Wally Chang documents projects, miles, and dough.
Data scientist at Extend. Founder of RodSmith. Builder of small hardware. The portfolio is the long view — work, endurance, and what’s coming out of the oven.
THIS MONTH
doorpi — a door that knows my face and waits for a peace sign.
Pi Zero + ESP32 + MediaPipe. A face-match unlock with a peace-sign verification step before the relay fires.
Tioga Road, before the cars.
88 miles through Yosemite on opening weekend, after the road was plowed but before the gate opened to cars. Crane Flat to Mono Lake, 9,945 ft.
THIS YEAR
RodSmith — a knowledge-first marketplace for custom rods.
Builders meet anglers. Bespoke commissions, made-to-order spec, and in-stock inventory in one shape.
Mount Whitney, alpine start.
2:27 AM summit push out of Trail Camp. Sunrise at 14,505 ft — the highest in the lower 48.
Data scientist · Extend.
Pricing and risk models for extended warranties — Peloton, Oura, Sonos, Michaels, Advance Auto Parts.
Sunday bagels.
Bagels are the trophy. Bread and pizza are practice.
BEFORE NOW
IRONMAN 70.3 Indian Wells.
5:41:08 finish. Bike was the strongest leg by division rank.
Cornell Sprint Football #87.
Three years on the roster. DB → WR. All-CSFL Academic, senior season.
AmEx label-noise mitigation.
HDBSCAN + Louvain + LSTM for transformer support-ticket routing. Led eight ML engineers.