Hi, I'm Zhila!

I'm a software engineer with experience in developing web applications and have a passion for creating games and game engines.

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What I do

SOFTWARE ENGINEER | GAME DEVELOPER

Full Stack Development

⚡ Developer for Apple Design Award nominee Wavelength

⚡ QA Tester for Apple Design Award winner Rooms

⚡ Making games with Lua, C#, and Unity and C++ game engines

⚡ Building responsive web apps with React.js, Flask, and Django

My Projects

2D Game Engine

SDLC++LUASOLDEARIMGUIGAMEDEV

Created a 2D game engine and game using SDL and C++. Implemented Lua scripting with C++ bindings through Sol, and user interface with Dear ImGui. Utilized Entity Component System architecture. Additionally built a tilemap editor tool to use with the engine.

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Geometry Wars

SFMLC++GAMEDEV

Created a 2D game engine and game using SFML and C++. Utilized Entity Component System architecture.

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Disco

PYTHONFLASKJAVASCRIPTWHISPEROPENAIAI

Created all of the endpoints and backend functionality for generating newsletters for podcasters. This included testing and using various AI models and setting up the infrastructure for transcribing audio, as well as developing APIs using Python, Flask, and Redis to generate newsletter content to be consumed by a Ruby on Rails application.

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DFS Room

LUAGAMEDEVDFS

Created a Depth First Search game prototype in Rooms.xyz

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Planets AR iOS app

iOSAR

Created an AR iOS app using Unity to display planets. Implemented using ARKit and wrote scripts for planet rotation.

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Invaders

LUALOVE2D

Created a space invaders style game using the Love2D game engine. Implemented parallax background, animations, and a state machine for managing game states and object states.

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Stardew Valley Schedules

REACTJSVITETYPESCRIPTHTMLCSS

Created a React web application for displaying NPC schedules from the game Stardew Valley using data from the SDV wiki. Deployed to production using Vercel with CI/CD through Github.

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Van Life

REACTJSREACT-ROUTERJAVASCRIPTHTMLCSSFIREBASE

Created a React web application for a van rental marketplace. Utilized React Router 6 for routing and data loading and Firebase Cloud Firestore for data storage. Deployed to production using Netlify with CI/CD through Github.

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Dice Game

MONGODBEXPRESSREACTJSNODEJAVASCRIPTHTMLCSS

Created a fullstack web application for playing a dice rolling game. Included development of multiple APIs and cookie storage for registering and logging in users, getting and setting high scores, and sending dice rolls from the server side. Used MongoDB for data storage.

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Computer Vision for Traffic Signs

pythonTensor Flow

Used Tensor Flow to build a neural network to classify road signs based on images from the GTSRB dataset. Resulted in 97% accuracy.

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Tic-Tac-Toe Artificial Intelligence

python

Used the Minimax algorithm to create an AI that plays Tic-Tac-Toe optimally.

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Mochi the Digger

LuaLOVE2D

Created a 2D game using Lua and Love2D. Levels were created using procedural level generation. Implemented quad generation for sprite sheets, collision detection, path finding, and a game state machine. Published the game on itch.io.

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Meme Generator

ReactJSJavascriptFullstack

Used ReactJS and fetched data from imgflip API to create a random meme generator.

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Hydration Tracker

ReactJSJavascriptFullstack

Used ReactJS to create a water consumption tracking app, integrated with Firebase for user authentication, and deployed with Vercel.

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Wordle Clone

ReactJSJavascriptFullstack

Created a wordle clone using Reactjs and integrated with RapidAPI to fetch data from a random word API.

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Parser

python

Wrote an AI to parse sentences and extract noun phrases using the Natural Language Toolkit NLTK Python library.

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Web Application for Booking Home Services

DjangoPythonFullstack

Built a single page web application to allow users to book home services, utilizing Django and Javascript. Included integration with email.

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The Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement (MAPLE)

NEXTJSJavascript

Open Source contributor for bug fixes and new features. Worked on Frontend.

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Question and Answer AI

python

Implemented a TF-IDF function to answer questions based on ranking documents and words using the Natural Language Toolkit NLTK library in Python.

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Rubber Duck Debuggify

REACTJSJAVASCRIPT

Integrated with Spotify Web Playback SDK for user login and playback of Spotify music. Used Lottie animation that pauses and animates with the music player controls. Implemented dark and light themes.

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Education and Certificates

University of Southern California
Master of Science in Computer Science
2023 - 2025MS

Activities and societies: Society of Women Engineers, Viterbi Women in Engineering

    Columbia Business School
    Master of Business Administration
    2006 - 2008MBA

    Activities and societies: Editor of the Bottom Line student newspaper, Columbia Women's Rugby team, Columbia Women in Business, Follies

      Oklahoma State University
      Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
      1999 - 2003BS

      Activities and societies: Dean's Honor Roll, President's Honor Roll, Society of Women Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Tau Beta Pi, OSU Women's Soccer Club Team

        Harvard University
        CS50x - Introduction to Computer Science
        2021 - 2022Certificate

        Languages include C, Python, and SQL plus HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

        • Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web programming.
        Harvard University
        CS50 - Web Programming with Python and Javascript
        2022Certificate

        Implementation of web apps using Python, JavaScript, and SQL using frameworks like Django, React, and Bootstrap.

        • Write and use APIs, create interactive UIs, and leverage cloud services like GitHub and Heroku. Topics include database design, scalability, security, and user experience.
        Harvard University
        CS50 - Introduction to Game Development
        2022Certificate

        Languages include Lua and C#

        • Explores principles of 2D and 3D graphics, animation, sound, and collision detection using Unity and LÖVE 2D frameworks.
        Harvard University
        CS50 - Introduction to AI with Python
        2022Certificate

        Python and Tensor Flow

        • Topics include graph search algorithms, classification, optimization, reinforcement learning, neural networks, NLP.

        Connect with me!

        Want to discuss a project or just say hi? Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Github, or Twitter!