Hey! I'm Alex Rowe, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying computer science and business. I'm passionate about web engineering and quantitative finance, but I'm also constantly diving into new disciplines of software engineering. Python is my bread and butter, and I'm confident in Java, Javascript, AWS, Bash, PostgreSQL and React, among others. I'm a New York City native and in my spare time, I play guitar, weightlift, and hang out with my dog, Jackie. Thank you for stopping by, and please reach out if you have any questions, comments, or want to know my favorite burrito spot in NYC.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.S. in computer science, minor in business
Sep 2023 - Dec 2026
Madison, WI
- Studied computer science and a certificate in business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Member of the Wisconsin AI Safety Initiative and Badger Solar Racing's firmware team
The Dalton School
High School Diploma
Sep 2019 - May 2023
New York, NY
- Attended the Dalton School, recipient of the Warren Hines Coaches Award
- Founder of the Finance Club, grew to over 50 active members and won the NY stock market game
- 12 season varsity athlete, 3 sport caption, playing soccer, wrestling, and baseball
Full-Stack Software Engineering Intern
May 2024 - Aug 2024
New York, NY
- Resolved Agile tickets and wrote relevant tests using AWS, Python, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, and React, among other technologies, as a full-stack web engineer for the merchandising engineering team.
- Built Docker container for and migrated TensorFlow Keras model to AWS Sagemaker, reducing cost by 27%, automated retraining and developed REST API.
- Migrated CI testing pipelines from Jenkins to GitHub Actions and resolved 18 failing regression tests. Automated deployment, notification, and scheduled testing, helping the team catch issues earlier.
- Led a full DNS propagation and vulnerability mitigation across flagship 360 Manager app, resulting in the closing of 283 potential breach points.
Lead Instructor
May 2022 - Aug 2023
New York, NY
- Taught elementary school children with a focus on fostering a deep understanding of STEM topics through project-based learning, promoted from assistant to full-time lead instructor.
- Collaborated with supervisors to design and implement curriculum, creating hands-on activities for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders, primarily in computer science and physics.
Other Experience
- Amorino Gelato: served gelato, coffee, and baked goods to customers, as well as worked the register and stocked the freezers.
- Freelance Music Producer: produced, mixed, and mastered tracks across various genres, including hip-hop, rock, and electronic. I built my own brand, marketed, and sold my product to labels and independent artists alike.
- Counselor at Dalton Summer Camp: I worked with both the 3-5 year old and 5-7 year old group, learning the ins and outs of being employed as well as developing skills in education and childcare.
Senior Software Engineer
Jan 2024 - Present
Madison, WI
- Apply algorithmic strategies to a $1,000,000 portfolio funded by the Wisconsin State Investment Board.
- Lead a team of 5 in a simulated quantitative finance fund, pitching, backtesting, and deploying buy-and-sell-side strategies. Used Numpy and Pandas to research and develop algorithmic signals.
- Gathered requirements and helped design backend for the quantitative branch of UW-Madison's Applied Securities Analysis Program, using Python, Docker, and Flask to develop CI/CD pipeline and backtesting infrastructure.
Wisconsin AI Safety Initiative
Alignment Fellowship Member
Jan 2024 - May 2024
Madison, WI
- Completed a semester long program in artificial intelligence safety and alignment. Applied concepts like reward specification, misgeneralization, and adversarial attacks to small group projects.
[WIP] Quantly - Stock Strategy Backtesting Platform
- NOTE: Quantly is still a work in progress. Currently, I'm working on integrating the frontend and FastAPI backend
- Developed a full-stack trading strategy backtesting RESTful API using Python, FastAPI, and Pydantic, with PostgreSQL for database management.
- Deployed app to AWS, using EC2 to host the FastAPI backend, SQS to queue Asynchronous tasks, and S3 for static storage.
- Built a React (Next.js) frontend with trade data visualization, configurable TypeScript strategy parameters, and performance statistics.
Congress Sentiment Tracking Model
- Designed and implemented a quantitative finance model utilizing congress stock purchase records and policitian social media sentiment analysis
- Led a team of 4 peers, generated 161% YOY return during paper trading tests
- Skills: Python, selenium, sentiment analysis, AWS EC2, GPT-4o API
Indicator-Based Machine Learning Model
- Created a robust weak-decision gradient-boosted linear regression model alongside a peer, integrating 5 indicators to maximize returns from trading financial assets, resulting in a 54% prediction success rate
- Implemented Pandas library and Binance API to predict a 15% asset price drop four months prior to its occurrence and built HTML front-end interface to display results
- Skills: Machine learning, Pandas, Binance API, Scikitlearn, Python
Simple Personal Website
- Built a portfolio website from scratch to display relevant experience and projects, hosted online
- Skills: JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, Figma, React
Note:
My site is currently a work in progress. Improvements to the site's responsiveness, design, and mobile view are coming soon, stay tuned!