Alex Zhu
I’m a Software Engineering student at the University of Waterloo, specializing in Human-Computer Interaction. I’m building a new type of AI platform to protect against generative AI threats at Reken in the Bay Area, shipped workflow automation features at Shopify that were prominently featured in Editions Winter ‘26, and worked on early-stage product at Swift.
I’m also one of North America’s top-ranked competitive debaters and led Waterloo’s first team to break at the World Championship since 1991.
I wrote about how I think about work, motivation, and discipline here.
Selected Works #
Reken Website
Single-handedly built Reken’s company website and helped shape its design and messaging at launch. Featured by Fortune, with fun interactive modern art.
Muniworm
Interactive artifact: the SF Muni “worm” logo unravels into the real Muni Metro map. Tap in with your Clipper card to explore!
DebateComps
The world’s debate calendar: combines spreadsheets into a unified platform where international debaters can find competitions. 800+ unique visitors per month.
Shopify Flow + Sidekick
Prototyped and helped ship the AI agent that generates Shopify Flow automations from prompts — built the MCP server and tools, fine-tuning pipeline, and eval framework. Featured in Editions Winter ‘26.
noat
A minimalist, local-first note-taking app with realtime cross-device sync, like Raycast Floating Notes with sync.
