Derek

Derek Chen

I'm a software engineer and fourth-year Computer Science student at UT Austin. From my early days developing Minecraft Java mods downloaded by millions, to building academic tools relied upon by 50,000+ students daily, to shipping production code for leading tech companies, my focus remains the same: I build reliable, high-performance software that solves real problems for real people.

View Resume↗

Charles Schwab↗Austin, Texas
Software Engineer Intern - Login Management Team
June 2025 – August 2025
Developed a BigQuery-powered authentication analytics tool to trace login flows across a 72-TB production database. Built GCP dashboards processing 100+ GB daily logs and reduced mean time to resolution by 30%.
AT&T↗Dallas, Texas
Software Engineer Intern - Core Platforms Team
June 2024 – August 2024
Resolved backend bottlenecks in the TOM platform, cutting Spring Boot load times by 30%+. Developed AT&T Language Assist, a multilingual communication tool using AI for live call translation, projected to save $162M+ annually.
Longhorn Developers↗Austin, Texas
Senior Software Engineer
December 2023 – Present
Leading development of UT Registration Plus, a university course management tool used by 60,000+ students at UT Austin.
CYL-Tek↗Hsinchu, Taiwan
Embedded Software Engineer Intern
May 2023 – July 2023
Engineered a cross-platform AES-256 encryption module to securely transfer data between STM32-based smart medical IoT devices. Debugged and resolved critical synchronization issues in the IoT device pairing tool.
Seven Lakes OrchestrasKaty, Texas
Communications Chair
May 2021 – August 2022
Modernized the orchestra website by replacing legacy jQuery with modern frameworks, improving SEO ranking by 40%+. Led a 19-member team coordinating projects and raised audience turnout to 600+ with a promotional film.
Librarian
May 2020 – May 2021
Managed orchestra sheet music organization and distribution logistics to keep rehearsals and performances running smoothly.

Featured Projects

Here are some of the projects I've worked on that showcase my skills in full-stack development and problem-solving.

TypeScriptReactCSSSCSSSQLViteTailwindCSSFigma

UT Registration Plus

Developing an open-source Chrome extension (50,000+ active users) that streamlines course registration by integrating course info, professor ratings, grade distributions, and schedule planning directly into official university pages. Built with React, TypeScript, Tailwind, Vite, and maintained in an industry-style CI/CD environment by a student-led team. Navigated a complete architecture change away from the previous jQuery, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS stack to support Manifest V3.

JavaGradleBukkitPaperMC

Guests

In response to organized griefing waves in 2025, developed a lightweight Bukkit plugin for public Minecraft servers that automatically places unverified players into a restricted guest state, allowing communities to keep servers open while protecting builds and gameplay. Implemented configurable permissions for spectator mode, chat restrictions, and block interaction to streamline onboarding without relying on a permanent whitelist.

ReactJavaScriptHTMLCSSTailwindCSSNode.jsGPT-4Google Cloud PlatformFigmaExpress

AccounTech

AccounTech is a personal finance assistant created for the Capital One Challenge at HackTX 2023 (Hosted by Freetail Hackers). Built in under 24 hours, the app combines a React Native-based client experience with an Express.js API deployed on Google Cloud, plus a GPT-4-powered assistant that answers user questions about spending behavior and potential financial impact. Team consisting of Akhilesh Bitla, Bersam Basagaoglu, Brian Jiang, and Derek Chen.

JavaScriptHTMLCSSExpressSQL

UT Austin Distribution Viewer

Developed a user-friendly website with HTML/CSS to replace outdated tools, offering intuitive visualizations of course grade distributions at UT Austin with backend infrastructure hosted with the Express.js framework and SQL. Assisted 6,100+ distinct students during registration periods in the first year alone.

TypeScriptElectronCSSHTMLJavaScript

Pear Desktop (formerly YouTube Music Desktop)

My first real open-source work was contributing to Pear Desktop (fomerly known as YouTube Music Desktop App), a Youtube Music player with over 16 million downloads that I used for years. Architected a Romanization toggle for the Genius Lyrics plugin and optimized lyric behavior for East Asian-language (for those who wanted to sing along to kpop). Identified and patched a critical memory leak within content-filtering that caused significant performance degradation during long sessions.

React NativeJavaScriptJavaMongoDBSpring BootFigma

Trove: The Lost & Found App

A virtual lost-and-found app for college campuses, inspired by the $70 dorm key replacement costs at UT Austin. In a 24-hour HackTX 2022 sprint, worked with a team of three to design in Figma and develop a React Native frontend with a Java Spring Boot + MongoDB backend. Despite being new to React Native and working under tight time constraints, my team delivered a fully functional, aesthetically polished app that won the Best Overall Beginner Hack Award out of 75 teams. Team consisting of Akhilesh Bitla, Bersam Basagaoglu, Derek Chen, and Kshitij Kapoor.

Game Development

Last Stand: Sci-Fi Crossover (Star Wars)

Find yourself watching a deployment of troopers on a Venator-class Star Destroyer caught in the middle of an enemy raid! An unknown, lethal enemy has boarded wielding some sort of prototype armor. Collaborated with Harsh Dave on game design and presentation for a high school class.

BlenderPremiere ProAfter EffectsAudacityMotion Tracking

SLORK Wars Episode II: Attack of the Violas

And now for something completely different! I started this as a year-long graduation project to keep senioritis from winning, and it grew into a 30-minute Star Wars fan film made with my friends from the Seven Lakes High School orchestras! We recruited over 100 students and mixed live action with 3D animation built in Unreal Engine (C++) and Blender, packing it with lightsaber duels, anime-styled fight scenes, space battles, and orchestra inside jokes. The final film now has 50,000+ views on YouTube. Heavily inspired by Rogue One and Revenge of the Sith, it was a great way to help our community find its rhythm again post-COVID lockdown by collaborating on something ambitious, creative, and honestly hilarious.

JavaGradleMinecraft Forge APIProcedural GenerationGame DevelopmentBlockbench

Earth Mobs

My first large-scale engineering project: a Java modification for Minecraft with over 340,000 downloads. I architected a procedural world-generation system and custom AI entity pathfinding, maintaining backward compatibility across 30+ game versions over a 5-year lifecycle. Managed an open-source workflow on GitHub, authoring Wikis and utilizing Issue Trackers to triage feedback for a community of 300+ users. Performed creative work in Blockbench to model and texture custom entities and game assets.

See more projects here!

More coming soon. Work in progress.

🤘 UT Webring

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