This page is outdated, as I’m currently working on a custom React-based website! You can see my progress here: https://github.com/dqanxy-umich/portfolio-website
A software developer and hobbyist indie game developer, seeking internships for Fall 2024 and new grad positions in 2025. I take pride in my flexibility and adaptability, knowing a wide variety of languages and technologies, with a slight focus towards community-driven content, virtual experiences, and developing infrastructure for ML models.
Here is a collection of some of my favorite projects!
Projects
Timber Engine
A beginner-friendly web-based game engine, designed to be a 3D and portable alternative of the famous MIT Scratch game engine, with more features akin to a real game engine. Working in a team of 10, I head the Lua and Drag-and-Drop scripting engine, exposing engine features, writing architecture, and handling serialization. I also developed the fog-of-war system with HLSL shaders, and wrote the pathfinding using an implementation of Theta-Star (a version of Alpha-Star).
Github: https://github.com/ayarger/timber
Walbridge Computer Vision
Working on the Proximity Warning Alert System to detect people in blind spots of heavy machinery, reducing injuries and fatalities of real construction workers. Utilizing a YOLO v5 model, trained using real images on PyTorch, integrated using Jetson.
You can find more details about the project here: https://mdp.engin.umich.edu/sponsor_teams/walbridge-24/
Natural Language Processing Research
Studying the ability of popular NLP models to perform spatial reasoning. We ask fine-tuned models to generate directions, monitor its improvement during training via various custom metrics, and probe the models to test for understanding of spatial concepts like direction and distance. Working primarily with Python/Pytorch, on models like GPT-2 and T5.
Will post the finished paper when it’s completed. Here’s a link to the lab, though: https://blablablab.si.umich.edu/
Game Development Projects
I love to make games in my spare time! I’ve also helped out in larger game projects before, often wearing many hats covering the entirety of game production. You can find a wide collection of both personal and team projects below!
Subtension
A real time strategy game based off of popular 2012 indie game FTL, developed by WolverineSoft Studio, a 30 person team. Developed and implemented core audio tracks and components using Wwise, an industry-standard adaptive audio software. Implemented systems within Unity to interact with Wwise. Utilized Git for effective version control, and used Jira for workflow management.
Treat Team
A puzzle/life-sim mobile game built in Unity, being developed by Bluebird Studios, a 15 person team. I designed core gameplay features and implemented complex and interactive audio. Utilized PlasticSCM for version control and Jira for workflow management. Wrote design documents in Confluence and developed prototypes using Figma.
Overdeveloped
A cross between Overcooked/Keep Talking and Nobody Explode where you run a game development studio, made for a game jam with three other people. Developed in Unity, complete with a manual and Overcooked style 3D art.
The Death of Stars – Click here for link
A solo experimental 2-day project with a minimalist and disorientating atmosphere. Built from the ground up, with nearly all assets generated at runtime.
The World Against Time – Click here for link
A two-week solo puzzle/shooter/stealth game for EECS 494 P2 – Prototype. Experimented with gameplay and visual effects in Unity, playing around a core “stopped time” mechanic.
Metallurgy
A 6-week vertically scrolling rogue-like made with a team of 5 for EECS 494 P3. Complete with procedural generation, augment, weather and combat systems and multiple boss fights and cutscenes. Built in Unity.
Getting Over It with Reinforcement Learning
Ongoing collaboration with undergraduates Derek Zhu from UChicago and Daniel Xu from MIT. Fully decompiled Getting Over It and modified it to allow for fast and easy simulation. Currently building Monte Carlo Tree Search model in Python by discretizing player position and performing all simulation within Unity. We intend to be able to play the unmodified game using our finished model.
You can find some of my other game projects here: https://zstarlight.itch.io
Here are some my projects from my coursework:
EECS 442 Computer Vision
This class covered a wide variety CV related topics, from CNNs to GANs to object detection to panorama stitching and more. I helped design the model and completed all of the dataloading/preprocessing for our class project, which was a recreation of the YOLO object detection model, which interprets object detection as regression and runs a single neural network to solve.
EECS 545 Machine Learning
Through my EECS 545 Machine Learning course, I became familiar with a variety of neural nets, from CNNs to SVMs to rNNs, and a large range of other ML techniques such as PCA, ICA, UMAP, and others. I was able to apply what I learned in the class project, where I and a few others attempted to classify finger flexions via their ECoG data, testing a variety of neural networks on a real life problem.
You can view our work here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YAyS9neqwFADCqstmoSVI5xNKqDDZ-zz/view?usp=sharing
EECS 281 Data Structures and Algorithms
Through my EECS 281 course, I was able to gain proficiency using a variety of data structures and common algorithms, including hash sets/maps, functors/comparators, BSTs, BFS/DFS, Dijkstra’s and more. Completed multiple projects including a pseudo SQL project and a TSP optimization program, all in C++. I continue to use the techniques I learned in this course to develop optimized programs in my other projects.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tian-daniel/
