Kai Yao
Software Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolKai Yao is a software engineer with nine years of experience building backend systems and intelligent applications, currently contributing at AWS. He has a strong background in real-time graphics and shader tooling—contributing to notable open-source projects like NVIDIA's Falcor and the Slang shader compiler—where he improved render graph automation and SPIR-V support. Previously he designed a recommendation system and WeChat Mini Program that boosted student learning efficiency by 37%, and earlier optimized data retrieval and digital library deployments. Comfortable across cloud services, graphics pipelines, and web/mobile stacks, he combines production engineering discipline with a research-rooted mindset from graduate studies in materials science.
9 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
San José State UniversityMaster of Science (M.S.), Materials Science, 3.64, Master of Science (M.S.), Materials Science, 3.64 at University of Florida
Github Skills (12)
spirv10
vulkan10
hlsl10
c-language10
glsl10
shader10
resource-management10
cprogramming-language10
api-design9
direct3d9
web-framework9
cuda4
Programming languages (1)
Github contributions (5)
NVIDIAGameWorks/Falcor
Jul 2018 - Aug 2021
Real-Time Rendering Framework
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:18 releases, 96 commits, 59 PRs in 3 years 1 month
Contributions summary:Kai contributed to the `nvidiagameworks/falcor` repository, a real-time rendering framework. Their commits focus on adding and modifying functionality within the render graph system. Specifically, they implemented a flag for automatically generated edges and modified iterating logic, also adding edge generation and resource management features. These changes enhance the framework's capabilities for automated resource allocation and dependency management within the rendering pipeline.
rendering-3d-graphicsrendering-enginewebglreal-time-renderingdirectx
shader-slang/slang
Jul 2017 - Oct 2021
Making it easier to work with shaders
Role in this project:Software Engineer
Software EngineerContributions:1 review, 8 commits, 4 PRs in 4 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Kai made significant contributions to the `slang` repository, which focuses on shader compilation. They refactored compile output to work with raw data and added support for SPIR-V output, including both disassembly and standard SPIR-V generation before disassembly. The user also modified the barrier API to accept multiple resources per call and added buffer barrier functionality. These changes indicate a focus on improving the shader compilation process and integrating with different graphics APIs.
cudavulkanshadersd3d12hlsl
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