📖 Overview

Who I Am

I'm Pratyush - a systems thinker who graduated from Cornell with a CS + Math degree and a minor in Psychology, which is not as unusual a combination as it sounds. I've spent four years building backend infrastructure and full-stack platforms while also taking courses in behavioral neuroscience, adult psychopathology, and cognitive development. The throughline is the same question:

I have ADHD. I say this upfront not as a disclaimer, but because it's the most honest explanation for what I build and why. The ADHD Chrome extension with 80+ users came from my own reading struggles. The admin dashboard I built at Perfect Match came from needing to reduce interruptions to my own workflow. The offline-first field audit app came from designing for auditors in low-connectivity environments who can't afford to lose progress. My best work comes from taking real constraints seriously - including my own.

I'm currently deciding between full-time engineering roles and early-stage entrepreneurship. Both options feel right for different reasons. Either way, I'm building toward the same thing: tools that reflect how people actually think, not how systems assume they do.

What I Work On

Technically, I lean toward systems and backend - architecture decisions, service boundaries, data pipelines, matching algorithms. But I'm genuinely full-stack: I've shipped iOS apps in Swift, React Native mobile apps with offline sync, Next.js frontends, FastAPI backends, and everything in between.

Some work I'm most proud of:

• Cornell Perfect Match

  - Head of Engineering for a matchmaking platform serving 5,000+ users. Rebuilt the matching system mid-cycle using Gale-Shapley stable matching and Google OR-Tools, delivered 50,000+ matches, and automated personalized engagement that grew active users by 600+.

• DECA Lab Audit Platform

  - Full-stack offline-first mobile app for field auditors in low-connectivity environments. Built typed REST APIs, multi-role access control, normalized scoring pipelines, and draft-save flows hardened against data loss.

• ADHD Text Enhancer

  - A Chrome extension that improves reading focus through bionic reading techniques. Built it for myself. 80+ people use it.

• TimeBite

  - Schedule optimizer using Mixed Integer Linear Programming and Google OR-Tools. The kind of project that reveals how much you care about optimization theory when you build it on a weekend.

What Drives Me

The through-line across everything: I build tools I wish had existed when I needed them.

I'm drawn to the intersection of cognitive science and software design - specifically the gap between how most interfaces are built (for idealized, always-focused users) and how people actually function (distracted, context-switching, non-linear). I've logged 1,000+ hours of personal biometric data from EEG headsets, HRV sensors, and sleep trackers. I've tested 50+ nootropics and read more neuroscience literature than most engineers will ever encounter. I don't just find the brain interesting - I run experiments on my own.

The larger project I'm working toward: democratizing the kind of brain optimization that currently requires either a lot of money or a lot of time. Most people can't afford to synthesize research and run personal experiments. I want to build the platform that does it for them.

Beyond the Work

Martial arts: Kickboxing, Silat, Kali, Jeet Kune Do, Wushu (Vice-President of Cornell Wushu for two years). Breakdancing. Biking around Ithaca on what I call whimsical Wednesdays. I journal constantly - not as a wellness practice, but because writing is how I think. It's how I externalize the internal architecture and make it legible to myself.

I also write about the intersection of technology and human psychology at

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🎓 Education

Cornell University

- B.S. Computer Science & Mathematics | Minor: Psychology

• Graduating

  : May 2026

Relevant Coursework:

• Systems & CS Core:

  Systems Programming, Computer System Organization, Functional Programming (OCaml), OOP & Data Structures

• Algorithms & ML:

  Advanced ML Systems (grad-level), Analysis of Algorithms, Machine Learning, Computer Vision

• Mathematics:

  Numerical Analysis, Probability, Combinatorics II, Applicable Algebra, Linear Algebra

• Cognitive Science & Psych:

  Adult Psychopathology, Cognitive Development, Human Bonding, Intro to Psychology

• Applied Math:

  Engineering Applications of Operations Research, Data Science for Engineers

🛠 Skills

• Languages

  : Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Java, C/C++, SQL, OCaml, Shell, PHP

• Frontend

  : React.js, Next.js, React Native (Expo), Redux, Svelte, Flutter

• Backend

  : FastAPI, Flask, Node.js/Express, Django, NestJS, GraphQL, Prisma, SQLAlchemy

• Databases

  : PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB, SQLite

• Cloud & DevOps

  : AWS (ECS, ECR, Lambda, S3, CloudWatch), GCP, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, Nginx

• ML & Data

  : PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, OpenCV, NumPy, Pandas