avi wong
interdisciplinary studentsf → pittsburgh | he/they
carnegie mellon ‘25
awong8 [at] cmu [dot] edu
sustainably seeking.
I’m currently pursuing a undergraduate degree in Materials Science and Engineering with an additional major in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. I want to develop sustainable materials that can replace the plastic, concrete, and heavy metals we use today, and I’m interested in exploring nature for inspiration. But I’m also interested in the social, cultural, and economic dynamics in our world that lead us to use the materials we see everyday, and how we can change them through public policy.I also do a bit of programming both to solve engineering problems and just for fun: running simulations, building websites, squinting at MATLAB code, and cleaning up giant piles of data.
Here are some of my favorite personal projects I’ve done, in programming and beyond:
where on earth is that?!
November 2022A geographic game programmed with Python for 15-112: Fundamentals of Programming and CS at CMU. I filtered through giant piles of OpenStreetMap data to make this game.
Built with Python (NumPy, Pandas, Pyrosm, & cmu-112-graphics)
GitHub, Design Docs
polymer playground
May-August 2022A Monte Carlo simulation mimicking the random growth of tangly polymer molecules.
Built with Python (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib)
Colab
doodle month
Feb-March 2021A website that generates a list of word or colour prompts, Inktober-style, for artists who want a month-long creative challenge.
Built with JavaScript (React, Next.js, Vercel, & Theme UI)
Website, GitHub
smock sensor
November 2022A fun little experiment with embroidery, conductive materials, and circuits as a part of the IDeATe class 99-360: E-Textiles with Lea Albaugh. I made two different stretch sensors using smocking, a traditional way of sewing cloth into scrunchy patterns.
Design Docs
dreamily drafting.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, I grew up on a blend of kung fu TV dramas, historical & fantasy novels, high doses of cosmic gay radiation, and crispy Hong Kong egg waffles. I started writing short stories more often in high school, and now, I’m part of New Works Coffeehouse, a side troupe of my college’s student theatre! I write scripts that are performed as part of Scenefest, a compilation of short, original plays written by students. Here’s the scenes I’ve written so far:paw paw
February 2022A lesbian accidentally schedules a lunch with her Chinese grandma at the same time as a date with her girlfriend, and she makes a surprising discovery.
extra turkey
August 2022Two roommates panic when a dead body appears in their freezer, mistaken for a very large bag of turkey. A collaboration with Esha Gupta.
last burn
October 2022In their very last moment together, two sworn archenemies, a prisoner and a general, muse about the past.
death cab
January 2022A recently deceased, slightly unhinged old man has a final conversation with the cab driver taking him to be reincarnated.
happily hobbying.
Besides writing and sciencing, I’m a driver for Spirit Racing Systems, a buggy team in my university. That basically means that every weekend at 8am, you can find me zooming down an empty street at 30 mph in a human-powered, human-built car.I am also involved with CMU’s student-run theatre troupe, Scotch'n'Soda Theatre; I played the synth for their October 2021 production of Rocky Horror, was an assistant sound engineer for their February 2021 production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, was the technical director for New Works's February 2023 Scenefest, and am currently their props tech area head.
Outside of all these commitments, I hike, run, play the piano, head-bang to music by Daemonia Nymphe, feed my tea addiction, doodle, read books sometimes, and play video games like Hades.
Fonts are Cabinet Grotesk (heading) & Lora (body). Graphics were drawn by me. Designed by me on Figma & Next.js in 2021-2022, using @lachlanjc's next-theme-starter.