Braden Ou

CS @ Columbia SEAS — systems, games, and sound.

I build things that sit at the edge of music, games, and real-time systems. I've published AI research, built an award-winning electronic instrument, shipped VR games, and written for NYU's premier anthology. Right now I'm interested in how people interact with technology, whether that's a player navigating a game, a musician performing live code, or a student learning to program through play.

PulsePad — CNC walnut enclosure with hand-shaped pressure padsPulsePad — DuoStep software interface
Hardware · Arduino · HCI · Performance

PulsePad

A hand-shaped electronic musical instrument with pressure-sensitive pads for each finger, CNC-milled walnut enclosure, and custom DuoStep software for per-finger sound mapping and recording.

Voted “most innovative and outstanding product” out of 700+ projects. Winner of the Gunter Georgi Award.

Save Mi VR
VR · Unity · Wwise

Save Mi

VR firefighting simulation with custom fire-propagation physics, destructible environments, and adaptive audio.

Play on Itch.io →
Corelink architecture diagram
TCP/UDP · Real-time · Distributed

Corelink: Ultra-low-latency Audio

Built TCP/UDP streams for a data-agnostic network framework. Led a team to build remote audio collaboration with <20ms latency.

Corelink →
Marble Madness Remake
Unity · Game Design

Marble Madness Remake

Modern remake of the classic arcade game. Reimagined visuals, new mechanics, playable in browser.

Play on Itch.io →
FRC Team 7419 robot on the competition field
OpenCV · Python · FRC

Autonomous Vision & Control

Computer vision pipeline for real-time robot control at <50ms latency, 100+ FPS. Contributed to the FRC 2024 Engineering Inspiration Award.

AI Music
PyTorch · AI · Music

AI-Assisted Music Making

Open-source project exploring AI-assisted music creation workflows.

GitHub →
Piano keys
Web · Audio · React

Perfecting Pitch

Web app for pitch recognition practice with guided exercises and real-time feedback.

Try it →
Students learning with technology
Gamification · Education · 2,000+ users

Coding Education Game

Educational game introducing 2,000+ students to programming. Iterated on mechanics based on classroom observation.

Publication

Investigating MIDI Data Simplification in AI Models

ACE (2023) Vol. 21: 114-120 · Lead Author

Designed data simplification pipelines for training ML models on musical data. Advised by Professor Roger Dannenberg at CMU.

Essay

Ping! Panic! Repeat!

Mercer Street — NYU's premier anthology

Selected as one of 12 pieces from 1,000+ submissions. On the relationship between technology and humanity.

Dec 2022 – Jun 2024
Technical Intern
Alameda County District 1
Built an AI-powered outreach system identifying critical needs in underserved communities for a constituency of 240,000+. Engineered full-stack internal applications to visualize demographics for a team of 30+. Also designed an educational video game introducing 2,000+ students to programming, iterating on mechanics based on student feedback and classroom playtesting.
Sep 2021 – May 2024
Software Lead
FIRST Robotics Team 7419
Implemented computer vision at <50ms latency for real-time autonomous targeting from a moving robot, contributing to the FRC 2024 Engineering Inspiration Award. Led a 100+ member team using Agile/Scrum across software, mechanical, and outreach. Mentored a rookie middle-school team of 30+ to world championship qualification.
Columbia University
Fu Foundation SEAS · Computer Science
Expected May 2028
New York University
Tandon School of Engineering · Computer Science
2024 – 2025
USACO GoldGunter Georgi AwardFRC Engineering Inspiration AwardACSL First Place
Currently exploring →
Live codingLaw and techVideo games and their power