ABOUT
I was born in 2004, and spent most of my childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina. I presently live in Boone, and study Computer Science and Mathematics at Appalachian State University.
I enjoy applying pattern recognition and optimization across different domains. Outside of class, I'm an avid runner, reader, and regular contestant in Jane Street's monthly puzzle challenge. I occasionally write about topics that interest me on my (somewhat) technical blog.
I am graduating in the Spring of 2026 and am looking toward numeric horizons. Please feel free to contact me for any opportunities!
EXPERIENCE
☁️ NetApp
Software Engineering Intern
ONTAP (storage OS) Team: Shipped the OKM Toolkit, a
cluster-passphrase recovery utility for encrypted ONTAP systems, now
used by customer support teams on client systems. Implemented safe
cluster‑wide password handling, AES-based encryption, OpenSSL-backed
primitives, and key‑management/backup utilities for TPM/key‑file
recovery (C++20, OpenSSL).
🌲 Appalachian State University
Teaching Assistant
CS 3481 - Computer Systems: Gave talks on GDB, Valgrind, C & C++
Programming, and X86 Assembly. Held regular office hours, led Lab
sections, and reviewed/graded student programming assignments.
Research Assistant
Maths Department: Translating recent Maths papers into Python models
then testing and logging results; a short-lived experience but a lot
of fun!
Private Tutor
Operated an independent tutoring venture for collegiate-level
Calculus, Statistics, Linear Algebra, and Discrete Mathematics;
classic College-kid hustle.
SELECTED PROJECTS
C to LLVM Compiler
(C++, In Progress)
Writing a C-subset compiler with custom loop-invariant code motion
and strength reduction; multithreaded pass manager improved compile
times by ~35%.
Micro-Firewall DSL
(C++, In Progress)
Invented a small Domain-Specific Language (DSL) compiling to eBPF
bytecode for programmable packet filtering. Learning UDP/TCP/IP
currently.
Interactive GPU Fluid Sandbox
(C++, CUDA,
2025)
Real-time 2D fluid simulation built with tiled CUDA kernels and
OpenMP baseline; achieved interactive 1024² grids and multi-GPU
speedups with ImGui/SDL UI and reproducible batch runs.
Lock-Free MPMC Telemetry Buffer
(C++,
Concurrency, 2025)
Designed a multi-producer, multi-consumer ring buffer using atomics
and epoch-based reclamation; sustained multi-million events/sec with
tight p99 latency.
CAPABILITIES
Languages:
C++, C, Python, Java, Rust, Haskell, SQL; Adaptable to new languages
quickly.
Concurrency & GPU:
std::thread, OpenMP, MPI, SIMD, lock-free data structures,
CUDA.
Tooling:
Linux systems, Git, Perforce, Docker, K8s, Valgrind, GDB, Godbolt,
CMake, Bash, Clang-Tidy, Ninja.
Domain:
I'm extremely interested in working with high-performance systems,
concurrency, networking, runtimes, OS internals, and related
tooling!
EMAIL
blackwellaf@appstate.edu
LINKEDIN
linkedin.com/in/blackwellaf
GITHUB
github.com/andrewblackwell
TECHNICAL BLOG
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