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Michael Ward

School: UCLA - B.S. Computer Science & Engineering and Philosophy
Contact: michaelward1916@ucla.edu
GitHub: https://github.com/Mykol-Word
About

I'm a third year undergraduate at UCLA studying Computer Science & Engineering and Philosophy. I’m deeply interested in computer science as a whole but by necessity I've chosen to focus on only a few things, namely, embedded systems, robotics, machine learning, and hardware–software integration. In philosophy, I am interested in many areas as well, though my main focus is moral philosophy.

If I had infinite time and resources, I would explore all niches of computer science and philosophy entirely and thoroughly. Since, I don't, I've chosen to emphasize my computer science degree and focus on only a few areas.

My non-academic interests are weight-lifting, climbing, game development/modding, and playing video games. I'm pretty bad at all but the last one.

Experience

Embedded Software Engineering Intern

[PUMA Info]

Flight Works, Inc.

June 2025 – Present

At Flight Works, I developed space-grade embedded C firmware. I can't say much specifically, but I can say I learned a lot about embedded programming with resource constraints and contributing to a much larger and moving codebase than I'm used to. One such project I worked on was an ASCENT-based Propulsion Unit with Modular Applications (PUMA) which you can read more about from the link above.

Micromouse Project-Lead

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at UCLA

April 2024 – June 2025

I co-led the Micromouse at UCLA program, mentoring over 80 students in designing and building autonomous maze-solving robots. As part of my work, I created 6 assignments and delivered lectures on motor & encoders, PID controllers, maze-solving algorithms, and IR sensors. I also conducted lots of schematic/PCB design reviews and in-lab worksessions. Overall I had a great experience!

Compiler Research Intern

PolyArch Research Group

January 2025 – Present

At the PolyArch Research Group, I am contributing to an open-source compiler targeting dataflow, CGRA, and other spatial architectures. I have mainly been working with MLIR, Polygeist, and the Clang/LLVM ecosystem to write passes, make custom dialect operations, and create testbenches to measure successful compilation.

Projects
▶ Embedded Systems

Micromouse

[GitHub][21.64 (sec) Completion]
October 2023 - May 2025

Built an autonomous maze-solving robot, or 'micromouse', from the ground up. Using both Autodesk Fusion 360 and KiCad, I designed custom schematics and PCBs. My first iteration competed in the 2024 All American Micromouse Competition (AAMC24) and got 5th place. My second iteration (significantly more compact and smooth) got 3rd in AAMC25 the following year.

FPGA Digital Design and Verification

[GitHub]
October 2024 - March 2025

In this project I explored the fundamentals of digital hardware design and verification using SystemVerilog on an Altera DE10-Lite FPGA. I implemented a basic arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and a simple slot machine. To extend functionality, I developed custom I²C and VGA drivers to interface with external peripherals and display output on a monitor. Overall, learned a lot about modular design, RTL development, and testbenching.

▶ Software Developemet

Terminal Task Manager

[GitHub]
February 2025

I didn't want to use a bulky task manager, so I made my own lightweight terminal-based task manager using C++. Tasks are persistently stored in custom task-object format in a local file. A custom parser then reconstructs the tasks upon running the application. It supports a set of terminal commands to add, delete, archive, and modify tasks.

Worm Escape Game

[GitHub][Play 'Worm Escape']
September 2024

A web-based simulation of the escape mechanics from 'Last Train Out of Wormtown.' It uses a React frontend, Typescript, and Vite for building. I never got around to finishing the project (only the 'Play' and 'Home' pages work), but the core functionality of the game works (You must click on the left-most image to start (i.e. focus it). Use 'WASD' for the arrows, and spacebar for the jump).

Personal Website

[GitHub][Self Reference?]
October 2025

I built this retro-styled personal website site using Astro as the framework. I tried to capture the aesthetic of old-2010s UI (think Windows 7 era). I almost exclusively used Claude Code to build the site, only writing a few lines of code when it was easier/faster than prompting. This project was a way for me to test the waters of Claude Code's capabilities, and so far I am impressed (I also hate making websites).

▶ Game Development

Runner Boy

[GitHub]
January 2025

'Runner Boy' is an endless runner game I developed in s&box, Facepunch’s Source 2–based game engine, using C#. The game itself features dynamic obstacle spawning, score tracking, and difficulty scaling. s&box was a rather new game engine, so with limited documentation, I had to figure a lot of things out through experimentation and the community. Even though the learning curve was really-steep, I still had a great time learning to use a new environment!

'MoreHats' Mod

[GitHub][Mod Page]
August 2025

This is a mod for 'Last Train Outta Wormtown' that adds custom hats to the game. For such a simple concept, it took a suprising amount of work and software to get the job done. I had to import/create models in Blender, import them into Unity to create and package GameObjects that match the structure of the in-game hat objects, then use a C# DLL decompiler to understand the existing game hat-framework, and finally integrate them into the game using BepInEx to inject my code and assets.