MICHAEL OWEN
I build intelligent systems, from optimizers written
from scratch to real-time computer vision.
I'm a computer science student at Virginia Tech turning data into decisions by training models on athlete kinematics, rebuilding optimizers from first principles, and shipping the interfaces that make ML legible.
years writing code, from C++ to production TypeScript
validation accuracy on a gesture CNN I designed & trained
accuracy gained through ensembling in the Kaggle AI Math Olympiad
degrees in progress: BS ’26 & MS ’27, Computer Science
The stack I think in.
Machine Learning
My core focus: model design, training & evaluation
Languages
From systems programming to typed frontends
Web & Frameworks
Where the models meet the user
Things I've built.
ML Playground
↗An interactive ML textbook covering six algorithms, with OLS, batch gradient descent, SGD and Adam implemented from scratch, recording per-epoch trajectories you can replay step by step on a live loss chart.
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
- Tailwind
- SVG viz
MichaelsMusic
↗A custom Spotify web player on the Web Playback SDK, with real-time streaming and playback control, an Express.js serverless backend handling OAuth and API proxying, deployed on Netlify.
- JavaScript
- Express.js
- Spotify API
- OAuth
- Netlify
Gesture Recognition
●Real-time hand gesture recognition: a neural net with batch normalization and dropout at 90%+ validation accuracy, fed by an augmentation pipeline that 5×’d the training set. Live webcam training for 8 gesture classes.
- Python
- TensorFlow
- OpenCV
- MediaPipe
- CNN
Kaggle AI Math Olympiad
●Built ML solutions for olympiad-level math in the AI Math Olympiad. Implemented and optimized three PyTorch models, improving accuracy 35% through ensembling and hyperparameter tuning.
- PyTorch
- Ensembles
- Feature engineering
- Tuning
Where I've been.
Data Analyst · BodBx
Gathering kinematic data from Virginia Tech athletes with the Strength & Conditioning program, applying supervised and unsupervised learning to surface the patterns connecting weight-room training to competition results.
Athletics Manager · Highlands Swim & Tennis
Ran logistics for 20+ competitions a year and coached 30+ youth athletes. Five years of leading teams, building training plans, and shipping on schedule.
Virginia Tech · BS + MS Computer Science
Bachelor's expected May 2026, accelerated Master's expected May 2027. Focus on machine learning and data-driven systems.