Computer Engineering - University of Waterloo

Hi, I am Lily Dong.

I am a second-year computer engineering student who likes building practical, human-centered software. Lately, that has meant full-stack product work, model tooling, RAG pipelines, and small details that make technical workflows feel smoother.

Portrait of Lily Dong

About

Engineering with a soft spot for useful things.

I like projects that combine systems thinking with a human outcome: faster setup flows, clearer developer tools, smarter inventory helpers, or data views that make a messy dataset easier to understand.

Outside of code, I rotate between workouts, crochet, baking, and collecting little stories from the places I visit. The common thread is probably patience: keep showing up, adjust the pattern, taste-test when needed.

Python TypeScript React Flask FastAPI PyTorch LLM APIs Ruby on Rails PostgreSQL Docker

Experience

Previous work

Software Engineering Intern

Shopify

May 2026 - Aug 2026

Python, TypeScript, React Native, Ruby on Rails, RAG, LLM, OAuth, BLE

Contributed to agentic developer tooling infrastructure, including RAG-based context retrieval and prompt orchestration that improved the relevance of context sent to LLM workflows.

Software Engineering Intern

Shopify

Sep 2025 - Dec 2025

React, TypeScript, Ruby on Rails, GraphQL

Built full-stack retail admin features, including staff assignment workflows with GraphQL pagination and cross-system data contracts.

Web Developer Co-op

AGF Investments

Jan 2025 - Apr 2025

Java, Spring Boot, Maven, Apache POI, Git

Developed a Spring Boot ScoreCard application that automated XLSX report generation for internal teams and reduced manual spreadsheet work.

Education

Current studies

Expected graduation: May 2028

University of Waterloo

BASc in Computer Engineering - Waterloo, ON

Second-year computer engineering student interested in full-stack systems, model tooling, and products that make technical work feel more usable.

Projects

Things I have built

Multimodal Agent Evaluation Sandbox

Python, PyTorch, Gemini API, FastAPI, React, PostgreSQL, Docker

A benchmark environment for evaluating software agents across text, image, code, and tabular reasoning tasks.

Merchant Inventory Assistant

Python, TypeScript, LLM APIs, scikit-learn, React, Node/Express

An LLM-powered inventory assistant that routes merchant questions into structured workflow tools and database queries.

3D Data Sandbox

Electron, Node.js, Three.js, PapaParse

A desktop app for offline 3D visualization of CSV and JSON datasets, with clustering, outlier detection, and interactive highlighting.

Hobbies

What I do when my laptop cools down

Workout Reset

Workout Reset

I like workouts that feel sustainable: strength training, a good playlist, and enough movement to clear my head without pretending I am training for the Olympics.

Crochet Projects

Crochet Projects

Crochet is my favorite kind of slow problem-solving. I like choosing colors, building stitch by stitch, and ending up with something soft and useful.

Weekend Baking

Weekend Baking

Baking is where I get to be precise and cozy at the same time. Cookies, cakes, and small treats are my favorite excuse to share something warm.

See the hobbies page

Places

Visited map

Illustrated map of places Lily has visited

Orlando, Florida

Theme parks, sunshine, and one very memorable Disney trip.

Romania

A physics tournament trip with historical streets and competition memories.

Beijing, China

Traditional food, local flavors, and landmarks with a lot of history.

Shanghai, China

Bund views, city lights, and a magical Shanghai Disney day.

Hong Kong, China

Disneyland, dense city views, and excellent food around every corner.

Suzhou, China

Classical gardens, canals, and quiet old streets.