# Sean Houlihan

> Staff Software Engineer @ Motif | Berkeley EECS

Location: San Diego, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/seanhoulihan

I am a full-stack software engineer with a passion for building robust scalable software and bringing ideas to life.

## Work Experience
### Staff Software Engineer @ Motif
Jan 2025 – Present
Building the next-gen 3D collaboration + design product in Rust for web (WASM) and native platforms.

### Senior Software Engineer @ Motif
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025
Proposed and led the rewrite of our 3D collaboration product, Hive, transitioning from React Three Fiber to vanilla Three.js.
Implemented core Hive features such as sketching and markup tools (freehand, text, etc.), selection and manipulation of sketches/markups, incremental loading, the render pipeline (anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, custom WebGL optimization), multiplayer, and more.

### Software Engineer @ Motif
Jan 2023 – Jan 2023
Led development of C# plugin for Rhino to connect project data to our platform.
Leveraged Rhino C++ API to implement interactive in-viewport comments feature.
Built C# framework to be reused across all plugins for other products such as Revit, including browser-based authentication involving persisting encrypted auth credentials to the filesystem, as well as a UI system utilizing JavaScript + HTML + CSS bundles for plugin UI to display via CefSharp and interop with C#.

### Co-Founder & CTO @ kwikkart
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Accepted into Berkeley SkyDeck Batch 14 Cohort, receiving $200,000 in funding
- Winner of UC Launch Startup Accelerator Demo Day winning $25,000 cash prize
- Accepted into CITRIS Foundry (UC system incubator)
- Architected and implemented:
        • Real-time video review cloud platform (AWS Lambda, S3, Aurora, SQS, Auth0, TypeScript)
        • Web frontend for video review platform (React + TypeScript)
        • Consumer + Delivery Driver mobile app (React Native + TypeScript, iOS + Android, Bluetooth LE)
        • Hardware device firmware (Bluetooth LE communications with mobile app, battery power & charging management, interfacing with LED lighting controller via serial, prototyping NFC tap to pair Bluetooth to automate pairing via secure key exchange) (NVIDIA Jetson, C++) 
        • Hardware device software (computer vision & video recording via OpenCV,  transcoding via FFmpeg, video upload to S3 & event publishing to cloud platform, C++)
- Prototyped adapting existing deep learning-based anomalous event detection to fit our specific use-case. Collected training data using our hardware and trained a model with the purpose of detecting stolen items. Promising results despite the limited training set. (Python, tensorflow)
- Led team of UC Berkeley Master of Engineering students designing hardware prototypes in CAD and 3D printing them utilizing SLA printers.

### Software Engineer II @ Bright Machines
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Built, owned, and maintained platform services for manufacturing simulation using C#, Node.js (Typescript), and Java (Spring Boot)
- Contributed features, integrations, and bug-fixes to React.js front-end web app
- Created POCs to showcase unique solutions to robotics simulation (dual-mode device drivers, cloud-based PLC simulation) (.Net C# & Unity C#)
- Contributed to robotics simulation SDK in Unity designed to support both realtime and non-realtime drivers

### Software Engineer @ Bright Machines
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area

### Software Engineering Intern @ Bright Machines
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Developed React components for the BrightWare web application, met deadlines for shareholder demos
- Contributed research for the programmatic generation of safety projects for Beckhoff PLCs
- Improved Unity “digital twin” simulation by utilizing physically based rendering and post processing effects

### Student Technology Consultant @ UC Berkeley College of Engineering
Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Berkeley, CA
Primary source of technical support for students on campus and in the residence halls.

### Software Development Intern @ Autodesk
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018
- Major role in rewrite of BIM360 Admin backend in Node.js utilizing Express.js and Objection.js
- Contributed to decisions regarding libraries to utilize, testing strategies, and was involved in other architectural choices during design phase
- Developed internal tool to process GDPR-related requests from users and handle their data appropriately
- Implemented feature requests and fixed bugs on the old backend and frontend while team shifted to new version

### Android Development Intern @ Vilynx
Jan 2015 – Jan 2015
Created showcase Android application to exhibit the startup's video preview technology

### Intern @ Exploratorium
Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco Bay Area
I was selected to be a part of a small team of teenage interns that were tasked with bringing science and exhibits onto the streets of San Francisco and interacting with the public in fun and exciting ways. I commuted to San Francisco several times a week to meet with my team to discuss ideas and plans.


## Education
### Bachelor of Science - BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
UC Berkeley College of Engineering
Jan 2016 – Jan 2020

### Cardinal Newman High School
Jan 2012 – Jan 2016


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sean-houlihan-a07803115

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Source: https://flows.cv/seanhoulihan
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/seanhoulihan/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-29