ETHANB. CHEN.
I build software around intelligence,
systems, and things I can’t leave alone.
2026 — ONGOING
I like problems
with a little noise.
A report. A recording. A screen.
A feeling that won’t fit in a box.
Different inputs. The same curiosity:
what can software make of this?
The Great Prompt-Off.
A better prompt needs
a better test.
A live challenge for extracting structured findings from synthetic knee MRI reports. The interesting part isn’t asking a model. It’s deciding what a correct answer means.
Explore the systemNEXT.JS / TYPESCRIPT / POSTGRES
- 01 / INPUTSynthetic reportNon-PHI material
- 02 / STRATEGYParticipant promptHow to extract the evidence
- 03 / CONTRACTSix fields. Four labels.A strict, shared output schema
- 04 / EVALUATIONExplainable scoringPublic practice → hidden final set
SMALL DISTINCTIONS MATTER
Choose a label. The contract preserves the distinction.
Silence is not a negative finding. The report does not supply the evidence needed to call it present or absent.
CONTRACT SPECIMEN · NO REPORT OR MODEL RUNClarity
Good assistance
starts with
being there.
THREE WAYS INTO THE CONVERSATION
Screen context enters when you request assistance. Capture depends on macOS permissions and a model that accepts images.
Screen assistance, separate conversation channels, and your choice of AI provider. Built around the unglamorous parts, too: capture permissions, audio recovery, and local or cloud transcription.
What does
the music know?
A score says what should happen.
A recording says what did.
I built a Rust-first prototype to bring the two into alignment.
Hear the whole piece.
Follow every note.
THE SCORE FOLLOWS THE AUDIO. DRAG, TAP A NOTE, OR SEEK BACK TO REWIND. SYNTHESIZED FROM THE PROJECT’S FULL SOURCE MIDI.
PIANO MIR CAPTURE / FIRST 12.3 SECONDS
NOTES
CHROMA
Known score. Real analysis. Captured analysis of synthesized audio checks agreement with a known score; the report describes score-aligned verification, not a performance grade.
THE INPUT IS A FEELING.
Not everything
needs a score.
Enter the story
avoid.love
A story told through scroll, physical objects, and continuous scenes. An experiment in making a browser feel like something you can hold.
HOW IT’S MADE ↗Meanwhile,
in the lab.
Some useful things.
Some unreasonable constraints.
A few ideas that got out of hand.
01WinCodex
OLD MACHINE. NEW TOOLS.
A Windows 7 client bridges to a modern coding agent on Linux. Snapshots go out; changes return only after conflict checks. An independent project, not an official OpenAI product.
LOCAL SOURCELINUX
REMOTE MIRROR
02FunChessEngine
ONE MORE MOVE.
An original classical chess engine that grew into a local workstation: move search, evaluation, PGN libraries, analysis, tournaments, and engine testing.
EXPLORE THE ENGINE LAB ↗WATCH THE RECORDED SELF-PLAY ↗03TowerLogic
PIXELS BECOME A POSITION.
An experimental game-state pipeline: screenshot → computer vision → normalized state → policy decision. PyTorch, ONNX, template matching, and emulator control. Independent research, not an official Supercell project.
EXPLORE TOWERLOGIC ↗04Mosaic
MAKE THE WHOLE THING WORK.
An image discovery and collection product with privacy, collaboration, and a freeform Canvas. Built for the Change++ challenge. I chose a cohesive save → organize → share flow over adding technology just to lengthen the stack.
EXPLORE MOSAIC ↗05Kitco Scraper
LESS COPYING. MORE DOING.
Precious-metals pricing collected on a schedule and exported to CSV. Built for Carat Coin to replace repetitive manual price tracking with a reusable reporting workflow.
EXPLORE THE SCRAPER ↗06Nitro Notes
CAPTURE IT. KEEP IT LOCAL.
An offline desktop notebook with synchronized notes and tasks, search, and portable exports. No account or cloud service required.
EXPLORE NITRO NOTES ↗Curiosity is
the constant.
I’m Ethan, a Vanderbilt undergraduate in Nashville. I’m interested in intelligence—how we build it, how we test it, and where it can actually help.
That leads me toward AI and healthcare, computer vision, music, and the occasional very old computer. I tend to keep going after the original question is answered.
Outside software: piano, chess, and clarinet.
Vanderbilt University, School of Engineering
B.E. in Computer Science, Minor in Data Science
Wifi Concierge · Founder & Web Developer
Founded a community technology initiative serving 70+ individuals and families; built and maintained its website.
Cleveland Clinic · Radiology Department Intern
Worked in an AI-focused radiology environment with exposure to machine learning, image processing, and healthcare AI.
PCs for People · Technology Department Intern
Reconditioned and configured computers for affordable resale to underserved families.
Hyland Software · R&D Intern
Evaluated Hy-Tech Club course content and redesigned the program homepage.
Follow the interesting part.
Then make it work.