Intro Background Education Experience Leadership Featured Projects Project Descriptions Skills #Unfiltered

Hey!

My name is Nicole Chen.

Let's Connect nicole_chen@college.harvard.edu

Background

I am currently an undergraduate student at Harvard College double concentrating in Computer Science and Economics. My interests largely concentrate within the product development pipeline whether its challenging my own assumptions on user criteriums, determining scalable solutions for products in some of the most competitive markets, or re-evaluating launch prospects for an upcoming feature. I'm driven by ownership in redefining technological products that are user-obsessed, creative and contemporary, scalable, as well as sustainable. I'm especially interested in the fintech product space as well as tech investing.

I have experience in user-research and user-recruitment, product strategy and roadmapping, product management, project management, UI/UX design, backend development. Some of my other interests include participating in pedagogy at Harvard, whistling the entire Taylor Swift Speak Now album, and surfing or skateboarding!

Currently seeking summer 2025 full-time opportunities!
Education
Aug 2021 - Present
  • Extracurriculars - Harvard Product Lab, Peer Concentration Advisor (Computer Science), Leverett House Committee, Harvard Technology for Social Good, Harvard College Consulting Group, Harvard Student Agencies
  • Awards - Neo Scholar Finalist (150 students selected each year), Peer Concentration Advisor (22 students), Pear VC Fellow, Alex Patel Fellow (4 students)
  • Relevant Computer Science Coursework - Introduction to Machine Learning (MIT 6.3900), Computer Science Classics (CS191), Natural Language Processing (CS187), Systems Programming and Machine Organization (CS61), Data Structures and Algorithms (CS124, CS120), Abstraction and Design in Computation (CS51), Linear Algebra and Differential Equations (Math21B), Probability (STAT110)
  • Relevant Economics Coursework - Corporate Finance (EC1745), Keynes (EC1936), International Trade Policies and Economic Growth (EC970), Microeconomics (EC1010A, EC10A), Macroeconomics (EC1010B, EC10B), Econometrics (EC1123)
  • Relevant Chinese Coursework - Elementary Chinese (BX), Intermediate Modern Chinese (123XB), U.S. China Relations (GENED)
Aug 2017 - May 2021
  • Extracurriculars - Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate Captain, 2021 National (NSDA) Lincoln Douglas Qualifier, President of Big Sisters and Excalibur, President of Technology Student Association, competitive and nationally-ranked fencer (B19)
  • Awards - 2021 US Presidential Scholar, Most Outstanding Student, CBS4 Future STEM Leader, 2021 Coca Cola Scholarship Semifinalist (top 1.6%), National Merit Finalist, 2020 International Qualifier to the American Computer Science League All Stars Competition, 2020 National Runner Up for the National Center for Women and Information Technology for Aspirations in Computing, 2019 Colorado Technology Association's Youth Technology Leader
Professional Experience
May 2024 - Present
Software Engineer Intern
  • Pioneered the first model training workflow to score ML models in real-time rather than in batch. Deployed real-time scoring loan model with 100% accuracy rates to prior predictions, advising the Head of Data Science on new workflow
  • Developed Capital’s expected loss rate calculator for Financial Risk team with explainability features for denied merchant loans, leveraging expertise in Streamlit, SQL, Scala, Spark, and Python for backend as well as Flyte and Airflow for training
Jun 2023 - Aug 2023
Software Engineer Intern
  • Spearheaded the first productionized Generative AI discover feed estimated to generate $200K in revenue. Flown out to present project for critical production review to 70 MLEs and executives including the CEO and VP of Engineering
  • Analyzed and tuned over 120 Generative AI models based on recent Stable Diffusion and image segmentation techniques
  • Integrated the best generative model into Story Studio utilizing Google Cloud SDK and Amazon S3 while leveraging full-stack development in Scala, Swagger, Python, Java, and Go
CS120 Teaching Fellow (Data Structures and Algorithms)
  • Taught algorithms and computational theory with Prof. Adam Hesterberg, hosting office hours and revising assignments
CS51 Teaching Fellow (Abstraction and Design in Computation)
  • Partnered with Prof. Stuart Shieber to teach OCaml functional programming, abstraction, object-oriented coding, and design by facilitating weekly sections, office hours, biweekly labs, and revising course structure and direction
Jun 2022 - Sep 2022
Product Strategy and Management Intern
  • Facilitated the development of a B2C product's roadmap with more than 600+ library customers and 5K monthly clicks
  • Ideated full-scale integration for SaaS product for the next 3 PIs to a cohort of 40 executives including the Senior VP of Product
  • Conducted and synthesized 6 usability tests, oversaw a team of 3 researchers to develop 5 low fidelity prototypes for product integration on InVision, mapped user journeys through Amplitude usage analytics to develop product personas, charted Blue Ocean strategy competitor analysis, and facilitated 10 one-on-one customer and stakeholder interviews
Sep 2021 - Sep 2022
Head of UI/UX Research
  • Secured over $140K in revenue within the first 6 months of promotion
  • Pioneered user recruitment with strategic market outreach, screener synthesis, and candidate evaluation for Google, Chegg, and VSCO
  • Redefined Campus Insight's service offerings after careful competitior analysis and research. Facilitated company's pivot towards more user-recruitment services amidst altering demands after COVID-19. Restructured package offerings, recruitment pipeline, and client outreach
Jan 2018 - Aug 2021
Co Founder
  • Founded non-profit organization that teaches middle school students how to code in Java and Python
  • Developed curriculum from scratch, instructing over 100 students from Colorado, New York, and California
  • Partnered with Microsoft, University of Denver, Metro State University, Girls Who Code, and ChickTech to guarantee free computers for all students while ensuring a 50/50 male to female ratio
  • Work featured in Denver Business Journal, CBS News, and The Villager
Leadership and Activities
Jun 2023 - Present
Executive Director
  • Oversaw Harvard's premier product management organization with 400+ members, spearheading a 22-member competitive case team for members to work with tech companies (Github, Snap, Meta) on product strategy and design
  • Managed over $5K in revenue from case team partnerships. Enhanced club engagement three-fold with 70+ applications
Director of Education
  • Revised the recruiting process for all members at Harvard Product Lab through restructing the organization's Product education curriculum and strengthening institutional relationships in Product at companies such as Figma, Notion, and Salesforce
  • Supervised, taught, and sourced 11 Product-related workshops regarding Product Management, Strategy, Engineering, and more.
Product/Project Manager at United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
  • Led a team of 5 to redesign the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) program management application NAMP Executed project as the client's point of contact and worked closely with executives to determine project roadmap and scope
  • Presented project to a cohort of 20 executives including the CIO leadership team at USDA. Received a letter of high praise from USDA's CIO
  • Developed 5 optimized user workflows, conducted over a dozen usability and user interviews, and iterated on 2 lo-fidelity and hi-fidelity prototypes to present finished product
Product/Project Manager at Hamilton Families
  • Led a team of 5 to address accessibility and education gaps within technology at San Francisco's leading homeless shelter
  • Designed 2 rounds of low and high fidelity prototypes of client's onboarding platform through 2 iterations of usability tests and synthesized research deliverables for successful platform KPIs, user personas, and feature lists
Jan 2022 - Dec 2022
Associate
  • Conducted extensive landscape analysis and surveyed hundreds of internal stakeholders to create guiding recommendations for internal pay transparency materials to boost client employee performance and retention
Analyst
  • Developed 28 supply chain models for a Fortune 500 company, the best optimizing demand-fulfillment by 9.1%, profit from fulfillment by 4.7%, and inventory by 35.6%. Done through analysis of internal sales and inventory data on Excel for 16 client distribution centers across the United States
Project Descriptions

A Python web extraction program that utilizes Selenium to automate social media handle-based extraction via hashtagged post, filtering by age, number of followers, and geography. Developed for Campus Insights to automate recruiting for the NFL for their Inspire Change campaign.

Python Selenium Pandas VS Code

An experimental ui for 5 different image to image generative ai architectures. Developed and trained for highest-performing image generation.

Streamlit Python Pytorch TensorFlow VS Code

a meta-circular interpreter in OCaml for a Turing-complete, ML-based language supporting atomic data types, lazy expressions, and lexically scoped environment semantics.

OCaml VS Code

An interactive web platform for DTC Computer Science Camps, a non-profit organization I founded in highschool, featuring registration, members-specific resources, email integration, and updated blog posts. Hosted through the Heroku Cloud Application software.

Flask Python Heroku SQLite 3 HTML/CSS

An app that interactively teaches Object Oriented Programming. Developed to promote computer science education across high schools.

Microsoft SQL JavaScript Java C# JavaServer Pages

Onboarding platform for Hamilton Families, designed to teach employees the necessary technologies for company integration in the most accessible manner.

Figma Notion

A redesign of the United State's Department of Agriculture's Program Management software which handles over $1 billion in funding and is utilized by thousands of users. Developed to maximize efficiency in data reporting and integration.

Figma Notion
Skills
Coding Languages
  • Python
  • Scala
  • Proto
  • Java
  • OCaml
  • SQL
  • Swift
  • C
  • C++
Tools
  • Git & Github
  • Spark
  • Flyte
  • Bazel
  • Google Cloud SDK
  • MongoDB
  • IntelliJ
  • Streamlit
  • Jira
  • Confluence
Design
  • Figma
  • InVision
  • UserTesting
  • Microsoft Office
  • User Testing
Data Analysis
  • Amplitude
  • Excel