George Zhang
- George Zhang
- georgez98@gmail.com
- New York, NY
I love working with numbers/data, solving challenging problems, and building. I particularly enjoy seeing a product feature through the entirety of the design process - from initial ideas, to concept drawings/Figmas, to iterating based on user feedback. Currently fascinated by the world of web3 and its potential to change consumer social as we know it.
Work Experiences
Co-founder/CTO
- Co-founded and led development at a web3 consumer social startup built around user compensation and ownership
- Built mobile app from scratch in React Native; Handled backend and frontend, including database design and UI/UX; Optimized state updates, component rendering, and server calls, to decrease loading times by more than 95%
- Developed smart contracts in Solidity and deployed them to Ethereum testnet using Hardhat; Created backend Express server for minting NFTs and querying blockchain transactions using Alchemy and Etherscan APIs
- Designed native token system for platform, including core tokenomics, distribution mechanics, and token use cases
- Researched ranking algorithms of sites like Reddit to design robust methods (in Python) for ranking posts
- Collaborated with team members to make decisions on product design and company direction based on market research and user interviews; Set project roadmaps and kept track of short-term/long-term goals through Notion
Analyst/Data Engineer
- Forecasted congestion within electricity markets through analysis of historical data and construction of regression models (using R and MySQL); Researched renewable energy development and major changes to transmission grid
- Built-out Shiny dashboards to automate processes that were previously run manually, saving 40+ hours per team member per month; Handled database reads/writes, UI design, performance optimization, and data visualization
- Coordinated with company’s Data Team to maintain 50+ data scraping/management processes (primarily in PHP) and schedule jobs based on data availability; Set deadlines for developers in accordance with market team needs
- Led long-term project to automate forecasting process by breaking it down to core components and programmatically handling each part; Backtested tool reliability against historical datasets to tune weighting of various parameters
Engineering Intern
- Generated chemical process simulations to analyze safety of plant equipment when malfunctions (e.g. gas leaks) occur; Incorporated findings and feedback from 5+ different operations teams in final report to management
- Revamped catalyst management system to decrease excess inventory and streamline delivery scheduling; Used Excel VBA to simplify user inputs and consolidate information from 10+ spreadsheets into 1 master spreadsheet
Peer Tutor/Teaching Assistant
- Organized multiple weekly sessions to provide tutoring for engineering/CS students
- Guided students through homework sets and assisted them in understanding difficult concepts
- Coordinated with the professor and TAs through online and in-person correspondence to determine topics of focus, plan review sessions before exams, and ensure students received consistent information
Projects
Recess
- Designed social app for friend groups at Yale, reaching 1/3 of students with similar engagement to Instagram stories
- Brought features (e.g. video, feed curation, push notifications) from conception to completion in React Native
- Leveraged distribution strategies, including sponsored parties and giveaways, to increase user retention by 5x
PALS Tutoring and Mentoring
- Managed Yale student organization that offers free tutoring for New Haven K-8 students in reading, writing, and math
- Organized weekly tutoring sessions for 30+ students and 20+ tutors and allocated budget for supplies/events
- Doubled membership through recruitment at local schools, advertising to Yale undergrads, and tutor bonding sessions
Yale AIChE Chapter
- Was co-president for club that organizes events/resources for Yale chemical engineering students
- Expanded club presence on campus and increased club attendance from less than 10% of the department to nearly the entire department, promoting community among the ChemE undergrads
- Created a ChemE LinkedIn page and alumni database to promote ease of access to networking resources
- Raised over $5000 to fund a student trip to the annual AIChE conference in Pittsburgh