GitHub↗
Waterloo · Software Engineer

Peter Zhang.
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I build full-stack systems, game engines, and the occasional desktop cat. Currently building restaurant tech at Owner.com.

See my work→GitHub↗
Currently @ Owner.com · Guest App Platform◆Open to new grad roles · 2028
About

Hey! Fancy seeing you here (^_^)／

I'm a Computer Engineering student at UWaterloo — software developer, game maker, tinkerer. Currently on Owner.com's Guest App Platform Team.

Down to chat tech, ski lines, or job opportunities. Especially the last one.

⛷️ski lover👾game developer📚full-stack dev🏸badminton demon
Experience

Places I've shipped
real things.

A few of the teams I've shipped real code with — from RTOS graphics drivers to AI-powered video pipelines.

MAY 2026 — PRESENT
Owner.com
Software Engineering Intern · Guest App Platform
Remote
Restaurant TechFull-Stack
  • Just started here — check back in a few months for the highlights once I've shipped some real work.
MAY 2025 — AUG 2025
Vidyard
Software Developer · Star Labs
Remote
Ruby on RailsBunTypeScriptAWS LambdaDatadog
  • Engineered a cross-service RBAC system (Ruby on Rails, Bun/TypeScript) for 30k+ users, unlocking Fortune 500 compliance and enterprise-tier adoption.
  • Led a 3-developer squad to deliver the AI Video Backgrounds feature in 5 weeks, owning the full SDLC from systems design to production deployment.
  • Reduced media rendering failures by optimizing AWS Lambda timeouts and configuring Datadog alerts for the video generation pipeline.
  • Enforced data integrity across HubSpot/Zapier integrations by implementing granular permission scopes within the microservices architecture.
JAN 2025 — APR 2025
QNX
Software Developer in Test · Graphics Testing Team
Ottawa, ON
JenkinsDockerRTOSCI/CD
  • Automated 500+ weekly codec regression tests across RTOS targets by engineering a Jenkins CI/CD pipeline.
  • Eliminated configuration drift by containerizing test environments with Docker for reproducible testing setups.
  • Validated 4 major OS releases by designing regression suites that caught critical graphics driver defects.
MAY 2024 — AUG 2024
BlackBerry
Software Developer · Cryptographic Security Team
Waterloo, ON
JavaTypeScriptVaadinMVC
  • Designed a high-throughput "Batch Request" system in Java/TypeScript (MVC), implementing a caching layer to optimize cryptographic key generation.
  • Worked with clients to modernize legacy security tooling by migrating an SVN codebase to Vaadin23, significantly improving maintainability and performance.
Projects

Things I built
on the weekends.

All projects on GitHub →
◈ ai-coded{ echo }

Echo

Discord transcription chatbot

GPU-aware semaphores arbitrating Whisper and Ollama. Event-driven job queue. Dependency-injected gateway for modular services management.

PythonAsyncIOWhisperOllamaDocker
Echo
◈ ai-coded{ studygarden }

StudyGarden

Group study, in real time

10+ concurrent WS connections on Cloud Run, Redis state sync, TanStack Query + custom Notion API wrapper.

ReactTSRedisGCP
StudyGarden
✦ hand-coded{ pet }

Desktop Pet

Jarvis, but a cat

A cat that wanders your desktop. Integrating Ollama and productivity apps so it's actually useful - when it's actually completed.

PythonPyQt5Ollama
Desktop Pet pixel art
✦ hand-coded{ statemachine }

Statemachine Assistant

Visual state code editor

Node-based editor that generates ~40% templated of state code automatically.

Next.jsFlaskReactFlow
Statemachine node editor
✦ hand-coded{ portfolio }

this site

v3, rebuilt from scratch

Next.js + TS + Three.js. You're looking at it. Source on GitHub if you want to poke around.

Next.jsTSThree.js
peterzhang.dev v2
✦ hand-coded{ raytracer }

Raytracer Engine

C++ from scratch

Built a CPU raytracer in C++ following Ray Tracing in One Weekend, then bolted on multi-core processing to make it fly.

C++Multithreading
Raytracer rendered spheres
✦ hand-coded{ soragl }

SoraGL

3D game engine, hand-rolled

Python + OpenGL game engine I built from scratch. Currently powering a rogue-lite procedurally generated shooter.

PythonOpenGLSDL2PyBox2D
SoraGL game engine
✦ hand-coded{ dailyvibez }

Daily Vibez

AI vlog from a Raspberry Pi

cuHacking submission. Pi 4B + Gemini API generates a daily vlog. Custom video-context cache, 300% search speedup.

FastAPIGeminiRPi
Daily Vibez app
Open Source · GitHub Activity

Living grid.
Always shipping.

@Ultrasword on GitHub →