Hello, my name is David Lyons. I'm currently a CS major at Carnegie Mellon University. I'm a strong mathematician and programmer, with a specialty in strategic thinking and organizational skills. I'm an extremely hard worker but also like to have fun. On this website you will find everything you need to know about me as well as a lot you definitely do not need to know about me. Enjoy.
High School Diploma
GPA 3.99/4.14, Cum Laude
Team Captain, Public Forum Debate
Commended Student List
B.S. in Computer Science, Concentration in Computer Graphics, Minor in Business Administration
GPA 3.95
Dean's List (F19, F20, S21, F21)
Nominated for Program by Teachers, Completed Program
Completed 3D Game Modding - Portal 2, Game Design for iPhone and iPad, Role-Playing Game Design with RPG Maker, FPS Game Design - Unreal Development Kit, and RPG Game Design with Torchlight II
Completed Math Program
Smiling Eyes Fund, a charity started through University Hospitals, provides necessities as well as gifts for children of cancer patients. As co-founder, I have reviewed and approved dozens of applications throughout the past years.
Worked in the Quantitative Imaging Laboratory on automatic contouring methods for medical imaging. This entailed between 200-300 hours of coding during the summer from scratch in MatLab. Then, during the subsequent two semesters, presenting the project at various symposiums. Prior to the summer, I wrote a research proposal.
Was a Public Forum instructor for two summers (1 week each). I planned part of the curriculum as well as an elective, gave several presentations, and gave students (our lab had about a dozen) feedback on speeches and written work. In addition, I came to give students feedback during the Winter Workshop, another workshop in the summer to prepare for the national finals, and was a panelist in a webinar.
Hired by the Student Academic Success Center to facilitate Supplemental Instruction sessions. Prepared handouts and led educational activities to help students understand material. Held 2 sessions per week as well as before exams. Most sessions have 5-10 students.
Worked on the Ad Platform team and programmed in PHP, HTML, SQL, and TypeScript/JavaScript with Redux, jQuery, and React. I personally completed over 50 deploys to Etsy's website covering over 20 tickets. My biggest project was creating a notification system from scratch that allows the staff to send a preset or custom alert to the seller's ads dashboard letting them know that there are issues with ads. This was an open-ended project, with me making the planning doc, dividing it into subtasks, figuring out who to reach out to for things like legal approval, and deciding how to implement it and what extra features to add.
TAd for 15213: Intro to Computer Systems in F21. Worked 20 hours a week creating slides for recitations and review sessions, creating problems for written homework assignments, holding multiple office hours per week, grading the final exam, and leading a weekly recitation of about 20 students. Also answered over 1300 student questions on the online Piazza and was in charge of making sure the problem sets were completed and released on time. Then TAd for 15445: Database Systems in S23. More information TBA.
Worked for the AWS Config Reporting team and programmed in Java. Created a new feature for aggregators that fulfills a longstanding customer request to allow aggregators to selectively aggregate certain resource types. I created the design doc, implemented the solution, deployed and tested the code, and presented the project to the organization. In my spare time, I created a guide to help new employees learn how the aggregators software works.
Experience (courses or projects) in C, C++, Python (including Julia), Swift, HTML/CSS (including Django/Bootstrap), Git, Standard ML, MatLab, Assembly, SQL, PHP, Go, OCaml, Rust, Java, and JavaScript (including TypeScript, Redux, React, jQuery, and React Native).
Highly skilled at math. I'm a mathematical thinker, approaching everything systematically and with deductive reasoning. For example, see my friendship algorithm.
Extreme proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google equivalents (specialty in Google Sheets) as well as LaTeX and Adobe (Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects). I can put thoughts to paper.
Have done dozens of lengthy presentations and talks in addition to four years of debate. Can present ideas and information well and clearly.
Mandarin (simplified, not traditional). This was the language I studied at Hawken from 2nd-11th grade. I passed HSK Level 3 and got Hawken's Chinese Award, both junior year. I can use a Chinese keyboard as well as hand-write characters. I can communicate in Chinese fairly fluently and am solid at grammar/sentence structure. We ordered food in Chinese.
Elinore, an exchange student, complained one day in Honors English that The Scarlet Letter was such a hard book that she had to read it in Swedish to understand it and then English for the class, making it harder for her than others. So, to share her pain, I spent the year learning Swedish online and did the opposite. I have solid proficiency, though less than Chinese.
A friend named Eshita said she always wanted to learn ASL but never could find the motivation, so I said, how about I learn it with you and we have weekly meetings? That'll keep you on schedule. She thought that was a good idea, so I did and we did. We've completed Level 1 of 3, which is moderate proficiency.
When faced with a task, I come up with a plan and execute. No procrastination, minimal breaks. I am extremely organized and methodical and have an affinity for spreadsheets. I'm data-driven and very focused, having near unlimited mental stamina. A perfect task robot.
I like to think. I like to take difficult or complicated questions and ponder the answer, often with friends. The more complex, the more interesting it is for me. As a result I often have controversial perspectives and crazy ideas like my own calendar and religion, which means no conversation with me is ever boring.
Whatever I do, I like to make it unique and memorable. Unless given strict guidelines, I like to come up with a creative approach and add my personal "flair." This often means I'm the most humorous person in the room and really fun to be around. For instance, in high school I addressed the school detailing why the sky was falling.