Snorlax
Snorlax is vibing 💤✨

Hi, I'm Tristan Yi

Computer Science @ Duke University

Software EngineerFirst-Gen College Student

Tech Stack

A quick snapshot of the tools I use most.

💻 Languages & Frameworks
TypeScriptJavaScriptPythonJavaCC#ReactNext.jsSwiftFlaskHTML/CSS
🗄️ Databases
PostgreSQLMongoDBNeo4jSQLFirebase
⚙️ Tools
DockerAWSGitCI/CDREST APIs

Experience

My professional and academic journey

Software Engineer Intern
Duke Code+ Program • Durham, NC
May 2025 - Present
FlaskPythonNeo4jSelenium
  • Selected as 1 of 4 interns from 300+ applicants to build an AI-powered fundraising platform using Flask and Python, projected to drive $10M+ in gifts by connecting philanthropists with Duke research initiatives
  • Increased donor-research match accuracy by 40% by embedding donor interests with Sentence Transformers and mapping 2K+ alumni relationships in Neo4j to surface high-value connections for targeted outreach
  • Accelerate donor data acquisition by 95% by building a Selenium pipeline to scrape 13K+ records and enriching profiles with DukeGPT insights spanning board roles, affiliations, and career history
Duke Code+ Program
Software Engineer Intern
Blue Devil Buddies • Durham, NC
Jun. 2025 - Aug. 2025
PythonPandasData Processing
  • Developing Duke's largest mentorship program through a Python-based matching system that pairs mentors and freshmen by shared interests and backgrounds, scaling to support 12.5K+ participants
  • Improving match accuracy and reducing manual processing time by 80% by cleaning and standardizing 100K+ survey responses across multiple semesters with Pandas
Blue Devil Buddies
Software Developer Intern
AspinRock • Durham, NC
Mar. 2025 - Apr. 2025
PythonPandasOpenAI APIRESTful APIs
  • Collaborated with fellow first-gen students in Duke's Spring Forward Program to deliver financial forecasting tools; Optimized AI-driven stock forecasts using Python and OpenAI API, improving accuracy by 35% through data tuning
  • Implemented a financial data pipeline using Python, Pandas, and RESTful APIs to process 1M+ daily stock price records across 5,000+ companies, and analyzed large-scale stock price data for real-time market insights
Aspin Rock
Research Assistant
Duke Fuqua Graduate School of Business • Durham, NC
Aug. 2024 - Jul. 2025
PythonBeautifulSoupExcelData Analysis
  • Automated Python web-scraping pipelines with BeautifulSoup to collect and process financial disclosures, cutting manual data gathering by 9+ hours weekly and enabling large-scale political finance analysis
  • Structured and validated datasets of legislative financial records with 98% accuracy in Excel, supporting reliable research on lawmakers' business affiliations and investment activity
Duke Fuqua School of Business

Leadership

Catalyst Marketing Executive
Durham, NC
Apr. 2024 - Present

Expanding Duke's largest pre-professional tech org by hosting resume workshops and professional events; generated 150K+ social media impressions and boosted event attendance by 30% YTD

Duke Catalyst
DukeLife Mentor
Durham, NC
Jun. 2025 - Present

Mentoring first-gen/low-income students across multiple cohorts, easing academic and social transitions and driving a ~25% increase in campus resource use

DukeLife

Projects

🏆 2x Hackathon Winner

Award-winning projects and personal builds

Excess - AI Voice Agent
Deutsche Bank Hackathon: 1st Place 🏆
Oct. 2025

Built an AI voice agent using Flask and Retell AI to bridge users to 800+ verified aid programs, improving access to housing, food, and energy assistance in underrepresented rural communities.

Enhanced the system with multilingual and SMS support, delivering real-time voice assistance at ~60%lower cost than human operations.

PythonFlaskRetell AIREST APIs
Deutsche Bank Hackathon
The Devil's Tracker
Poker Session Management App
Apr. 2025

Built a cross-platform mobile app to manage poker sessions, automating buy-ins and earnings across 30+ games, reducing settlement time by 90%

Implemented QR-based game/user encoding with Expo Camera cutting setup time from 2 min → 10 secs and real-time sync with Firebase Firestore for game state and earnings

React NativeTypeScriptNode.jsExpress.jsPostgreSQLFirebase
The Devil's Tracker - Duke Project
GoHelpMe - Disaster Response App
CUHackIt: 1st Place 🥇
Mar. 2025

Led development of a disaster-response app that connects victims with volunteers via real-time geolocation, enabling faster mobilization and more effective resource allocation during crises.

Enabled the mobile frontend to process 500+ live help requests during testing by developing and deploying backend services with Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL.

React NativeExpoNode.jsExpressPostgreSQL
GoHelpMe - CUHackIt Winner
Personal Portfolio Website
You're looking at it! ✨
2025

Built a modern, responsive personal website featuring real-time Spotify integration with my listening stats, smooth scrolling animations, and a unique gradient design system.

Integrated Spotify Web API to dynamically display my top artists and tracks with real-time updates.

Next.jsTypeScriptTailwind CSSSpotify API

Hobbies & Interests

What I do outside of coding

📸
Photography

View my photo collection from travels and everyday moments.

✨ Click to explore
✈️
Traveling

Explore my travel map and photos from places I've visited.

✨ Click to explore