DRAWING NO. GKV-2026 — REV. 1

GAVIN-KAI
VIDA

I build systems that work.
Then I make people want them.

MECHANICAL ENGINEER DATA SCIENCE ENGINEER STRATEGY CONSULTANT FOUNDER ASPIRING YC
SEE MY WORK ↓ GET IN TOUCH
EDUCATION
University of California, Los Angeles
B.S. Mechanical Engineering  ·  Data Engineering Minor
GPA 3.89  ·  Expected Jun 2029
SKILLS
Full-stack Engineering Embedded Systems Robotics CAD Agentic Automation
SHEET 01 — SYSTEMS BUILT

Systems Built

CommonIntern.com
● RUNNING SYS-001

CommonIntern.com

Founder & CEO · Jun 2025 – Present

AI platform that matches students with 14,000+ researchers and automates personalized cold email outreach. Research opportunities are opaque, applications are slow, and most students have no idea where to start. This automates the whole pipeline.

150+MAU
400K+IMPRESSIONS
14K+RESEARCHERS
React Django AI Outreach
Presenting at UConsulting
● ACTIVE SYS-002

UConsulting — AI Pipeline

Director of AI & Tech Strategy · Jun 2025 – Present

Built a cold email pipeline using Apps Script, BrightData, and AI personalization that tripled Fortune 500 meetings booked, including Uber, Snapchat, Vanguard, and Rocketlab. Also sole launch engineer for the ATS during live recruitment: 500+ applicants, 200+ DAU, bugs fixed within 24 hours.

3×MEETINGS
500+APPLICANTS
200+DAU
Apps Script BrightData React
✓ SHIPPED SYS-003

STAX — Incident Reporting

AI Engineering Intern · Sep–Dec 2025

The team was tracking 700+ live incidents through Slack threads. Built a proper system with n8n automations, PgAdmin for database management, OAuth RBAC, and Railway hosting. Non-technical team members can run it without help.

700+INCIDENTS TRACKED
React Django PostgreSQL n8n
Presenting Hallmate to faculty
✓ SHIPPED SYS-004

Hallmate — Digital Hall Pass

Head Developer · May 2024–May 2025

$3,000/yr vendor. Replaced it with an in-house system built on school LAN with Django, NuxtJS, live WebSocket updates, RBAC, self-signed encryption, and district compliance. Survived 50+ faculty stakeholders, district IT scrutiny, and a full school year.

$3K+ANNUAL SAVINGS
50+FACULTY USERS
Django NuxtJS WebSockets Nginx
✓ SHIPPED SYS-005

LA Metro — Atlantic Station

Student Intern · Jun–Aug 2025

Engineered precise 3D BIM models and blueprints for the Atlantic Station architectural redesign, covering plumbing, electrical, and structural systems. Collaborated with Civil Engineers in Program Management. Presented to Metro C-suite and 500+ constituents. This site was inspired by that work.

500+CONSTITUENTS BRIEFED
Autodesk Revit BIM Civil Engineering
Teaching Python at SimplyCS
✓ COMPLETED SYS-006

SimplyCS — Nonprofit

Founder, President & Teacher · Aug 2023–May 2025

Founded a nonprofit to teach foundational CS and Python to underserved communities. Ran 23 classes (39 instructional hours) for 80 youth at libraries and elementary schools. Ran 2 summer camps raising $3.5K. Partnered with Computers2Kids 501(c)(3) to purchase and donate 19 laptop/headset sets ($6.6K value) to Elliot Elementary students after a 5-week Python course.

80YOUTH TAUGHT
39INSTR. HOURS
$6.6KDONATED
Python Nonprofit 501(c)(3)
✓ SHIPPED SYS-007

NASDAQ 100 — Strategy

Strategy Consultant (NDA) · Sep–Dec 2025

Synthesized 20+ internal interviews and co-produced a 30-page cross-country drug access & regulatory analysis justifying a global division's strategic role. Findings delivered directly to company EVP. They asked for an NDA, which is fun.

30-pgREPORT
EVPAUDIENCE
Strategy Regulatory Analysis 🤫 NDA
SHEET 02 — READINGS

Readings

Don't read too much, but love by these texts.

Atomic Habits cover
NON-FICTION ● LOADED

Atomic Habits

James Clear
"Improvement is a system, not a resolution. This book made me stop setting goals and start designing processes. Very on-brand for someone who replaces broken systems for fun."
paulgraham.com
How to Do Great Work
July 2023
ESSAY ● LOADED

How to Do Great Work

Paul Graham
"The most useful thing I've read. Finding work that feels like play to you but looks like work to everyone else is the target. Think about it constantly."
paulgraham.com
How to Work Hard
June 2021
ESSAY ● LOADED

How to Work Hard

Paul Graham
"The distinction between working hard on the right things vs. just grinding. Effort without direction is mostly noise. Taught me to check the compass before pushing harder."
paulgraham.com
What You'll Wish You'd Known
January 2005
ESSAY ● LOADED

What You'll Wish You'd Known

Paul Graham
"I read this at 16. I'm still catching up to the advice. Stay curious, keep your options open, do things that matter to you now. Switching to ME from CS is this essay working."
Ender's Game cover
FICTION ● FORMATIVE

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card
"A book about a child prodigy deployed into high-stakes environments by adults who underestimate him. I found it relatable. Make of that what you will."
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow cover
FICTION ● FORMATIVE

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Gabrielle Zevin
"Proof that making things with people you care about is the point. The odd one out in this list, but it belongs here."
SHEET 03 — NOT ON THE RESUME

Not on the Resume

PIEZOELECTRIC SHOE — ASSEMBLY

Building it. The wiring phase was a character-building experience.

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD ROBOT

2cm of error in 8m, 1 second of error in 2 minutes. Built by hand from scratch. Placed top 10 in California comp.

Singing at talent show
TALENT SHOW

Surprisingly not bad. People clapped. Shouts out Ed Sheeran

Holding a burning stick at night
CERTIFIED ARSONIST & NATURALIST

Jokes. Love the beach though. HMU if in LA and looking to hike.

Valedictorian at Whitney High School
VALEDICTORIAN, WHITNEY H.S.

Top of the class. Cerritos, CA. California ranked #1 High School.

EpsteinRank.com screenshot
EPSTEINRANK.COM ↗

A website I made. Judge accordingly.

PIEZOELECTRIC SHOE — DEMO

Shoe that generates electricity from walking. Built from scratch.

SHEET 04 — CONTACT

Let's Build
Something.

If you have a system that needs fixing, a project that needs a technical co-founder, or just want to talk robotics and Paul Graham, reach out.

EMAIL gkaivida@g.ucla.edu STARTUP CommonIntern.com ↗ LINKEDIN gavin-kai-vida ↗ GITHUB G-Knanochaos ↗
CURRENT STATUS Open to internships, consulting projects, and ambitious conversations.