# William Cen

> Software Engineer at cPacket

Location: San Mateo, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/williamcen

I am a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelors in Science for Physics. As a student at Carnegie Mellon, I've had a very good mix of experiences surrounding both scientific thinking and computation. As a physicist, I am confident in my ability to problem solve, where I like to delve into thinking about the concept to answer the "Why?" questions. This greatly supports my ability to program, as it allows me to understand where algorithms and certain data structures are utilized to effectively communicate a goal. This was particularly helpful in my computer systems class, where understanding the concept of memory allocation and blocking allowed me to implement an efficient malloc function. I have had the joy of pursuing my interest in computer systems by working as a teaching assistant for said class, and ultimately writing my own Unix-Based Kernel in the operating systems class. 
I am also a very self-driven worker. In all of my work experiences, I have done a lot of self learning, such as studying the Django framework, Apache framework, the HTML/CSS/JavaScript languages, and Monte Carlo methods to do my job.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer @ cPacket
Jan 2021 – Present | Milpitas, California, United States
Designed and implemented a robust framework to allow for backwards compatible MongoDB database migration for our software upgrade, making use of systemd, docker containers, and pymongo library.
Designed and implemented the backend stack for providing the network ACL feature, utilizing linux iptables, docker, and python celery/bottle.
Worked directly with customers to resolve issues on-demand, such as providing a timely patch to HSBC to provide them a backdoor access to cleaning up InfluxDB with corrupted metadata.
Overhauled build/deployment stack for the product various times, such as providing the stack the ability to run with dynamic configuration for cache/memory limits for celery and influxdb based on hardware.
Enhanced logging and debugging interface for developers and customers with enhanced logging by setting up rsyslog server/logrotate to manage and preserve logs, redirecting docker logs to the rsyslog server.
Worked with the pandas and polars libraries to develop and improve the network packet analytics engine and set up resource control to avoid running out of memory and bottlenecking the InfluxDB.

### Undergraduate Research Assistant @ Carnegie Mellon University
Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Self studied Monte Carlo methods/theory then implemented an Ising and Heisenberg square lattice Monte Carlo model with C and Python and verified by computing theoretical results.
Implemented a Honeycomb Heisenberg model under symmetric exchange and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction.
Performed analysis of resultant spin configurations. Discovered degeneracy in the vortex-like ground state.

### Computer Systems Teaching Assistant @ Carnegie Mellon University
Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Redesigned Malloc Lab Baseline for the students and wrote a simulator/parser to show students how allocation/freeing interacted with coalescing/etc.
5th most contributions on Piazza out of 40+ TAs, with ~500 personal unique responses.
Rewrote Malloc Lab handout and recitation slides, made general posts regarding concepts from class and for addressing misconceptions, worked many hours in office hours to help students, and answered student questions outside of work schedule.

### Full Stack Developer @ Carnegie Mellon University
Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Redesigned framework for 20-year-old webpages to present experimental crystal data dynamically based on alloy database.
Built and deployed the Python backend in Django and Apache (both self studied on the job), and successfully utilized a geometrical theory developed with the professor to generalize to infinite dimensional crystals to calculate energy offsets from the alloy’s convex hull.
Utilized Highcharts API to make binary and ternary plots for convex hulls of alloys in javascript, and JsMOL to display interactable 3d crystals in putting together the frontend.

### Undergraduate Research Assistant @ Carnegie Mellon University
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Developed Python code to extract data from Raspberry PI in real time and generate spectrum plots with matplotlib.
Constructed UI to calibrate the collected data, so the spectrum data could be compared to the theoretical model of the reionization period of the Universe’s early stages.
Travelled to Green Bank, West Virginia with the professor to conduct the experiment, using my program to monitor the experiment and analyze the results.


## Education
### Bachelor of Science - BS in Physics
Carnegie Mellon University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/william-cen-6a3bb5197

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Source: https://flows.cv/williamcen
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/williamcen/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10