A C# chess engine and WinForms desktop app built from scratch, with reusable board, piece, move, and game-state models. Implements full movement, check, checkmate, and capture logic for all 6 piece types across Standard, Chess960, and Atomic rule sets, plus an AI opponent with its own move-evaluation logic and a UI layer with move highlighting, clocks, and move history.
AKSHAT LAL
Computer Engineering @University of Waterloo
i build at the intersection of hardware, software, and problem-solving
>led VEX Robotics for four seasons, going from team member to Team Lead directing design, build, and test
>built Caissa, a chess engine in C# with an AI opponent across 3 rule sets
>laying out PCBs in Altium for a robotic arm on the Student Design Team
>shipped a full-stack task manager with Next.js, TypeScript & SQL
>built a Java Swing image editor with custom pixel-manipulation filters
>starting Computer Engineering @Waterloo this fall
>seeking summer 2027 co-op opportunities
Projects
A full-stack task manager built with Next.js and TypeScript, supporting task creation, editing, organization, and status tracking end to end. Backed by a SQL schema and persistence layer so tasks and project state reliably survive across sessions.
This site — a responsive personal portfolio built with Next.js and TypeScript, with a light/dark mode toggle and scroll-triggered animation. Deployed on Vercel with continuous deployment so every pushed change goes live automatically.
A desktop image editor built in Java Swing, separating image data, editing operations, and UI into distinct components. Event-driven controls apply edits interactively, including grayscale, cropping, rotation, and brightness adjustment via custom pixel-manipulation algorithms.
A memory game built on Arduino, focused on embedded programming and hardware interaction — reading button input, driving LEDs, and timing sequences directly on the board.
A data project exploring the relationship between player height and rebounding using publicly available NBA statistics.
Experience
Team Lead
VEX Robotics Team
- Competed for 4 consecutive seasons, progressing from team member to Team Lead directing the full design, build, test, and iteration cycle
- Directed mechanical design, robot assembly, and programming priorities to deliver a functioning competition robot each season
- Ran reliability tests ahead of competition to catch failure points early, reducing the risk of in-match breakdowns
New Member, Electrical Team
Student Design Team
- Design and lay out printed circuit boards in Altium Designer for onboard vehicle electronics
- Collaborate with senior electrical and mechanical members on component selection and board layout ahead of a moving robotic-arm subsystem build
Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo
- Bachelor of Applied Science, starting Computer Engineering this fall
Skills
Languages
Frameworks & Tools
Concepts