Kai.

Hi, I'm Kai Ko.

AI, Education, Drones

About Me

I recently graduated with an M.S.E. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. I specialize in building highly scalable, resilient frontend and backend systems. Alongside my work as a Software Development Engineer at AWS, I am deeply passionate about the intersection of AI, education, and tech. I am driven to build next-generation tools and structured programs that make learning more intuitive, accessible, and impactful for high-achieving, underserved students.

Experience

Technical

Software Development Engineer

July 2025 – Present

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Architected the frontend for the AWS Cost Optimization Hub efficiency metric using React and React Query, fixing bottlenecks for customers with 10k+ accounts.

• Orchestrated the deployment of cost management consoles to Amazon Dedicated Cloud air-gapped environments.

• Designed an org-wide GenAI training program for 30+ engineers.

• Spearheaded WCAG 2.1 accessibility remediation for Cost Optimization Hub.

Software Development Engineer (SDE) Intern

June 2024 – August 2024

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Spearheaded the refactoring of AWS Compute Optimizer dashboard showing cost and performance optimization recommendations analytics using AWS Cloudscape, React, and Redux.

• Delivered new compute recommendations for AWS services that will offer customers cost reductions of up to 25%.

Software Development Engineer (SDE) Intern

May 2023 – July 2023

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Designed and deployed a continuous end-to-end testing system for AWS billing systems which handle $40 billion dollars annually using AWS CDK, Fargate, Lambda, S3, and CloudWatch.

• Achieved 90% coverage across three services, providing detailed metrics and resulting in 10% less downtime.

Software Development Engineer (SDE) Intern

May 2022 – August 2022

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Automated billing process for AWS customers in China using AWS S3, Glue, Lambda, IAM, and CDK.

• Upgraded billing reports using Scala and AWS Glue reducing errors and saving 90+ work hours per month.

• Updated an outdated dependency checker config file with 4000+ changes to ensure backup security.

Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) SDE Intern

May 2021 – August 2021

Amazon

• Created a full-stack testing tool for the Amazon Consumers Selling Partner Financial Tech team using React and Spring.

• Established frontend making calls to APIs created using API Gateway and Lambda to retrieve information from internal datalakes and DynamoDB.

Education & Mentorship

Program / Online Facilitator

May 2021 - 2025

MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES)

• Mentored four cohorts of high school seniors from underserved communities through the MITES Semester program.

• Facilitated 800+ high-achieving students by engineering user-friendly data management tools using Python and Google Apps Script to automate tracking and streamline logistics.

Advising Fellow

November 2020 – May 2024

Matriculate

• Mentored high-achieving, low-income high school seniors through the intricacies of the college application and financial aid processes.

• Designed personalized advising plans to ensure scholars successfully matriculated to top-tier universities.

Course Assistant

Spring 2023 - Fall 2024

Johns Hopkins University

• Served as a Course Assistant for User Interfaces and Mobile Applications (Spring 2023, 2024) and HCI (Fall 2024).

• Evaluated assignments, projects, and exams, ensuring fair grading.

• Provided technical mentorship to 130+ students in UI/UX design and Android app development.

Resident Advisor

August 2022 – May 2024

Johns Hopkins University

• Cultivated a supportive living-learning community for 100+ residents through intentional programming and peer mentorship.

• Advocated for resident well-being and upheld university safety standards while serving in an on-call crisis response capacity.

Projects

PageDown
ElectronReactTypeScriptProseMirrorPaged.js
A page-first Markdown editor for documents that get printed — real page boundaries while you edit, with the file on disk staying portable Markdown.
SpotterDB
ReactTypeScriptViteComputer VisionAI
An AI-powered, local-first aircraft spotting web application featuring offline computer vision capabilities for real-time aircraft recognition.
Low-Cost AI Swarm Drone Framework
AIRoboticsHardwareAutonomous SystemsC++
Designing a highly scalable framework for coordinating and deploying autonomous, AI-driven swarm drone operations.
Pathfinder
AINext.jsPythonEducation
Engineered an LLM-powered advisory engine built to democratize access to top-tier university admissions and complex financial aid processes for high-achieving, low-income students.

Contact Me

I'm always open to discussing new ideas, tech, education, or just making a new connection. Whether you have a question or just want to say hi, my inbox is always open.

Say Hello

Designed & Built by Kai Ko