Software Engineer | MCS-DS @ UIUC | ML + Data Engineering

Hey, I'm Kobe Guo.

I'm a software engineer and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign MCS-DS student focused on machine learning, data engineering, and production-ready software. I like building clean systems, reliable workflows, and tools that solve real problems.
Here's a bit more and how I work.

View experience View selected work
  • Machine learning
  • Data engineering
  • Python + SQL
  • React.js

Experience

Experience that backs up the portfolio.

A mix of incoming internship work, production engineering, and client-facing development that shows both technical depth and real-world execution.

Upcoming Summer 2026

Capital One

Software Engineer Intern

June 2026 - August 2026 McLean, VA

Incoming Software Engineer Intern for Summer 2026, where I'll be learning how large-scale production systems are built, tested, and operated in a real engineering environment.

Freelance

Self-Employed

Freelance Developer

November 2023 - August 2025 Remote

Built and shipped client work for small businesses, with hands-on ownership across frontend improvements, performance tuning, accessibility fixes, and production-ready updates.

Internship

Nourish'd

Software Engineer Intern

June 2023 - August 2023 Cape Town, South Africa

Built product features across mobile and backend systems, including a React Native ordering app and a MySQL-to-Firebase migration that supported more scalable, real-time product behavior.

Selected Work

Projects that show how I think, build, and ship.

A mix of machine learning, automation, data-oriented software, and selected production projects with a bias for clean execution and measurable outcomes.

  • Preview of the LinkLift URL shortener project
    01 Production backend system

    LinkLift - URL Shortener

    Redis, PostgreSQL, React, Tailwind CSS, Docker, AWS EC2

    • Built a production URL shortener implementing the cache-aside pattern with Redis and PostgreSQL, achieving 5,998 req/sec at 50ms p99 latency under 100 concurrent connections.
    • Implemented Redis-backed rate limiting at 10 req/min per IP and async click analytics tracking user-agent, IP, and timestamp per redirect.
    • Deployed to AWS EC2 with Docker Compose, pm2 process management, automated startup migrations, and a React/Tailwind frontend served in production.
    Code Writeup Live demo
  • Preview of the Universal Lesion Segmentation Challenge 2023 project
    02 Machine learning project

    Universal Lesion Segmentation Challenge 2023

    Python, TensorFlow, Keras

    Collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to fine-tune medical image segmentation models on hospital bone datasets, achieving a 0.87 Dice score for lesion segmentation.

    Code Presentation
  • Preview of the Twitter Clone project
    03 Full-stack application

    Twitter Clone

    Next.js, React, JavaScript, Firebase, Redux, Tailwind CSS

    Built a Next.js social app with Firebase authentication, live post updates, Redux state management, and a Tailwind-based interface deployed on Vercel.

    Code Live demo
  • Preview of the Feralands 2D Action RPG project
    04 Custom gameplay systems

    Feralands 2D Action RPG

    GameMaker Studio, GML

    Built custom movement, combat, inventory, and game-state systems in GML, separating player actions from persistent state so the RPG loop stayed easier to tune.

    Code Play demo
  • Preview of the TikTok Video Scraper project
    05 Automation + scraping

    TikTok Video Scraper

    Python, BeautifulSoup, Selenium

    Developed a scraper that navigates TikTok pages, parses relevant HTML, and collects video links for download workflows. The project sharpened my skills in browser automation and resilient scraping.

    Code Watch demo
  • Preview of the Touchdown Wings website
    06 Client-facing delivery

    Touchdown Wings Website

    React, JavaScript, Bootstrap

    Built a restaurant website focused on clarity, responsiveness, and real business impact. The site attracts more than 1,000 monthly visitors and supports a smoother browsing experience for customers.

    Code Live site
  • Preview of this ePortfolio site
    07 Personal systems design

    E-Portfolio

    HTML, CSS, JavaScript

    Rebuilt this portfolio as a static site with accessible modals, responsive project cards, dark mode, EmailJS contact handling, and GitHub Pages deployment.

    Code Live site