asraygopa.com · github · linkedin
My name is Asray Gopa. I don’t always know exactly what I’m doing, but I’m the kind of person who wants to figure it out. I like learning in public, experimenting, and understanding how things actually work: whether that’s software systems or markets.
I originally came into college thinking I’d major in finance, but I ended up choosing computer science. Not because everyone around me did, but because I realized I wanted to build. I’ve always been drawn to solving problems and creating things from scratch. CS gave me leverage and the freedom to experiment.
I didn’t know how to code when I started. It was a real learning curve. But I leaned into it. Over time, I got good at building: startups, trading pipelines, open-source projects, hackathon wins, and live systems that actually run in the real world.
I’m naturally pretty outgoing. I like talking to people and I’m not afraid to speak my mind. I’m comfortable taking risks, trying things that might fail, and putting ideas out there. I care more about learning and momentum than looking polished.
Long term, I want to build something that actually matters. Something durable. Something that changes how people operate. I want to create tools and systems that give people leverage and leave a lasting impact.
tldr: curious guy; 6x hackathon winner; 8x pitch comp winner; 6x student Leader; 3x researcher; 1x exited founder; The Brik & AxA Trading
Investigating Continuous Thought Machines as an alternative to Transformers for reasoning over real-time financial orderbook streams. Comparing CTMs vs Transformers on Bitcoin price prediction tasks.
Designed and launched a compact physical organizational tool from concept to market. Handled 3D printing, laser cutting, manufacturer partnerships, and social media marketing. Sold to hundreds of customers.
Built herdright.com — a marketplace connecting farmers with bovine reproductive material using React, AWS, and Edge Functions. AI matching, Stripe payments, real-time listings. Led a team of four.
Built a daily news service delivering stories in under 50 words. Grew to 2.9M annual readers. Built an Expo app using LLMs for automated journalism.
Founded a financial literacy org reaching 25,000+ monthly. Led a team of 40 creators, writers, marketers, and designers. Spoke on podcasts, student magazines, and articles.
1. Scalar News (iOS) — AI-powered personalized news summaries in under 50 words. Grew to 2.9M annual readers.
2. The Brik — Minimalist physical wallet I took from concept to market: 3D printing, laser cutting, manufacturing, and marketing. Sold to hundreds of customers.
3. Pippa (iOS & Android) — Gamified nutrition app with virtual pet care instead of calorie tracking.
4. TAS — Tile Assembly Simulator — A modernized simulator for algorithmic tile self-assembly. source
5. Encore — Offline-first Bluetooth-mesh group chat for live events. Native iOS & Android, no servers, no accounts, no internet.
the-brik.com — Minimalist wallet, designed and sold to hundreds of customers.
safebite.suppersquad.app — Allergen-friendly digital menu builder for restaurants.
herdright.com — Bovine reproductive material marketplace with AI matching and Stripe.
Scalar News (iOS) — AI-powered personalized news summaries. 2.9M annual readers.
FloorFace (iOS) — Pushup counter: tap your nose to the screen to count reps.
Pippa (iOS) — Gamified nutrition app with virtual pet care instead of calorie tracking.
waveshare_transparent_screen_driver (PyPI) — Raspberry Pi driver for Waveshare Transparent OLED. Built because Waveshare didn't ship working Pi code.
rpi_cv2 (PyPI) — Automatic Raspberry Pi camera driver for OpenCV. No driver setup, no manual commands — just import and go.
zipcode_distance (npm) — Distance calculation and proximity lookup between ZIP codes.
city-state-country-please (npm) — Location autocomplete with fuzzy search and Levenshtein correction.
Encore — Offline-first Bluetooth-mesh group chat for live events. Native iOS & Android on the bitchat mesh, themeable via signed QR event packs. No servers, no accounts, no internet.
ezCAD — Browser CAD app with a Shapr3D-inspired interface and an AI copilot. Sketch, extrude, boolean, pattern, and export STL/SVG/DXF.
GitPhotos (iOS) — Google-Photos-style app that uses your own GitHub account as free photo storage with auto-sync.
Pippa (Android) — Android port of Pippa, the gamified nutrition app with virtual pet care instead of calorie tracking.
step2stl — Converts STEP CAD files to STL triangle meshes via the OpenCASCADE kernel, from CLI or Python.
stl2drawings — Turns an STL into wireframe, patent-style drawings — visible edges solid, hidden edges dashed.
tools-cli — Local CLI toolkit for image utilities: background removal, QR codes, and more. No more online tools.
betterforms — Forms builder that lets users answer by speaking instead of typing, with better completion analytics.
blur.com — Privacy tool that blurs faces and eyes in images/video and redacts sensitive info in PDFs, using custom CV models.
Hackathon Agent Skills — Seven Claude Code agent skills that play the hackathon meta-game so your team can just build. Built for MLH.
ApexNurse — AI nurse assistant with speech recognition and multilingual translation. SwanHacks 2025 (3rd).
ProfAI — Real-time lecture accent translation + AI study assistant querying Canvas, YouTube, Drive. CalHacks 12.0.
FarmVigil — Computer vision cattle disease detector. 96% precision. SMS alerts to farmers.
VetU — AI veterinary telehealth via image recognition. BuildDSM Best Pitch/Demo + 2nd Place.
BusinessCofounder — AI co-founder matching platform. AWS Bedrock. HackMidwest 2024 (3rd).
ScamShield — Live phone scam detector using fine-tuned BERT classifier.
Forex Arbitrage — Graph-based arbitrage detection in live currency markets with ML sentiment layer.
CTM vs Transformers — Comparing Continuous Thought Machines vs Transformers on live Bitcoin orderbook data.
RustBitcoinWallet — Bitcoin wallet from scratch in Rust.
PitchPost — Collegiate pitch competition platform. Next.js. Ivy Hackathon 2025 (3rd).
CyDine — ISU dining app with meal recs and calorie tracking. Best App + Best Project (COM S 3090).
ARuLearning — AR anatomy education via device camera. SwanHacks 2024.
MedListen — Translates medical reports into plain-language audio for patients.
WhistleGuard — Student safety app: emergency whistle, 911, virtual escort, fake call AI.
Collins Aerospace CM System — Cross-tool traceability for aerospace. Flask, Neo4j, Next.js. details
ISU Course Calendar Maker — Exports ISU schedules to Outlook since Workday won't.
ISU Course Seat Monitor — Alerts you when a course seat opens up.
CodeDocuGen — VS Code extension that auto-generates docs using Hugging Face NLP.
githelper — CLI tool to streamline git workflows.
ideas-api — REST API for curating random ideas, hosted on Raspberry Pi via Tailscale.
Saftinet Insurance Card Generator — Automates insurance card creation.
ColoringMindsRecordKeepingSystem — After-school art class management: attendance, fees, automated emails.
Big Nate Scraper — Reverse-engineered GoComics to save Big Nate strips after the paywall.
Gopa Language — English-like programming language for beginners, capable of APIs and servers.
scratch-NN-digits — Neural net from scratch for handwritten digit classification.
SpotifyMLStatsReccoPop — ML-based song recommendations from listening stats.
Old School Egg Catcher — Vintage Nintendo egg-catching game my mom used to play.
DaveBluntsNoCookies — A React web app. No further explanation needed.
tqr — Terminal QR code generator in Rust.
stake-blackjack-helper — Blackjack odds helper.
2048 — 2048 implementation.
ConsoleSnakeGameMac — Snake in the terminal.
autofrickinggoogledocstyper — Automates typing into Google Docs.
promo-collector — Aggregates promo deals.
AsrayCShellYay — Custom Unix shell in C
SQLMiniDB — Minimal SQL database engine in C++
OverEngineeredPasswordManager — C++
LEGV8 Disassembler — LEGv8 ISA disassembler in C
RustRedditPlotBot — Reddit data scraper and plotter in Rust
Drone Fleet Motion Planning — A* pathfinding through 3D environments in Python
Coursework: Motion Planning and Robotics, Web Development, App Development, Database Management Systems, Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Computer Architecture, Discrete Structures, Nanoscale Programming, Machine Learning, Micro Economics
I did entrepreneurship, leadership, research, and innovation work at ISU. Brought myself outside my shell.
SwanHacks 2025 — 3rd Place · Iowa State Hackathon Club & MLH · Nov 2025
Ivy Hackathon 2025 — 3rd Place · Ivy College of Business · Sep 2025
Principal Intern CodeJam 2025 — Finalist · Top 5 of 25 teams · Jun 2025
Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference Pitch — 1st Place · U Nebraska Omaha · Apr 2025
Ivy Hackathon 2024 — 1st Place · Built VerifyAI, an AI deepfake phone scam detector · Nov 2024
HackMidwest 2024 — 3rd Place (Student Category) · Sep 2024
Ag Innovation Competition — 1st Place · Built Crop Model AI for farmland ROI optimization · Apr 2024
ISU Coding Contest — 1st Place · Kattis puzzles, 5-hour time limit · Mar 2024
BuildDSM — Best Pitch/Demo, 2nd Place Overall · Built vetU, AI vet telehealth · Feb 2024
2023 ISU Innovation Prize — 1st Place (AgTech) · Wildfire detection via low-freq radio. $2,500 prize
Clayton Farms Hackathon 2022 — 1st Place · Website revamp and marketing. $600 prize
Folding Instrument Comprising Multiple Miniaturized Geometrical Drawing Tools · US 63234252 · Aug 2021
A folding device combining ruler, compass, protractor, set-squares, shape tracer, and divider into one compact instrument.
Dean's List — every semester (F22 through S26)
Okoboji Entrepreneurship Institute Cohort 18 — 1 of 33 Iowa's top student entrepreneurs · Aug 2024
Sigma Nu Tau Founder's Scholarship — Dec 2024
Service & Dignity Award — ISU Student Government · Apr 2024
Best Project & App Award — COM S 3090 App Development
Cardinal Key — 2025
Commended by Ames Mayor — CyRide Board service · 2025
 i do standup comedy |
 basketball is my thing |
 i want to move to the beach someday |
 i like going out |
 pool is a serious hobby |
 i love travelling. been to 30 countries. |
Abbott Elementary · Alex Rider · Arrested Development · Arthur · Barry · Better Call Saul · Big Nate · Billions · Black Bird · Black-ish · Blue Bloods · Bojack Horseman · Bizaardvark · Breaking Bad · Brooklyn Nine-Nine · Castle · Chicago Fire · Chicago Med · Citadel · Clifford the Big Red Dog · Cobra Kai · Comicstaan · Community · Covert Affairs · Criminal Minds · Curb Your Enthusiasm · Deli Boy · Dexter · Elementary · Entourage · Euphoria · Everyone Hates Chris · Falcon and the Winter Soldier · Family Guy · Fallout · Friends · Fresh Off the Boat · Fresh Prince of Bel-Air · Fuller House · Gen V · Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage · Gotham · Gravity Falls · Grey's Anatomy · Hawkeye · House · House of Cards · House of Lies · How I Met Your Father · How I Met Your Mother · How to Get Away with Murder · Hunters · Invincible · iZombie · It's Always Sunny · Jack Ryan · Joey · Key and Peele · Killing Eve · Kim's Convenience · Kota Factory · Lethal Weapon · Loki · Loot · Mad Men · Malcolm in the Middle · Marvelous Ms. Maisel · Master of None · Mixed-ish · Modern Family · Modern Love · Money Heist · Monk · Moon Knight · Mr. Robot · Ms. Marvel · MythBusters · Mythic Quest · Never Have I Ever · New Girl · The Newsroom · The Night Manager · Only Murders in the Building · Ozark · Parks and Recreation · Peacemaker · Person of Interest · Phineas and Ferb · Private Practice · Psych · The Purge · Quantico · The Queen's Gambit · Regular Show · The Resident · Rick and Morty · Riverdale · The Rookie · Ruff Ruffman · Saturday Night Live · Scorpion · Scrubs · Severance · Sherlock · Shrinking · Silo · Silicon Valley · Squid Game · Station 19 · Stranger Things · The Studio · Suits · Succession · Supernatural · Superstore · Ted · Ted Lasso · The Test · This Is Us · True Detective · Two and a Half Men · Upload · Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt · Veep · Veronica Mars · Wednesday · WeCrashed · The West Wing · What If · White Collar · WandaVision · Young Sheldon · Your Friends and Neighbors
2m
updates on The Brik. live in 3 retailers. finally sold enough to break even on this batch. 3 years ago if you asked me what would be the hardest thing about building something, i’d say ...
1w • Edited
made this really quickly for my family in india last night: aahar.asraygopa.com one of my family friends pays a nutritionist to tell them how they can improve their meals. it got me thi...
1w • Edited
learning experience today with The Brik. i tried pitching the brik to small retailers in person and honestly, it did not go that well. i walked in without appointments, caught people at...
1w
if you're a software engineer (or really any kind of engineer), why aren't you doing charity hackathons? nonprofits and charities have the same problems as everyone else: outdated websi...
1w • Edited
One of the worst parts of big events is when cell service just dies. I’ve experienced this at Jack Trice during football games, at a recent concert, and at hackathons and conferences. O...
1w
Four years ago, I kept losing my wallet and dorm keys. At Iowa State, replacing a lost dorm key cost $160, so I decided to build a better solution. I started learning CAD and got into 3...
2mo • Edited
flying back to des moines right now, but this weekend i competed in la hacks 2026. me, Luca, Justin, and Rohan made angelware, a real-time emergency response system that uses rf and bro...
2mo
its been a pleasure serving as the first president of the ISU Algorithmic Trading Club ever since its refounding last semester. Arjun and i restarted the club because we were building o...
2mo • Edited
announcing my retirement from hackathons… after LAHacks. it’s been a crazy run. coming into college, i didn’t even really want to be a CS major. it felt abstract, kinda disconnected fro...
3mo
I’ve been getting this question a lot lately from people doing their first hackathons: how do you actually win a hackathon? After doing a bunch of them, here’s my honest take. Most peop...
3mo
Honestly, something I’ve been noticing in conversations around Iowa State lately: entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. Innovation is. Right now, there’s this weird cultural push where i...
3mo • Edited
imo cardboard might be the best invention ever made. not the wheel. i actually owe cardboard the start of my building career. i don’t think I’ve ever really said this during my college ...
4mo
Spamming Cursor or Claude Code and hoping the market reacts is not the move. The tools are insane right now. You can ship an MVP in a weekend. You can wire up auth, payments, AI feature...
4mo
Every college should require (or at least strongly encourage) students to do one hackathon, regardless of major. Not because everyone needs to become a software engineer. But because bu...
4mo
If another person asks me to build their entire app or website for 50% equity because they’re “handling the business side,” I might lose it a little. I remember seeing this as a meme fr...
4mo
I think people should stop making posts about participating in things. These posts are lowkey stupid and don’t make you stand out. Make posts about what went wrong and how you could’ve ...
4mo • Edited
I genuinely think Iowa State is about to become a school people associate with quant and high finance. I am bullish on this opinion. For a long time, if you wanted to break into Wall St...
4mo
Everyone and their mom are making startups. I scroll for five minutes and it’s stealth AI founders, building-in-public threads, $1k pre-seed announcements, and 21-year-olds talking abou...
4mo • Edited
It’s crazy to think I’m in the era of software engineering where you ask AI to solve your SWE questions. My dad lived in the era where he’d hop on Yahoo forums in the early 2000s to fig...
4mo • Edited
Hot take: if you’re a college student, in any major, with an idea for a website or app, getting a real functioning MVP in front of users shouldn’t take more than a day. AI, vibecoding, ...
5mo
sold my first tech product. safebite (safebite.suppersquad.app/) is a website that creates allergen-friendly menus by letting you simply upload photos of your menu. the site quickly gen...
5mo • Edited
with my final first day of school coming up tmrw, I decided to open-source a couple things to help out iowa staters. https://lnkd.in/gffUnuNJ – accessplus (rip) used to let you download...
6mo
built pippa at ivy hacks 2025 (3rd place) with Justin Moran and Arjun Patel and we had a 90% finished app to help people recovering from eating disorders. it started as this idea where ...
8mo • Edited
I love pitching; it’s probably my favorite part of building startups. I’ve done 30+ competitions, mostly regional, but finding new ones is always a pain. Most lists are outdated or inco...
9mo • Edited
The Scalar News App is Live! https://lnkd.in/e5MitXU6 Back in high school, I noticed many classmates didn’t know what was happening in the world, which sparked a question: what if globa...
10mo
This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at Principal Financial Group as a Software Engineer Intern. I worked on building tools for actuaries and gained valuable exposure to the act...
1yr • Edited
I am thrilled to announce that our team—Arjun Patel, Issmale Bekri, Akhil Pallem, and I—has been honored with the Best Project and App Award in our COM S 3090 class, the app development...
1yr
I’m thrilled to share that I officially launched The Brik at the Iowa State University Jingle and Mingle Holiday Market this past Friday. This was my first-ever sales experience, and it...
1yr • Edited
I had the great opportunity to attend and represent Iowa State at the Okoboji Entrepreneurship Institute, a week-long entrepreneurship bootcamp and Iowa’s premier entrepreneurship event...
2yr
I just completed my first month as a Summer Research Intern at ARA Wireless Lab, an NSF-funded Communications and Wireless Lab. During this time, I have had the privilege of conducting ...