Taichi Kato

My name is Taichi, a prospective freshman at Amherst College. Originally from Tokyo, I moved to Singapore when I was 8.

During highschool, I've worked on Questo, an AI app which generates questions based on a photo of a textbook. Through Questo, I have won several awards, receiving more than USD200,000 in subsidised funding from IBM and Google Cloud. Questo was successful in attracting interests from users across the globe. Unfortunately, due to unexpectedly diffciult technical challenges, we have made the hard decision to sunset the project. My work in Questo was founded on my belief that human knowledge acquisition can vastly accelerated through the development of automation technology. I am actively looking for opportunities in the field of machine learning, be it in research or software development.

In the summer of 2018, I was a machine learning engineer at Mercari. There, I was responsible for developing and tuning object detection and price prediction models to run on iOS devices. I have also created a demo application for live obejct detection and price prediction. Same summer, I was also privillaged to work as a deep learning researcher at Digital Nature Group, where along with Prof. Ochyai, worked on 2D image to 3D voxel generation using GANs. In the summer of 2017, I was a software engineer intern at teamLab working on client iOS applciations (I was the youngest employee ever at 15 years old). You can learn more by checking out my résumé.

Please feel free to reach out to me via email. I enjoy a good cup of coffee, although they're quite rare to come by in Singapore. You can also find me on twitter, instagram, or linkedin.

Bio

  • IB diploma student, predicted 44/45(HL: Math, Physics, CS. SL: Philosophy, English Lang/Lit and Japanese Literature)
  • I began programming when I was 10 with interest in generative art and minecraft mods, building some weekend hacks, websites and apps along the way.
  • Launched an AI startup Questo, got 1,200+ users, came first place on Hackernews and became the #1 Product of The Day on Producthunt
  • Did a few side consulting gigs, which was fun and got me some cash to not worry about funding for Questo.
  • I've been trying to widen my perspective on the world, and have been doing a wide range of reading both online and offline. This has helped pull me out of the tech glamour in which I was really engulfed in.
  • Despite certain fears I have regarding technology (tendency towards extremism, widening of social inequality, privacy concerns ... etc.), I still do love technology and see many ways in which it can benefit the society. I hope to contribute to the future of our world through utilising AI in fields such as education, which can benefit a wide group of people.

Projects 🚀

Some projects I have worked on / am working on.

  • Questo AI (2016-2019) - A smart iOS app which automatically generates quizzes based on a photo of a textbook or a website.
  • Photonify (2017) - An iOS camera which suggests better compositions in real time
  • Photography (2014- Present)
  • Hequals (2017) - An automatic human resource allocator which aims to eliminate any form of discrimination in the tech world by basing decisions purely on skills.
  • Komme (2015) - A virtual navigation game to find ways to get to a certain location only through Google Streetview - made with js.
  • RealAR - Created a prototype iOS framework for creating shared AR environement between multiple devices through socket. (BUT Apple ended up including it in their ARKit on iOS12 in June)
  • Kanji Frequency (2018) - Visualising and ordering kanjis in order of importance to learn only the important ones :)

Achievements and Experiences 🏆

  • Lead organiser of YouthHacks 2019, partnered with Google, Reactor School and the Singaporean government, attracted amazing mentors and judges from Google, StartupX, Temasek Holdings and more. With $5000 funding from National Youth Council, we sponsored more than 180 students a weekend full of coding and seminars.
  • iOS intern at teamLab when I was 15 (youngest employee ever 🥳). I was primarily involved in the architecture design and the development of iOS apps. I also introduced and integrated Redux as a primary framework for all of teamLab's upcoming iOS projects, creating a template project.
  • Won $40,000 in prizes for the "Most Creative" prize at Startup Weekend - the most prestegious hackathon in SG.
  • Lead organiser of ideaHacks_ 2018, partnered with StartupX, Acronis and Carousell, attracted amazing mentors and judges from CitiBank, Temasek Holdings, IBM and more. Around 100 students participated in a weekend full of coding.
  • Winner of PitchIT Competition at SG Fintech Festival 2016
  • Won ideaHacks 2016 with Questo.
  • Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.
    – Sartre