Jason Tran

Engineer | Duke University BME & ECE | AI Infrastructure & Embedded Systems

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STORM DAT: Automating Government Document Compliance So Analysts Can Focus on What Matters

A web-based application for automating government document compliance, reducing manual review time and improving accuracy.

Python Flask Docker Whisper

Mobile Development Generative AI

Mindfulness Coach: Building a Fully Offline, On-Device AI Coaching App with React Native and Google MediaPipe

A deep dive into the architecture and engineering of a privacy-first mobile mindfulness coach that runs entirely on-device using React Native and Google MediaPipe's on-device LLM capabilities.

React Native Expo Typescript MediaPipe

Web Development

MyKpopLists: Building a Scalable Social Platform for K-pop Enthusiasts

MyKpopLists is a full-stack social networking platform tailored for K-pop fans, featuring comprehensive artist databases, privacy-aware social interactions, AI-powered content tagging, and gamified community engagement.

Laravel Vue.js Inertia.js PostgreSQL +12 more

Linux & Networking

Personal Cloud Infrastructure: Transforming Legacy Hardware into a Secure, Self-Hosted Ecosystem

This project chronicles the journey of repurposing a nine-year-old gaming PC into a robust personal cloud and application server. It explores the motivations behind reclaiming digital independence, the architectural decisions made to ensure data sovereignty, and the technical challenges overcome in creating a secure, scalable, and versatile home lab environment.

Docker TrueNAS Scale ZFS Tailscale +1 more

Linux & Networking

PWOSPF Router: Bridging Classical Networking and Modern SDN with Interactive Virtualization

Building a production-grade network router that implements the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) using low-level C, integrated it with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) through OpenFlow, and packaged everything into an interactive, browser-based simulation environment.

C Docker Mininet OpenFlow +2 more

Biomedical Engineering Embedded Systems

EOG Sleep Mask: Detecting Secondary Sleep Strokes in Real-Time

A wearable, real-time stroke detection system disguised as a comfortable sleep eye mask. By utilizing electrooculography (EOG) to track eye movement and an onboard microcontroller to perform real-time signal processing, the device acts as an automated sentinel.

Arduino Op Amp EOG

Web Development

Building a Modern Developer Portfolio: From Terminal Emulation to Content Architecture

A full-stack developer portfolio platform built with Astro 5, React 19, and TypeScript—a content-first website that showcases technical projects, tutorials, and professional experience through multiple interactive interfaces.

Astro React Typescript Three.js +4 more

Biomedical Engineering Python Automation

VitalCheck API: Building a Multi-Domain Health Intelligence Engine with Python, FastAPI, and Production-Grade ML

VitalCheck is a production-deployed REST API that delivers real-time health risk assessments across ten medical and wellness domains. Built with Python, FastAPI, and a suite of machine learning models, it provides a unified interface for clinical and biometric predictions — from diabetes and stroke risk to MRI-based brain tumor classification.

Python FastAPI UV Pydantic +3 more

Embedded Systems

FPGA Wordle: Building a Complete Game Console from Transistors to Touchpoints

A deep dive into the design and implementation of FPGA Wordle, a fully hardware-implemented word-guessing game that runs on a custom five-stage pipelined MIPS processor, with real-time VGA display and PS/2 keyboard input — all built from first principles in Verilog and assembly.

FPGA MIPS Verilog WebAssembly

Explore topics

Biomedical Engineering

Medical device software, health data analysis, biomedical signal processing, and clinical data applications with regulatory guidance.

Embedded Systems

Microcontroller firmware, IoT devices, FPGA digital logic design, and hardware-software integration.

Generative AI

LLM-powered applications, RAG pipelines, AI chatbots, and intelligent automation tools built with any language model API or open-source model.

Linux & Networking

VPS & NAS setup, Docker deployments, self-hosted services, reverse proxy configuration, and automated Linux environment management.

Mobile Development

Cross-platform iOS and Android apps built with React Native and Expo, with custom REST API backends and cloud data sync.

Web Development

Full-stack web applications, responsive websites, REST APIs, and modern web experiences.

Python Automation

Workflow automation, data pipelines, web scraping, REST APIs, data apps with Streamlit, Flask web services, and ML-powered tooling — all in Python.

Latest Posts

Embedded Systems

10 Milliseconds or Failure: Architecting a Real-Time Sensor Pipeline Across Two Threads Without Locking Up the UI

A deep dive into the engineering of a real-time IMU processing pipeline that runs on a worker thread while communicating with a Qt Quick UI on the main thread. Learn how to use `std::atomic` for lock-free shutdown signaling, Qt's queued signals for cross-thread communication, and self-correcting timing loops to maintain a 100 Hz sample rate without ever blocking the UI thread.

Your Gyroscope Is a Liar: Using a Kalman Filter to Fuse Contradictory Sensors Into Trustworthy Orientation

A deep dive into the engineering of a real-time Kalman filter for fusing accelerometer and gyroscope data on an embedded system, including a custom matrix library, C++17 optimizations, and practical tuning advice for sensor noise.

Sentinel Fall Detector: Engineering Real-Time Safety With Sensor Fusion and Signal Processing

A deep dive into the architecture and engineering of Sentinel, a real-time fall detection system running on a Raspberry Pi 5 that uses an IMU, Kalman filter, and custom classification logic to deliver intelligent, orientation-aware fall detection with a Qt Quick dashboard for live feedback.

C++Raspberry Pi IMU Qt

Embedded Systems

Your Sensor Remembers Nothing: Building a Fixed-Memory Ring Buffer to Give Hardware a Short-Term History

A deep dive into the architecture and engineering of a privacy-first mobile mindfulness coach that runs entirely on-device using React Native and Google MediaPipe's on-device LLM capabilities.

Building a High-Performance Multi-Protocol Packet Processing Engine

Dissecting the `sr_handlepacket()` function from a production-grade router implementation, this tutorial demonstrates how to build a stateful packet processor in C that handles Ethernet, ARP, IP, and ICMP protocols with zero-copy parsing, deferred work queues for ARP resolution, and longest-prefix matching for routing decisions.

Building a Distance-Vector Routing Protocol (RIP Implementation)

Implementing the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) in C, demonstrating how routers automatically discover network topology and compute optimal paths using the Bellman-Ford algorithm, while handling real-world constraints like binary protocol compliance, network byte order, and UDP checksums.

PWOSPF Router: Bridging Classical Networking and Modern SDN with Interactive Virtualization

C Docker Mininet OpenFlow +2 more

Python Automation

Your Flask App Is a Monolith Until You Learn the Factory: How `create_app`, Blueprints, and Jinja2 Inheritance Turn a Script Into a Scalable Project

A deep dive into the architectural patterns that transform a single-file Flask script into a maintainable, scalable web application — covering the application factory, Blueprint organization, and Jinja2 template inheritance.

Python Automation Generative AI

Splitting Atoms in a Word Document: Surgical Run Manipulation and Real-Time Audio Normalization

A deep dive into the algorithms that power STORM DAT's document annotation and audio normalization engines, revealing how to transform complex data structures in place without corruption.

Your Flask App Accepts File Uploads — But Can It Survive a Malicious One?

A deep dive into building a secure file upload pipeline in Flask, covering extension whitelisting, memory-efficient size checks, path traversal prevention, and security headers.

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