Hi, I'm Koral

Software Engineer specializing in FinTech

Resume

About Me

Welcome to my website!

I'm a Software Engineering student at the University of Waterloo focused on low-latency systems and financial technology.

Currently, I am joining Coinbase as a SWE Intern on their Institutional Team where I hope to learn more about crypto exchanges. Outside work, I am deeply interested in competitive programming, concurreny, compilers, operating systems, and machine learning.

University of Waterloo

Education

University of Waterloo

Bachelor of Software Engineering (AI Specialization)

3.8/4.0 GPA • Sep 2023 – Apr 2028

Math: Combinatorics & Optimization, Signals & Systems, Numerical Computation, Statistics, Linear Algebra, Calculus

Computers: Advanced Algorithms, Operating Systems, Database Systems, Compilers, Software Design & Testing, User Interfaces

Languages

C/C++
Python
Rust
Go
Ruby
Java
JavaScript
SQL
Assembly

Tools & Frameworks

Docker
AWS
React
Node.js
Django
Rails
TensorFlow
PyTorch

Interests

Competitive Programming
Quant Finance
Chess
Poker
Table Tennis

Work Experience

Coinbase logo

Coinbase

Software Engineer Intern

San Francisco
May 2026 – Aug 2026

Incoming summer 2026 on the Institutional Financing Team.

Optiver logo

Optiver

FutureFocus Tech

Chicago
Mar 2026 – Mar 2026

Engineered a TCP-based electronic exchange and attended workshops.

BitGo logo

BitGo

Software Engineer Intern

Palo Alto
Sep 2025 – Dec 2025

Built security tools and optimized static analysis systems for cryptocurrency custody platform.

AtoB logo

AtoB

Software Engineer Intern

San Francisco
Jan 2025 – Apr 2025

Created data pipelines and semantic matching algorithms for lead generation and fuel statement analysis.

D2L logo

D2L

Software Engineer Intern

Toronto
May 2024 – Aug 2024

Built multi-agent frameworks and knowledge graph tools for educational automation and semantic search.

My Projects

A few of my projects — all on GitHub

FIX Exchange

FIX Exchange

C++ equity exchange running on AWS EC2 c6i.metal. Clients connect over TCP using FIX 4.2. Includes a price-time priority matching engine, UDP multicast market data, and SQLite event log & book persistence for crash recovery.

Highlights•28K+ ops/sec•Multicast market data feed•SQLite-backed crash recovery•Bare-metal

C++PythonTCP/UDPSQLiteAWSFIX 4.2
Macro Placement Challenge

Macro Placement Challenge

Analytical macro placer built for the Partcl/HRT chip placement competition. Beat the RePlAce baseline by 30% on proxy cost. Multi-phase pipeline: electrostatic GP → soft-only Adam → numerical subgradient → Lin-Kernighan k-opt → hierarchical + global LAHC.

Highlights•1.02 proxy cost•2000x speedup via FastEvaluator

PythonPyTorchNumPyAdamLAHC
3D Octree Compression

3D Octree Compression

Developed a 3D object compression algorithm using octrees, achieving up to 99% memory reduction. Built a real-time OpenGL visualizer using MVC design pattern.

Highlights•99% memory reduction•Real-time visualization•MVC design pattern

C++OpenGLComputer Graphics
Smart Order Router

Smart Order Router

A concurrent arbitrage trading engine written in Go that aggregates live order book data from multiple exchanges into a centralized Global Order Book to identify and execute profitable spread opportunities in real-time.

Highlights•Thread-safe order book•Real-time arbitrage execution•Live trading dashboard

GoConcurrencyOrder BooksREST APIs
FourSight

FourSight

Built a 95% accurate neural network to classify 12 types of cancer from microarray samples. Won the Canada-Wide Science Fair and represented Canada at the EU Contest for Young Scientists (2nd place).

Highlights•95% accuracy•Canada-Wide Science Fair Winner•$20K funding•Published to CSF Journal

PythonJavaScriptTensorFlowMatPlotLibDjangoDockerHerokuPandas
Sematic

Sematic

Collaborative whiteboard that turns voice and video into structured diagrams in real-time. Powered by Gemini 2.0 Flash and AWS Amplify Gen 2 for spatially-aware, multimodal collaboration.

Highlights•AWS Campus Champions: Best Use of DynamoDB Streams @ Hack the North

Gemini 2.0 FlashAWS Amplify Gen 2DynamoDBCognitoLambdaReact Flow
Admini

Admini

Led a 5-person software team to develop a centralized government contracting platform. Built a fully responsive landing page and 10+ application pages using React with MUI and Tailwind CSS.

Highlights•5-person team lead•Centralized platform•AWS infrastructure

AWSEC2DynamoDBS3ReactPythonJavaScriptTypeScript
Autonomous Car

Autonomous Car

Built a real-time lane detection system with OpenCV canny edge detection and hough transforms. Overlayed vehicle and traffic sign tracking using YOLOv4-tiny.

Highlights•Real-time detection•Lane detection•Object tracking

PythonOpenCVNumPyYOLOv4-tiny
SentiTrader

SentiTrader

Developed a medium-frequency sentiment analysis trading bot that scrapes r/worldnews. Live-tested Keras and Sklearn models reaching 12% annualized returns.

Highlights•12% annualized returns•Live trading•Sentiment analysis

PythonKerasSklearnSentiment Analysis
AirBoard

AirBoard

Built a hands-free typing system using MediaPipe hand tracking to control the mouse and keyboard.

Highlights•24-hour build•Hands-free typing•Hand landmarks

PythonOpenCVMediaPipe
PrsntAI

PrsntAI

A startup that transforms speech into presentation slides live using AI. Fine-tuned GPT-3.5 and used DALL-E for image generation. Deployed to prsntai.com using Vercel.

Highlights•Live speech-to-slides•Fine-tuned GPT-3.5•Multi-framework implementation

PythonJavaScriptGPT-3.5DALL-EReactDjangoFlaskVercel
Songsnap

Songsnap

2024 UofTHacks project. Website that inputs photos and generates Spotify playlists that encapsulate the moment using GPT-4 Vision and fine-tuned GPT-3.5.

Highlights•UofTHacks 2024•Photo-to-playlist•GPT-4 Vision integration

PythonGPT-4 VisionGPT-3.5CoherePostgreSQLSpotify APIAuth0Flask
NoteBot Bryan

NoteBot Bryan

Built at DeltaHacks 2024, Bryan is an AI assistant that listens to lectures and generates real-time notes using Whisper and GPT-3.5.

Highlights•DeltaHacks 2024•Real-time transcription•Markdown note generation•Multithreaded PyGame UI

PythonGPT-3.5WhisperPyGamePyAudioThreading
ML Experiments

ML Experiments

Personal repo for ML/DL experiments: CPH survival models, decision trees, ResNet-50 saliency maps, and Kaggle code. Inspired by Hands-On Machine Learning.

Highlights•CPH survival models•Decision tree classifiers•ResNet-50 saliency maps•Kaggle competition code

PythonScikit-LearnKerasTensorFlowResNet-50
Histopathology AI

Histopathology AI

Built an artificial neural network from scratch to classify cancer in histopathological and blood images, with a Flask web app for image-based diagnosis.

Highlights•Custom neural network•Medical image classification•Flask web interface

PythonJavaScriptTensorFlowMatPlotLibFlaskNumPy
COVIDTracker

COVIDTracker

COVID-19 spread simulation using 2008 Beijing taxi data and PyGame. Users can control infection parameters and observe how the virus spreads over time.

Highlights•Graph-based simulation•2008 Beijing taxi data•Interactive infection modeling

PythonPyGameNumPy
Competitive Programming

Competitive Programming

Journey from Python to C++. Solutions and notes for major contests (AOC, CCC, USACO, CodeForces, etc.), plus scripts for stress-testing and code templates.

Highlights•Advent of Code, CCC, USACO, CodeForces, and more•Stress-testing scripts•Code templates (e.g., trie)•17th place in Canada (picoCTF 2022)

PythonC++AlgorithmsData StructuresCompetitive Programming

Get In Touch

I'm always interested in new opportunities. Whether you want to discuss a project, internship, or just say hello, feel free to reach out!

Email

kulacoglukoral@gmail.com

Send Email

Location

Toronto, Canada

Canadian & Turkish Citizen