Jawad Alsahlani

Jawad Alsahlani

CSE @ University of Michigan ’26
I like figuring out how things work and making them make sense. I learn by building, breaking, fixing, and chasing that small “it finally runs” moment.

I’m drawn to problems that mix logic with creativity — where systems feel intuitive and powerful at the same time. I try to ship things that look simple on the outside and are thoughtfully engineered inside.

linkedin.com/in/jawad-alsahlani github.com/Javv4d

🎮 Game Portfolio

Planeteer

Tech: Unity (C#), 2D Physics, Tilemaps, ScriptableObjects, Event Systems, Particle Effects

  • Solo-developed a 2D planetary mining game with destructible circular worlds and layered terrain hardness.
  • Built a complete resource collection, upgrade, and economy system tied to event-driven interactions.
  • Designed tile-based drilling and layered parallax depth to enhance immersion.
  • Implemented custom collision and mining logic with pixel-precise break thresholds and particle visuals.
▶ Play on itch.io

Portaltroid

Tech: Unity (C#), 2D Physics, Raycasting, GitHub

  • Rebuilt Metroid core movement and combat feel from scratch, then extended it with a custom 2D portal mechanic.
  • Engineered seamless teleportation between surfaces preserving player velocity, direction, and orientation.
  • Designed and polished camera transitions, particle effects, and sprite animation blending.
▶ Play on itch.io

Asteroids

Tech: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery), DOM Animation, Event Handling, Game Loop Logic

  • Developed a web-based arcade game playable on desktop and mobile using pure front-end technologies.
  • Handled ship physics, collisions, and projectile tracking through a custom JavaScript game loop.
  • Implemented clean UI, keyboard controls, and responsive scaling across devices.

Click Play Game!

💼 Professional Experience
📄 View Resume

The Mainstay Foundation – Innovation & Leadership Center

Software / Web Developer Intern | May 2025 – Aug 2025 | Dearborn, MI

Tech: JavaScript, HTML/CSS, GoHighLevel, Web Automation, UI/UX Optimization, Data Dashboards

  • Rebuilt donation and product checkout pipelines in GoHighLevel, fixing duplicate cart and quantity mismatch bugs that caused failed payments.
  • Reduced donor support tickets by 40% through improved flow validation and form synchronization.
  • Automated multi-step donation workflows with JavaScript to eliminate redundant manual tasks.
  • Designed analytics dashboards tracking volunteer activity and donor metrics in real-time.

Al Khoei Benevolent Foundation

Data Systems & Finance Operations | Jan 2019 – Sep 2025 | New York, NY

Tech: Python, Access SQL, CSV ETL, Excel Automation, Data Validation, Reporting

  • Managed $500K+ in annual charitable operations while leading a 4-person finance and tech team.
  • Designed ETL pipelines to clean, merge, and migrate donor datasets, cutting duplicate records by 90%.
  • Automated monthly close reports and expense reconciliations, halving processing time.
  • Implemented compliance logic for transparent donor tracking and cross-branch reporting consistency.

Tysons Institute

Software Intern | Jun 2024 – Aug 2024 | Vienna, VA

Tech: Python, JavaScript, Excel/VBA, Data Analytics, Educational Automation

  • Taught Python fundamentals and web concepts to student cohorts, designing hands-on lab exercises and visual programming modules.
  • Developed automated grading and reporting scripts using Excel VBA and Python data connectors.
  • Reduced grading turnaround time by 40% while improving data consistency across instructors.
  • Built small interactive coding demos for ESL learners to visualize loops, conditionals, and recursion.

🧠 Technical Projects

AI Docs & Chat Assistant

Tech: React, Node.js, Express, OpenAI API (v2), Flask, Vector Embeddings, WebSockets, File Uploads

  • Built a full-stack system enabling users to chat with uploaded PDFs using persistent embeddings and streaming responses.
  • Architected backend for assistant management, file storage, and conversation threading using the OpenAI v2 API.
  • Integrated upload persistence, progress polling, and live response streaming with error handling.
  • Deployed frontend on Vercel and backend on Render, ensuring smooth file syncing between sessions.

Bayn Financial – Algorithmic Trading Platform

Tech: Python, QuantConnect Lean, Pandas, NumPy, Backtesting Pipelines, Git, Data Logging

  • Co-founded a 10-member quantitative trading startup and served as Lead Software Engineer.
  • Led a 4-person development team building backtesting systems and reproducible experiment pipelines.
  • Developed modular strategy templates with configurable entry/exit logic and automated performance tracking.
  • Integrated live market data, visualization dashboards, and transaction cost simulations for realistic testing.
  • Collaborated with researchers to move models from prototypes to production-ready Python strategies on QuantConnect.

Omega Beta Eta Website

Tech: Flask, React, SQLite, REST APIs, Authentication, Web Performance

  • Developed a responsive member portal supporting event registration, donations, and admin dashboards.
  • Built secure login and role-based access with session validation.
  • Designed clean UI for non-technical users and reusable component-based React front end.

Disease Classification

Tech: Python, NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, Matplotlib, Data Cleaning

  • Compared machine learning models (logistic regression, random forest, kNN, and neural networks) for disease prediction.
  • Cleaned and preprocessed medical datasets, removing outliers and normalizing features.
  • Achieved 93.9% accuracy with kNN and visualized feature correlation and performance metrics.

Text Classifier (Piazza Posts)

Tech: C++, STL, Maps, Trees, File I/O, Performance Optimization

  • Implemented a frequency-based classifier labeling forum posts by topic using map and tree structures.
  • Optimized for large input sizes by managing in-memory frequency data with minimal heap overhead.
  • Achieved 95% precision across test cases and sustained performance with real course data volumes.

Ross Datathon 2025

Tech: Python, Pandas, Matplotlib, Excel, Data Visualization, Dimensionality Reduction

  • Worked with a team of 6 in a week-long Ross School of Business datathon analyzing U.S. immigration status data.
  • Explored national and regional skill trends using dimensionality reduction to identify high-demand job categories.
  • Proposed a web tool concept that uses immigration and labor data to match users with skills currently being imported in their area.
  • Presented findings and prototype concept to faculty judges with visual summaries built in Matplotlib and Excel.

💻 School Projects
EECS 494 – Game Development

Tech: Unity (C#), Tilemaps, 2D Physics, Event Systems, Raycasting, ScriptableObjects, GitHub

P1 – Metroid Recreation (Portaltroid)

  • Faithfully recreated Metroid’s movement, shooting, and collision physics using Unity’s 2D engine.
  • Implemented a custom portal mechanic that maintains player momentum and direction across teleport surfaces.
  • Built room transitions, checkpoints, and enemy AI tuned for authentic responsiveness.

P2 – Planeteer

  • Solo project featuring circular, destructible planets with tile-based resource layers of increasing hardness.
  • Implemented modular event-driven systems for mining, upgrades, and in-game economy.
  • Designed particle and lighting effects to convey depth, destruction, and progression.
EECS 493 – Human–Computer Interaction

Tech: Figma, Interactive Components, HTML, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery), Auto Layout, User Testing

DozeOff – Gamified Sleep Tracker Prototype

  • Designed a mobile app prototype that encourages healthy sleep habits through gamification.
  • Conducted user interviews, affinity diagramming, and storyboard-based “speed dating” sessions.
  • Built high-fidelity interactive Figma prototypes with animations and transitions simulating core flows.

P3 – Asteroids Browser Game

  • Developed a fully interactive 2D browser game using HTML, CSS, and jQuery for EECS 493’s final project.
  • Implemented responsive ship movement, collisions, and on-screen score/life displays.
EECS 491 – Distributed Systems

Tech: Go (Golang), gRPC, Paxos, Sharding, Concurrency, Logging, RPC Frameworks

P1 – MapReduce Simulator

  • Simulated distributed computation via master/worker coordination and fault detection.
  • Handled worker crashes with retry logic and consistent reallocation of incomplete tasks.

P3 – Distributed Key-Value Store

  • Implemented a replicated key-value store using Paxos consensus for linearizable updates.
  • Supported sharding and dynamic node joining for scalable, fault-tolerant storage.
EECS 489 – Computer Networks

Tech: C++, TCP/UDP, Mininet, Sockets, Proxy Routing, Load Balancing, Reliable Transport

P1 – TCP Client/Server Simulation

  • Developed a socket-based TCP client/server architecture and tested through virtual Mininet networks.
  • Analyzed latency, retransmission rates, and throughput under constrained conditions.

P2 – Load-Balanced Video CDN

  • Implemented a multi-proxy system that forwards requests to optimal edge servers based on load and geography.
  • Added caching logic and adaptive segment prefetching to optimize streaming performance.

P3 – Reliable Transport Protocol (WTP)

  • Implemented a custom reliable transport protocol over UDP supporting sliding windows and in-order delivery.
  • Added selective ACKs and per-packet timers to improve efficiency and reduce redundant retransmissions.
EECS 485 – Web Systems

Tech: Flask, React, REST APIs, SQL, MapReduce, JSON, Authentication

P3 – Insta485

  • Built a functional Instagram clone supporting login, posting, comments, and REST API endpoints.
  • Integrated asynchronous updates for a responsive, modern feel.

P5 – Distributed Search Engine

  • Created a full-stack search engine with MapReduce indexing and a Flask/React front-end.
  • Implemented ranking using TF-IDF scoring and query parsing for relevance-weighted results.
EECS 484 – Database Management Systems

Tech: C++, SQL, B+ Trees, Query Planning, Parsing, Index Optimization

P2 – SQL Parser

  • Wrote a recursive descent parser that translates SQL-like syntax into logical plan trees.
  • Handled nested subqueries and expressions with AST structures.

P4 – Query Optimizer

  • Developed a cost-based optimizer with join enumeration and predicate pushdown strategies.
  • Used dynamic programming to pick efficient join orders minimizing total I/O cost.
EECS 482 – Operating Systems

Tech: C++, Threads, Synchronization, Virtual Memory, Paging, Process Management

P2 – Thread Library

  • Implemented a cooperative multithreading library supporting semaphores and condition variables.
  • Built scheduler with queue-based dispatching and starvation prevention.

P3 – Pager

  • Developed a virtual memory manager simulating page faults, swapping, and process forking.
  • Benchmarked performance across FIFO and LRU replacement strategies.
EECS 481 – Software Engineering

Tech: Python, Git, Unit Testing, CI/CD, Refactoring, Documentation

P3 – Refactoring and Testing

  • Refactored a large legacy Python codebase for maintainability while maintaining 100% test coverage.
  • Configured automated testing pipelines using GitHub Actions for continuous integration.
EECS 388 – Computer Security

Tech: Python, C, SQL, HTML, Wireshark, Web Exploitation, Cryptography

P1 – Cryptography

  • Executed length extension, RSA forgery, and hash collision attacks on controlled targets.

P2 – Web Security

  • Exploited SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF vulnerabilities in simulated university web apps and implemented mitigations.

P3 – Networking & Forensics

  • Analyzed packet captures using Wireshark to trace multi-stage attacks and reconstruct intrusion sequences.
EECS 376 – Foundations of Computer Science

Tech: Proofs, Automata, Reductions, Complexity Theory

  • Constructed formal proofs of decidability and NP-completeness using reductions and automata logic.
  • Applied theoretical analysis to justify efficiency limits in algorithmic solutions.
EECS 370 – Computer Organization

Tech: C, Assembly, CPU Simulation, Pipelining, Hazard Detection

P1/P2 – Assembler + Simulator

  • Built an assembler that converts custom assembly code into binary and simulates CPU instruction execution.

P3 – Pipelining

  • Modeled pipeline execution with data forwarding, stalls, and branch prediction optimizations.
EECS 281 – Data Structures and Algorithms

Tech: C++, STL, Hash Tables, Trees, Graphs, Heuristics, Optimization

P3 – SillyQL

  • Implemented an in-memory command-line database with support for SELECT, JOIN, and PRINT operations.
  • Ranked top 10 in runtime among 1000+ submissions for optimized hashing and data lookup efficiency.

P4 – Zookeeper

  • Designed heuristic-based graph search algorithms for pathfinding and resource optimization problems.
EECS 280 – Programming and Data Structures

Tech: C++, Classes, Pointers, Dynamic Memory, Object-Oriented Programming

P2 – Seam Carving

  • Developed a dynamic programming algorithm to resize images by removing low-energy pixel seams.

P3 – Euchre

  • Built a playable Euchre card game featuring AI players and object-oriented architecture.

P5 – Web Classifier

  • Implemented a frequency-based classifier that predicts post categories using token frequency analysis.
EECS 203 – Discrete Math

Tech: Logic, Sets, Proof Writing, Graph Theory

  • Developed strong formal reasoning and proof-writing skills essential for algorithm design.
  • Applied combinatorics and induction techniques to analyze computational problems.
EECS 201 – Tools for Engineering Computing

Tech: Bash, Git, Make, Regex, Shell Scripting

  • Gained mastery of command-line tools for building, debugging, and automating software projects.
  • Automated repetitive compilation and testing workflows using Makefiles and Bash scripts.