Christopher Cao

Christopher Cao

:)

About me

Hi! I am a high school student from Union County Magnet High School. I am heavily interested in CS/CE and am involved with robotics, web development, and some ML research. I have also recently become more interested in biology, particularly in its intersection with the CS/CE field. Here you can learn a bit about me and check out my portfolio of projects! :)

Education

  • Union County Magnet High School, 2025 (expected)
  • AP Biology (5)
  • AP Calculus BC (5)
  • AP Calculus AB (5)
  • AP Computer Science A (5)
  • AP English Language & Composition
  • AP Physics C: E&M
  • AP Physics C: Mechanics (5)
  • AP US Government & Politics
  • AP Chinese (5)

Research

  • Boston University Research in Science and Engineering program, 2024
    • Developed a prototype compact optical surgical navigation system for use in minimally invasive surgery
    • Organized Brigham and Women’s Hospital summer intern symposium and presented to researchers
    • Presented research at Boston University RISE symposium
    • Advised by Dr. Junichi Tokuda (Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School)
  • Blast AI Summer Research Program, 2023
    • Conducting research on improving underwater image restoration/enhancement using conditional diffusion models with a CLIP-based loss function
    • Selective program with 20% acceptance rate
  • Particle Physics Research Group, 2023
    • Investigating/learning about quantum mechanics, neutrino oscillations, etc.
    • Under guidance of Prof. Alfredo Aranda (University of Colima)

Awards

  • NJ SkillsUSA 3D Visualization and Animation 1st Place, 2024
    • Qualified for national SkillsUSA competition
    • 4-hour long competition involving a 1-hour test on 3D animation principles and a 3-hour section to plan, model, animate, texture, and render an animation addressing the given prompt
  • NJ FBLA Digital Animation Award 2nd Place, 2024
    • Qualified for national FBLA competition
    • Created 3 minute 3D animation teaching fundamental business concepts
    • Created 7 minute presentation to outline design process to judges
    • Used 3D modeling software and programming
  • President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold), 2023
    • Awarded for achieving 100 volunteer hours
  • FRC Ford Autonomous Award, 2023
    • Awarded for demonstrating a reliable high-performance robot operation during autonomously managed actions
    • Primary code contributor towards this award
    • First time UCVTS ever achieved this award
  • FRC Montgomery Regional Finalist, 2023
    • Placed 2nd out of 35 teams at a regional robotics event
    • First time UCVTS achieved this award in 7 years
  • NJ TSA ChapterCon 2nd Place, 2023
    • Competition involving structual engineering and tech bowl
  • Simplihacks 2.0 Hackathon Best Social Cause Winner, 2022
    • A 48-hour software/hardware creation competition with 400+ participants
    • Main code contributor; taught teammates Django and Python
  • National Honor Society, 2023-Present
  • High Honor Roll (x12), 2021–Present
    • Awarded quarterly for maintaining a 90+ QPA

Extracurriculars

  • 🤖 President: Magnet FRC Robotics Team 1257, 2021–Present
    • Supervised directors/departments and maintained schedule deadlines
    • Primary contributor for implementation of AprilTag vision detection
    • Aided in development of on-the-fly trajectory generation system
    • Taught members relevant Java libraries necessary to interface with robot
  • 💻 HackUC Chair: Coding Club, 2021–Present
    • Ran two-month-long workshop twice a week introducing Python and web devlopment to 10-15 students in my school district
    • Hackathon organizer
  • 🎻 Violinist: New Jersey Youth Symphony, 2019–Present
    • Selective audition-based orchestra

Community service

  • Co-Founder @ Next GenSTEM, 2023–Present
    • Outreached to local townships to provide STEM programming for elementary/middle school students
    • Current programs in Berkeley Heights and Long Hill with 10-15 kids in regular attendance
    • Ran LEGO robotics and Popsicle Bridge Building workshops
  • Summer STEM Outreach Organizer @ Long Hill Township Library, 2023
    • Organizing biweekly LEGO robotics and programming workshops for elementary/middle school students
    • Program with 10+ students in attendance
  • CS Committee Chair/Volunteer @ The Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States, 2021–Present
    • Taught programming by holding workshops in local libraries
    • Played piano/violin at retirement homes and held benefit concerts
    • Accumulated 100+ volunteering hours
  • Teacher @ Aioglearning, 2022
    • Created curriculum and taught basic Python programming to elementary/middle school students
    • Developed student intuition and used libraries like Turtle to maintain engagement

Skills

Languages

  • Python
  • JS/TS
  • Java/C#
  • C/C++
  • LaTeX

Python

  • NumPy
  • Pandas
  • PyTorch, Keras, Tensorflow
  • matplotlib/seaborn
  • scikit-learn
  • OpenCV
  • Selenium
  • BeautifulSoup

Web Development

  • React.js
  • Firebase
  • Django & Flask
  • tailwindCSS & BootstrapCSS
  • Three.js
  • Typescript
  • HTML/CSS/JS

Miscellaneous

  • AutoCAD & Fusion360
  • Blender
  • Git, Bash, Vim
  • MS Office
  • Chinese, working proficiency