David Zhao

22 years old

always looking to learn

Whether that be Chinese by watching CDramas like Please Classmate 拜托了班长;
or React Native (building an app for data-driven puppy potty training);
or chess;
or how to deidentify data at scale;
or piano & trumpet.

from Maryland

I grew up in Lisbon, Maryland with a brief stint in Houston, TX. Since the start of high school, I've been living in various parts of Northern Virginia and Charlottesville, and currently reside in Alexandria.

a Wahoo

University of Virginia, class of 2019

I received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a second major in Statistics. My time at UVA was divided between coursework, full and pit orchestras (I play trumpet!), HooHacks (organizing takes a bit of work), among other things.

a Forward Deployed Software Engineer

@ Palantir Technologies

I've done a bit of everything -- rack servers, install and configure our products, build Spark pipelines, dev on core product, work adjacent to our privacy and civil liberties team, building recruiting Hackerranks -- supporting our US government work. I joined for the mission & people and have learned how to tackle hard, controversial, sensitive, important problems head-on.

a Climber

In my last semester at UVA, I signed up for a climbing class on a whim — thanks Andrew! — and I've fallen in love with bouldering. Got my first V5 in a long while just this past August. And I've done one outdoor top-roping session at Carderock, which was both terrifying and fun.