OPEN-SOURCE.
COMMUNITY BUILDER.
CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST.
I'm a builder and educator.
I lead Developer Relations at TensorZero, making LLM infrastructure legible for everyone from AI engineers to first-time builders.
Previously I invented and maintained an open-source hardware deployed at NY-Presbyterian, built drone delivery systems at Wing/Alphabet, and made data art about urban displacement that ended up at the World Trade Center.
I believe the most impactful thing a builder can do is help other builders. I care about accessibility, community, and technology that actually touches people's lives.
When I'm not at TensorZero I'm solo-trekking somewhere remote — 25+ countries, most recently Nepal and Guatemala — tinkering with hardware that won't make money, or thinking too hard about urban planning for someone who isn't a city planner.
★ Design-obsessed, community-driven, and almost always listening to Acquired or Freakonomics while soldering something together.
Cornell University — B.S. & M.S. in Computer Science
My Favorite Episodes
Acquired
Google: The AI Company
michelle's notes
20 year history of google translate, LLMs, and how Google open-sourcing 2017 transformers paper was a critical company mistake (but led to OpenAI + Anthropic).
How I Built This
Duolingo
michelle's notes
Founder used education to uplift his Guatemalan village and give economic opportunity via English learning. Inspired me to do Duolingo Chess lessons.
Throughline
The Phoebus Cartel
michelle's notes
How a lightbulb cartel from 100 years ago means you have to replace your iphone every 2 years.
Freakonomics Radio
Should America Be Run by Trader Joe's?
michelle's notes
Trader Joe's intentionally does no marketing or digital kiosks, yet it has a cult following; designed to build community and doing more with less.
WHAT I'VE BUILT
CREATIVE TECH
Gallery Installation
Aging Out of Place
Participatory mahjong installation on NYC Chinatown elderly; shown at World Trade Center, BRIC Brooklyn, Next City News, CUNY and Northwestern.
Inspired by mahjong— a game of social connection in Chinese culture but also a symbol of the growing gambling addiction due to social isolation in Chinatown— this piece recreates a portrait of NYC Chinatown using laser-etched mahjong tiles of landmarks and elderly residents. This piece centers the struggles of elderly in New York City's Chinatown to age in place, focusing on themes of immigration, isolation, and challenges of aging in a city amid gentrification and poverty. It aims to invite reflection on how we can protect ethnic communities, especially those assisting immigrants age in place, and also how we can better care for the elders in our own lives.
3D Modeling + Sculpture
If They Never Left
What would our lives have looked like if our parents had never left our homeland? This piece explores the alternate timeline from past, present, to future. It centers the communal nature of food in Hong Kong versus the individual meals I grew up with in the West. Through scenes of my would be life, I reveal the loss of community, roots, and a home that never was as diaspora children..
Print + Digital
Guided Zine: Aging Out of Place
Accompanying Aging out of Place: Chinatown Elderly sculpture; A hand-illustrated zine featuring stories to bridge data with lived experience. Prompts the audience to engage with the interactive installation and share interviews with social workers and residents of NYC Chinatown.