Hi, my name is
Derek Curry
Founder & Technical Architect specializing in cloud, AI, and financial systems. I build scalable, resilient applications using AWS, GCP, and cutting-edge technologies. Explore my projects to see my work in action.
About me
I’m Derek – a Computer Science and Mathematics major at NC State, currently pursuing an accelerated master’s degree in Computer Science. I’m passionate about solving complex problems and have gained extensive hands-on experience building scalable systems, optimizing performance, and working with cutting-edge technologies.
During my year with HCL Tech, I contributed production-grade features, designed APIs, and improved Kubernetes clusters. I've also founded Stock Traders Daily Canada, where I developed a multi-tenant platform using Java (Spring), C# (.NET), Docker, and AWS. From restoring a high-traffic website after critical server failure to integrating AI-driven features for financial systems, I live for tackling challenges with determination and creativity.
Outside of work and academics, I love exploring personal projects like my pathfinding visualizer and interactive heat transfer simulator. When I’m not coding, you can find me skiing at Snowbird in Utah, camping, or hiking. I’m always curious, always learning, and always looking for another challenge.
I’m Derek – a Computer Science and Mathematics major at NC State, currently pursuing an accelerated master’s degree in Computer Science. I’m passionate about solving complex problems and have gained extensive hands-on experience building scalable systems, optimizing performance, and working with cutting-edge technologies.
During my year with HCL Tech, I contributed production-grade features, designed APIs, and improved Kubernetes clusters. I've also founded Stock Traders Daily Canada, where I developed a multi-tenant platform using Java (Spring), C# (.NET), Docker, and AWS. From restoring a high-traffic website after critical server failure to integrating AI-driven features for financial systems, I live for tackling challenges with determination and creativity.
Outside of work and academics, I love exploring personal projects like my pathfinding visualizer and interactive heat transfer simulator. When I’m not coding, you can find me skiing at Snowbird in Utah, camping, or hiking. I’m always curious, always learning, and always looking for another challenge.
-dee0e3?logo=){kind=icon}
-dee0e3?logo=){kind=icon}
Experience
Stock Traders Daily Canada
Founder & Technical Architect
October 2024
-dee0e3?logo=spring){kind=icon}
- Architected and launched Stock Traders Daily Canada as a scalable, multi-tenant cloud platform running on AWS using Spring, .NET, Docker, and microservices, providing real-time updates for 1700 Canadian stocks.
- Created a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system for generating macroeconomic reports.
- Utilized embeddings, AWS Bedrock, and Microsoft Semantic Kernel with cutting-edge experimental features to extract insights from financial data sources.
- Led a designer and developer to meet tight deadlines under high-pressure conditions.
- Refined stakeholder communication by working closely with the CEO to extract complex requirements, clarify objectives, and ensure alignment with high-level business goals.
Stock Traders Daily
Remote
Software Developer
August 2024 - October 2024
- Repaired StockTradersDaily.com (500k monthly traffic) from critical server failure; Debugged PHP 5.6 code, optimized databases, and resolved DNS and Linux networking issues.
- Coordinated with hosting providers to address system-wide outages and ensure stable operations.
- Rewrote a PDF generator for 7,000 stock reports, reducing processing time from 5 seconds to 0.5 seconds per report (40x speedup).
- Improved a chart generator for 7,000 stock charts, reducing runtime from 20 minutes to 5 minutes using Puppeteer and Puppeteer Cluster.
- Redesigned financial XML structures and introduced production workflows for better scalability and efficiency.
Codecademy
Remote
Content Contributor
April 2024 – November 2024
- Formulated interactive lessons and quizzes to enhance learning retention.
- Synthesized complex Go and web development concepts into accessible lessons for professionals.
- Integrated inheritance and polymorphic practices into educational materials to create industry-ready engineers.
HCL Technology
Cary, NC
Software Engineer Intern
May 2023 – May 2024
- Developed a service for Kubernetes cluster usage across environments to reduce overhead, leveraging Prometheus, Docker, and GCP alongside another intern.
- Designed and developed a production API for creating managed CloudSQL Instances with configurable automated backups.
- Planned and created a CustomAgents production API for Kubernetes cluster Helm dependencies.
- Collaborated with multiple teams for issue resolution, information gathering, and deploying new features under tight deadlines.
Projects
Pathfinding Visualization
A fast WebAssembly application that allows users to visualize pathfinding algorithms. Users can place walls, move the start and end nodes, and see the algorithm process in action. This was created with object-oriented design principles and thorough error handling as the primary focus. Low-level concepts such as shared-memory were required to interface between JS and Go. Bootstrap was used to create a clean and responsive page, and Angular for dynamic content. Check out the Readme!
Heat Equation Visualization
This was designed using advanced software engineering and mathematical techniques through an interactive C++ application that simulates heat transfer. Emphasizing efficient application design, this project leverages OpenMP for robust multithreading capabilities, ensuring high-performance computations. The architecture is designed around the Model-View-Controller (MVC) and Publish/Subscribe (Pub/Sub) patterns, optimizing maintainability and scalability while decoupling the UI from computational logic for fluid, real-time user interactions. The solution is obtained using partial differential equations, the finite element method (FEM), and advanced linear algebra techniques such as algebraic multigrid (AMG). Check out the Readme!
Portfolio Website
This website is designed to showcase my skills and experience in computer science. With a clean and modern design, not just in the looks, but in the code as well, it provides a brief overview of my education and the projects I've worked on. Featuring a responsive design with dynamic content, a modular single-page application consisting of multiple components utilizing many of Angular's features, a CDN is used to deliver the best sized image, and object-oriented UI code for easy modification. Check out the Readme!
Tesla Rebuild
I began a large project to restore a heavily damaged Tesla, which has given me a deep understanding of electric vehicle components and systems. There was a great deal of problem solving involved with the mechanical and electrical systems due to having little information or proper tools. This created my interest in what controls all of the systems in the car. Check out the photo album!
Tesla MCU Reverse Engineering
The Tesla MCU has become an incredibly secure piece of hardware, incorporating many layers of hardening. I would like to learn how the MCU controls the car by dumping and analyzing the firmware. I am beginning by looking at hardware vulnerabilities and how different components communicate.
