Alex Straight | Portfolio

Hello, I am Alex, a full stack engineer at Sansay, where I am building an AI support agent and a hybrid search platform for a telecom product with Node.js, Go, and LangGraph. Outside of work I enjoy building things from scratch, from physics engines to real-time multiplayer games.

Combining Creativity and Engineering Principles into Seamless User Experience.

About Me.

I work across the full stack, and lately most of my energy goes into backend and AI systems. At Sansay I build AI agents and search infrastructure in Node.js and Go, and on my own time I go lower level with systems projects in Zig. I still care a lot about clean, intuitive front-end work, but what I enjoy most is owning a problem from end to end, from the interface down to the server and the data.

Career Interests

My interests span various tech fields, evolving as I learn. I am always eager to expand my knowledge.

Tech Stack

Technologies I am familiar with, some more than others.

3.8 Major GPA

San Diego State University

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Graduated May 2025.

Selected STEM Pathways Scholar: Presented research at SACNAS.
Research Contributions: Optimized NOMA with IRSs using advanced algorithms.
3.8 Major GPA in Computer Science.
Teaching Assistant: Contributed to the Data Structures and Algorithms course at SDSU.

Achievements

Highlights of my academic and professional accomplishments.

My Experience.

2021 - 2025
B.S. Computer Science
Graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from San Diego State University, maintaining a 3.8 Major GPA. Named to the Dean’s List three times.
2021 - 2022
Computer Science Tutor
Provided tutoring support to computer science students at Southwestern College, assisting with programming assignments and projects. Conducted workshops on various programming languages and topics to enhance student understanding.
2023
Research Assistant
Contributed to a research project at San Diego State University focused on optimizing data rates for a Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) system. Utilized Python and MATLAB for data analysis and simulations.
2024
Frontend Developer Intern
Serving as a frontend developer intern at AcademicAssist, leading the redesign of the landing page and implementing new features to enhance the functionality of the web app.
2024
Freelance Full-Stack Engineer
Designed and developed a full-stack website for Oak Outlet Plus, a local business, using React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind, Framer Motion, and S3 for file storage.
2024 - 2025
Teaching Assistant
Served as a Teaching Assistant for the Data Structures & Algorithms course at San Diego State University, holding office hours, leading review sessions, and helping students work through assignments and core concepts.
June 2025 - Present
Software Engineer
Building an AI support agent (LangGraph/Node.js) that automates telecom configuration for Sansay’s VSXi platform through internal system integration, schema validation, and real-time simulation. Developing a hybrid search and ranking system over internal documentation and support tickets using full-text search, vector search, and neural reranking to improve answer quality. Improving backend integration, data flow, and reliability across legacy and modern parts of a production support platform.

Some of my recent Projects.

zwag
A TUI coding agent I'm building in 100% Zig, a command-line AI assistant you can chat with right in your terminal. I built it as an internal tool for work and my own daily driver, because I didn't want to be locked into Codex or Claude Code and wanted a serious Zig project to sink my teeth into. Currently closed source on Codeberg.
Terminal-Native Coding Agent
An agentic assistant that lives in the terminal. It reads and edits workspace files, searches by content or pattern, and grounds its answers in your actual code. Ships with session management and slash commands (/sessions, /clear, /help), and can resume your most recent session with --latest.
Scrollback-Aware Renderer
The renderer splits the screen into two regions: finished messages are committed as raw ANSI straight into the real terminal scrollback and never redrawn, while the live region (input, pickers, session browser) is repainted in place with libvaxis. Synchronized updates batch history commits and live repaints into one atomic frame, so there's no flicker.
Built From Scratch in Zig
Written entirely in Zig with libvaxis as the only dependency. Currently targets the Anthropic API, with OpenAI and Ollama support on the way. Fast, low-overhead, and fully under my control, which is the whole reason I started building it.
100% Zig · libvaxis
Pictionary
My take on the classic drawing and guessing game, similar to Skribbl.io. Built the backend with Go to handle real-time WebSocket connections between players. Still working on it, but planning to release mobile versions for iOS and Android.
Landing Page
Clean, simple landing page where players can join rooms and start drawing. The real magic happens with WebSocket connections that let everyone see drawings in real-time as they're being made.
Dynamic Gameplay
Turn-based drawing game where players take turns sketching while others guess. Built a custom canvas with drag-and-drop functionality, undo/redo controls, and real-time drawing sync. The Go backend handles all WebSocket communication between players.
Leaderboard System
Currently implementing a live leaderboard that tracks player scores and statistics across multiple rounds. Updates in real-time as players guess correctly and earn points.
Currently Being Implemented
2D Physics Engine
A physics engine I built from scratch using Zig and raylib. Handles gravity, collisions, and object movement. Wanted to understand how physics engines actually work under the hood.
Impulse-Based Collision System
Built a collision system that handles bouncing, friction, and objects coming to rest. Implements impulse-based physics calculations for realistic interactions between different geometric shapes.
Real-Time Debug Visualization
Added visual debugging tools so I could actually see what was happening during collisions. Shows contact points, velocity vectors, and collision normals - super helpful when things weren't working right.
Built in Zig with raylib
Wrote everything from scratch in Zig without using any physics libraries. Was a great way to learn both low-level programming and the math behind physics simulations.
Zig Implementation
Pathfinding Visualizer
A visual tool for comparing different pathfinding algorithms like A*, Dijkstra, and BFS. Built it to better understand how these algorithms work and which ones perform best in different scenarios.
Algorithm Visualization
Watch algorithms like A*, Dijkstra, and BFS find the shortest path in real-time. Each algorithm explores the grid differently - some are fast, others are thorough.
Customizable Grids
Draw walls, move start and end points around, and see how different algorithms handle various maze layouts. Working on auto-generated mazes to make testing more interesting.
Customizable Grids
Interactive Demo
Click around to create obstacles, drag the start and end points, then watch the algorithms do their thing. Much more fun than just reading about them in textbooks.
Interactive Demo
Discord Bot
A Discord bot written in Go that does a bunch of useful stuff. Connects to OpenAI for smart responses, fetches news from NewsAPI, plays music in voice channels, and sends scheduled updates using cron jobs.
Multi-Command Functionality
Handles a variety of commands - from asking AI questions to getting the latest news. Built it to be responsive and handle multiple users simultaneously without breaking a sweat.
Multi-Command Functionality
Voice & Music Integration
Can join voice channels and stream music for the server. Used Go's concurrency features to handle audio streaming without blocking other bot functions.
Voice & Music Integration
API Integrations & Scheduled Updates
Pulls data from OpenAI and NewsAPI to keep conversations interesting and informative. Set up cron jobs for scheduled messages so the bot can send daily updates automatically.
API Integrations & Scheduled Updates
Multi-Command Functionality