scalable architectures to crafting elegant user experiences. I believe the best solutions emerge at the intersection of design, engineering, and data science.

Professional Experience

Nov 2025 - Present
Founding Software Engineer
IDitor Inc, San Francisco CA

Contribution to the full lifecycle of AI social product EchoChat.

  • Architected a multi-platform social ecosystem across Flutter mobile and Next.js web clients with a microservices backend; integrated Gemini, OpenAI, and Claude for automated Life Story generation, AI-moderated feeds, and image validation/transformation.
  • Engineered vector-based embedding systems for user matching and a custom random-walker clustering pipeline across 30k+ geospatial memories, creating a dynamic social map and improving retrieval quality.
  • Built Python/Selenium scraping pipelines and agent-driven research workflows to enrich event and social data; deployed serverless infrastructure on Vercel and Supabase with GitHub Actions CI/CD and real-time analytics dashboards.
  • Open-sourced the OpenClaw Plugin and EchoMem Skill to sync local markdown memory into EchoMem Cloud and enable retrieval inside OpenClaw workflows.
Sep 2024 - Dec 2024
Software Engineer
IDitor Inc, Hillsborough CA

Contribution to the RESTful APIs for a social app using TypeScript and Next.js.

  • Created a user-matching service using TypeScript and Supabase, applying cosine similarity and semantic search to improve recommendation accuracy by 20%.
  • Established a performant, scalable, real-time search engine for finding friends using Next.js, Supabase, and Vercel KV.
  • Designed and implemented a chat-simulation API leveraging the OpenAI API for dynamic, AI-driven conversations, then optimized backend architecture to reduce response times by 30%.
May 2024 - Aug 2024
Software Engineer
Graph Academy, Cupertino CA

Contribution to an AI-driven dating app using TypeScript, Next.js, React, and Node.js.

  • Utilized TypeScript and modular component design to maintain scalability and support a 35% increase in concurrent users without performance issues.
  • Designed and set up comprehensive navigation in Next.js, achieving a 30% increase in user engagement through smoother page transitions.
  • Created dynamic camera and profile-selection features and spearheaded Firebase/Google Analytics tracking, boosting personalized interaction by 20% and accelerating new-user registration by 50%.
May 2023 - Dec 2023
Research Assistant
Northeastern University, Seattle WA

Cloud database benchmarking and NLP-based resume matching research.

  • Adapted YCSB+T to benchmark NoSQL and distributed SQL databases, enabling direct workload comparisons and analyzing performance trade-offs in cloud environments.
  • Conducted NLP and transformer-based research for semantic resume matching; improved recruiter efficiency by 25% by aligning resumes to job descriptions and search queries.
  • Built visualization outputs for embedding correlations and contributed to open-source platform and educational resource development.
Feb 2020 - Nov 2022
Architectural Designer
Ballinger, Philadelphia PA
  • Managed project documentation across schematic design, design development, and construction documentation phases for a 1.6 million sq. ft. healthcare project.
  • Streamlined data workflows between Excel and Revit with Python scripts and collaborated with Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing teams for monthly value engineering.

Featured Projects

A selection of work showcasing my full-stack development and computer vision expertise

PollenBoard Preview
Web AI

PollenBoard

A modern, responsive web application for creating, sharing, and exploring AI-generated content. Built with Next.js 15, TypeScript, and powered by Pollinations.AI.

View code →
FactHub Preview
Web AI

FactHub

Full-stack social web application with React frontend and Supabase backend. Features voting, categorization, and commenting systems for community engagement.

View project →
AI Chat Preview
Web AI

AI Chat with Document Context

AI-powered chat application using React, Next.js, and Material-UI that processes documents to provide contextual responses with local and external AI models.

View project →
AR System Preview
Computer Vision AI

Real-Time AR System

C++ application with OpenCV for camera calibration and real-time 3D object projection. Features dynamic AR environment interaction and virtual object manipulation.

View code →
StayStocked Preview
Mobile Android

StayStocked

Android app built with Kotlin for grocery inventory management. Features product listings, search filters, and user interactions. Received positive feedback from 140+ users.

View demo →
Object Classifier Preview
Computer Vision AI

Real-Time Object Classifier

Object recognition system using C++ and OpenCV with KNN matching and Hausdorff distance-based contour recognition for accurate classification.

View code →
Creatorverse Preview
Web Full-stack

Creatorverse

Content creator management platform with React and Supabase. Features CRUD operations with card-based interface and responsive design.

View project →

Technical Skills

Languages

Java Python JavaScript TypeScript Kotlin C++ SQL

Frameworks

React.js Next.js Node.js Vue.js Spring Boot Flask

Tools & Platforms

Docker AWS Git Linux OpenCV Supabase

Databases

PostgreSQL MySQL MongoDB Supabase

Let's Connect

I'm always interested in hearing about new opportunities and collaborations in software development and innovation.