Software Engineer, Student Volunteer @ AIS4R, Cal Poly CS Department
(Aug 2026 - Present)- Building incident-level access control for IntelliSAR, a search-and-rescue coordination dashboard, across its Next.js and Firebase stack.
Hey, I'm Cole.
CS student at Cal Poly SLO (opens in a new tab) building tools people use.
Seeking a Summer 2027 SWE or PM internship.
CURRENT WORK:
Computer Science Officer @ AI Ethics Lab (AIEL), Cal Poly
(Jan 2026 - Present)- Co-lead the computer science side of an interdisciplinary research lab.
- Co-authored the State of AI report for Cal Poly's Academic Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Generative AI, conducting interviews across academic colleges.
Founder & Operator @ Cole Soles
(Mar 2020 - Present)- Founded and scaled an e-commerce resale business to $300K+ in revenue across 1,000+ transactions on Amazon, eBay, and local channels.
- Built inventory and profitability tracking systems to manage stock, margin, and cash flow.
PAST WORK:
Software Development Engineer Intern, Product Engineering @ Keystone, Seattle
(Jun 2026 - Aug 2026)- Interviewed consultants across healthcare, technology, and business development to find where manual relationship tracking cost the most time, surfacing that only 39 of 96 tracked contacts had a recorded last touch.
- Built the Python pipeline as its sole engineer, turning law-firm news and email digests into routed relationship signals that matched 86.9% of 465 signals to the firm or person who owned them.
- Raised usable article text from 19% to 73% across 86 items with a full-body top-up stage, converting snippets extraction could not parse into content that yielded named attorneys.
- Reframed the brief from lead generation to relationship intelligence after finding existing tooling already served the original framing, then ranked 12 use cases on a six-dimension matrix to recommend a three-use-case MVP.
- Presented the final readout to leadership.
Campus Ambassador @ Lovable
(Apr 2026 - Jul 2026)- Represented Lovable at Cal Poly, organizing events and building student communities to educate and inspire new builders.
Full Stack Software Engineer @ PolyBuys (CodeBox Club)
(Jan 2026 - Jun 2026)- Built Cal Poly email and OTP authentication, listing search and filtering, reporting with auto-hide for reported listings, and OpenAI moderation.
- Worked in a React Native (Expo), Convex, and TypeScript monorepo on a 10-person team; the app reached 250+ downloads and signups in the first month after its May 2026 launch.
Campus Partner @ Perplexity
(Sep 2025 - Jan 2026)- Promoted the Comet browser and Perplexity AI across Cal Poly through student communities, events, and peer engagement.
AI & Software Engineering Intern @ Elite Bricks, Remote
(Aug 2025 - Oct 2025)- Owned internal operations tooling end to end, from data model to AWS deployment.
Founder @ Lake Washington Detailing
(Jun 2019 - Aug 2025)- Founded and ran a mobile car-detailing business in the Seattle area, growing to 200+ clients through flyers, customer referrals, and neighborhood marketing on Nextdoor and Facebook.
SOME PROJECTS I'M WORKING ON:
- 4,428 users and 2.7M tracks processed.
- Web toolkit for SoundCloud DJs and power users — playlist merging, bulk unlike/unfollow, repost management, dead track detection.
- Built with Next.js + Node.js/Express REST backend, SoundCloud OAuth2 + PKCE, AES-256-GCM token encryption, HMAC-signed sessions, and PostgreSQL + Prisma.
- Local-first Instagram analytics tool (browser-side parsing) serving ~2,000 users.
- Upload your data exports to see who unfollowed you — no login required.
- Non-followers are segmented by a client-side heuristic; only anonymous usage analytics leave the browser.
- Rush management app for fraternity recruitment — live voting with a swipe-based interface, real-time results over custom FastAPI WebSockets.
- Built with Next.js + FastAPI, PostgreSQL/Supabase via asyncpg, Supabase Auth (magic-link), and QR check-in.
- Piloted with a six-chapter independent Interfraternity Council near Chico State, covering 600 actives and 150 potential new members, for Fall 2026 rush.
- Local-first desktop app for Rekordbox DJ libraries — reads the encrypted library directly and gives DJs the bulk edits and duplicate detection the official software doesn't expose.
- Rust, Tauri, TypeScript, SQLCipher.
- In development.
AI Listing Generator
- OpenAI-powered tool for real estate professionals to generate listing descriptions in minutes.
- Multi-step form with Zod validation, Supabase Auth with domain-restricted RLS, generation history, and AI output comparison.
- Built with React, TypeScript, and Supabase.
PolyEats
- Nutrition tracking and meal planning for Cal Poly students, built around campus dining menus pulled from three dining-service APIs into one schema.
- Native SwiftUI iOS app and React web client on one Supabase backend; AI meal plans via Supabase Edge Functions and OpenAI with a local fallback; budget and progress tracking.
- Running a 30-user campus pilot.
Lake Washington Detailing Website
- Mobile detailing business site with Calendly scheduling and vehicle-based estimator.
Metrics as of October 2026.
TECHNICAL SKILLS:
- Languages
- Python
- TypeScript/JavaScript
- Swift
- Java
- Rust
- C
- SQL
- Frontend & Mobile
- SwiftUI
- Next.js
- React
- Tauri
- Tailwind CSS
- shadcn/ui
- Backend & Data
- Node.js
- Express
- FastAPI
- Deno
- REST APIs
- WebSockets
- PostgreSQL
- Supabase
- Firebase/Firestore
- Prisma
- asyncpg
- SQLCipher
- Snowflake
- Security & Auth
- OAuth2/PKCE
- JWT/JWKS
- AES-256-GCM
- Row-level security
- Infrastructure
- Linux/Unix
- Azure
- Docker
- GitHub Actions CI
- Git
- Testing
- Playwright
- pytest
- Vitest
- XCTest
- AI
- AWS Bedrock
- OpenAI API
- Model Context Protocol
- Claude Code
- Cursor
- OpenAI Codex
- Gemini CLI
- Product
- Product requirements
- User research
- Stakeholder interviews
- Competitive analysis
- Prioritization
- Sprint planning
- KPI tracking
- SEO
- PostHog
- Linear
EDUCATION:
Cal Poly SLO
(Sep 2024 - May 2028)B.S. in Computer Science, AI and Machine Learning Concentration
- GPA: 3.865
Activities and Involvement
- 3x President's List recipient, Dean's List every quarter
- Y Combinator Startup School 2026
- Creative Ambassador for CapCut
RELEVANT COURSEWORK
- Data Structures
- Object-Oriented Programming & Design
- Design & Analysis of Algorithms
- Systems Programming
- Computer Organization
- Operating Systems
- Computer Security
- Programming Languages
- Discrete Structures
- Statistical Methods for Engineers
- Linear Analysis
- Calculus II/III
- Logic & Argumentative Writing
Seattle Preparatory School
(2020 - 2024)High School Diploma
Activities and Involvement
- Panther Journalism Online Editor
- Business Club Executive
- Kairos Team Leader
- NHS Master Tutor