About
The longer version.
I'm Alain Welliver, a software engineer and builder based in Philadelphia. I just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S.E. in Networked and Social Systems Engineering (Penn's computer science degree with a heavier dose of machine learning, probability, and the math of complex systems) with minors in Math and Engineering Entrepreneurship.
I'm trying to live a life characterized by service to humanity. In my career, that has drawn me to explore how technology (including AI) can augment human capacity and make everyday people's lives better. Specifically, this exploration has drawn me toward AI safety, physical AI, transit technology, education technology, and other places where AI and software has to meet the real world.
After a deeply spiritual experience returning to the Bahá'í World Centre for Pilgrimage in 2026, I realized that one interesting and challenging way I could explore the above would be to:
- found a startup focused on this mission of making everday people's lives better
- build said startup ethically with a strong moral framework
- do so while also living a coherent life within and outside of that work
Since then, I've been building and learning about things to accomplish this mission.
How I got here: In high school, I rowed, studied classical piano, and fundraised for our robotics team. After that, I spent a year volunteering at the Bahá'í World Centre. Since then, I've worked on CT scanner data at Penn Medicine, workforce planning software for Keolis Commuter Services, and incident tooling at Amazon Web Services.
Work
- Summer 2025 Software Development Engineer Intern at AWS Shipped automated ticket triage and root-cause analysis for EC2 ops.
- Summer 2024 Software Engineer Intern at Keolis Commuter Services Built a full-stack demand modeling app for multi-year workforce planning.
- Summer 2023 Research Assistant at Penn's LACTI Lab Built image analysis pipeline which processed over 17+ TB of CT imaging.
Side Gigs
- 2026 — now Founder of Built by Alain A website and custom software design company. You're looking at one of its projects.
- Fall 2025 Claude Builder Ambassador at Anthropic Grew a technical builder community at Penn from zero to 1,100+ members with hackathons, VC connections, and lots of Claude.
- Fall 2025 Teaching Assistant for Machine Learning (CIS 5200) at Penn Taugh weekly recitations for 40+ students, and created assignments for 200+.
About this site
Vercel's v0, Claude, and I crafted this in HTML and CSS with no other frameworks. The colors are borrowed from the AnuPpuccin theme for Obsidian. If something looks broken, use the flag in the sidebar to tell me.