ABOUT
I was born in 2004, and spent most of my childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina. I presently live a few hours away in Boone, and study Computer Science and Mathematics at Appalachian State University.
I generally enjoy applying pattern recognition and optimization
across many domains. I specifically enjoy competitive programming
and algorithmic puzzles, cooking, swimming, and running. I'm
currently extending this site with a page about books I'm reading.
I love to nerd out about programming languages (ask me my favorite
C++ Standard), new tools, and retro tech. I sometimes write about
interesting things
on my 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. Implemented cluster-wide password
handling, AES-based encryption, OpenSSL primitives, and TPM/key-file
recovery. Lots of C++ and free snacks!
🌲 Appalachian State University
Teaching Assistant
CS 3481 - Computer Systems: Gave talks on GDB, Valgrind, C & C++
Programming, Architecture, and Assembly. Held regular office hours,
led Lab sections, and reviewed/graded student programming
assignments. Spawned a love for low-level systems programming.
Research Assistant
Maths Department: Translating recent papers into Python models then
testing and visualizing the results. A short-lived experience but a
lot of fun, and my introduction to academia.
Private Tutor
Operated an independent tutoring venture for collegiate-level
Calculus, Statistics, Linear Algebra, and Discrete Mathematics.
Classic College-kid hustle.
SELECTED PROJECTS
Interactive GPU Fluid Sandbox
(C++, CUDA,
2025) Paper
Real-time GPU fluid simulation running 16.7M cells (4096²) at 176+
FPS. Implemented CUDA kernels for advection, diffusion, and Poisson
pressure projection; optimized shared memory tiling & coalesced
access. Improvement over my previous
OpenMP CPU version.
Lock-Free MPMC Telemetry Buffer
(C++, 2025)
Repo
High-throughput lock-free queue for telemetry objects from many
threads concurrently. Designed as a bounded ring using C++ atomics &
cache-line padding to mitigate contention and false sharing.
Sustains ~20M events/s on 4 cores and outperforms std::mutex by ~9x
in some cases.
IN PROGRESS
C to LLVM Compiler
(C++)
Writing a C-subset compiler with custom loop-invariant code motion
and strength reduction.
Micro-Firewall DSL
(C, C++)
Inventing a small Domain-Specific Language (DSL) compiling to eBPF
bytecode for programmable packet filtering. Currently learning the
network stack!
CAPABILITIES
Languages:
(primary) C++, C, Python, (learning) Rust, Bash, (most types of)
Assembly. Adaptable to new languages quickly!
Concurrency & GPU:
CUDA, OpenMP, MPI, SIMD (coming to C++26 soon!!), lock-free.
Tooling:
Linux, CMake, Git, Docker, gdb, perf, cachegrind, callgrind,
valgrind (all the grinds...), Nsight Compute/Systems, (learning)
eBPF.
Domain:
I'm extremely interested in working with high-performance systems,
concurrency, runtimes, operating systems, and infrastructure!
EMAIL
blackwellaf@appstate.edu
LINKEDIN
linkedin.com/in/blackwellaf
GITHUB
github.com/andrewblackwell
MY BLOG
(opens in a new tab)