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Hi, I'm

Alex Xu

I build apps, make robots, and fly drones.

See my work Résumé

Where I’ve worked.

3 roles

Good Start Labs

Jan 2026 – Apr 2026New York, NY (Remote)

Backend Engineering

Backend for an internal platform that benchmarks frontier models. I built the queued eval pipeline, with worker logs streaming live out of jobs that run for hours.

4benchmarks wired
5model providers

Python
FastAPI
Celery
RabbitMQ
Docker

BitGo

May 2025 – Aug 2025Palo Alto, CA (Remote)

Software Engineering

Migrated core parts of BitGo's institutional crypto wallet platform to TypeScript. Upgraded Mongoose v6 to v8, and cut endpoint latency by tracing slow queries in Grafana.

200+build errors resolved
50+CI/CD failures fixed
0production incidents

TypeScript
Node.js
Mongoose
Grafana

Apollo Intelligence

Sep 2024 – Dec 2024Toronto, ON (Remote)

Fullstack Developer & Designer

Co-founded Apollo Agent and took it from an idea to an interview room. Before that, Apollo Learn: auto-grading that went to work in a real university course.

~70%less grading time
YCinterview stage

Next.js
React
Flask
Supabase
Claude

Things I’ve built.

The Lobbify site: “Host a lobby in seconds”, above the desktop client.

FlagshipFounderSep 2024 to present

Lobbify

Host and join private Minecraft lobbies in one click.

Electron
React
Bun
Hono
PostgreSQL
WebRTC

The Agent Swarm dashboard showing per-agent token, cost, CPU and memory charts.

Agent SwarmA control plane for a fleet of autonomous Claude Code agents.

Next.js
TypeScript
Docker
noVNC

WaterlooWorks Explorer listing 2,568 curated co-op positions.

WaterlooWorks ExplorerAn AI-assisted job platform that reads between the lines of a posting.

FastAPI
React
TypeScript
Ollama

The self-balancing robot holding itself upright and driving across a floor.

Self-Balancing RobotTwo wheels, two nested control loops, a Kalman filter holding it upright.

ESP32
C++
PID
Kalman

The robotic arm moving under joystick control.

Robotic ArmA five-iteration STM32 arm with its own gear train and cooling.

C
STM32
Fusion 360

Flying over voxel terrain generated by the custom Java engine.

Minecraft, from scratchA voxel engine written over a Christmas break, entirely self-taught.

Java
OpenGL
GLSL
LWJGL

Ragdoll fighters brawling across a floating platform.

Party PhysicsA multiplayer physics brawler on hand-rolled netcode.

Java
Dyn4J
TCP

The Soul Knight clone in play, clearing a dungeon room.

Soul Knight cloneA top-down shooter built in two weeks, in grade 9.

Python
Pygame

Blinky Face, a small two-wheeled robot with two blue LCD eyes, balanced on a concrete floor.

Blinky FaceA robot pet with an LCD face and a local LLM for a brain.

Raspberry Pi
ESP32
Python
LLM

All 13 projectsEverything else I’ve finished, back to the first game I wrote.

The sky isn’t my limit.

Cinematic lines and freestyle, on an iFlight Nazgul F5 and a DJI Avata 2.

Cinematic

Blue Mountains, ONiFlight Nazgul F5 V2 · DJI Action 4

FPV footage from Berczy Park, Markham ON — Berczy Park, Markham ONiFlight Nazgul F5 V2 · DJI Action 4

FPV footage from Bluffer's Park, Scarborough ON — Bluffer's Park, Scarborough ONiFlight Nazgul F5 V2 · GoPro Hero 9

FPV footage from Waterloo, ON — Waterloo, ONDJI Avata 2

Freestyle

James Thomas Park, Markham ONDJI Avata 2

Education.

University of Waterloo

BASc Computer Engineering, Honours, Co-operative

2023 to present · Waterloo, Ontario

Study terms and work terms in alternating four-month blocks, all the way through. Hardware and software in one degree, which is what I came for.

Middlefield Collegiate Institute

Ontario Secondary School Diploma

2019 to 2023 · Markham, Ontario

Four years, most of them spent running the Programming Club and its weekly events.

Get in touch.

Have a question about my work, or something you'd like to build together? I'd love to hear from you.

alex.zihao.xu@gmail.com

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