Tristan C. Grubbs

01

Opening.

A short note

I picked computer science because I wanted to learn the language of communication in the world of technology. Through the education received I have been able to build analytical surfaces and automation tools during my internship experiences. On top of this I have been equipped to solve problems and build solutions in my own life. However, my favorite part of learning how to build solutions has been the experiences where I sit with people diagnosing their problems and outlining a strategic approach.

02

Selected work.

Five projects

2026 i.

ScamShield — a device that intercepts phone scams in real time to protect older adults.

HooHacks 2026 · Team of three · Role: Product Manager

Our device listens to a phone call, transcribes it with Whisper, and scores the transcript through Gemini for scam patterns. On a positive signal, an LED activates, an SMS is sent to a family member, and a calm warning plays through a Google Nest speaker. Offline, the system uses keyword detection as a backup to ensure network loss does not silence alerts.

I led the team as PM: scoped the problem, divided work across two engineers and myself, and managed product requirements against a tight timeline. The hardest decisions were the features we agreed not to ship.

View on GitHub →

Ongoing ii.

AI Decoded — An AI newsletter covering a different topic each week.

Web platform · Founder & author · Ongoing

AI coverage is so oversaturated it can feel impossible to stay up-to-date. The reader I have in mind is someone in a non-technical field who just wants to stay knowledgeable about how the world and jobs around them are being affected by AI. I hope AI Decoded can provide that on a weekly basis.

Visit aidecodedbrief.com →

2026 iii.

Macro Map — a live globe modeling global commodity trade routes and supply chain risk.

Solo build · Live at macromapglobal.com

An interactive 3D globe that maps trade flows for oil, gas, grain, shipping, and eight other commodities. Chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and Suez Canal are monitored continuously and are color-coded by status: normal, stressed, or disrupted. Conflict events, storms, and earthquakes surface as map overlays so a single view tells you where trade pressure is.

Visit macromapglobal.com →

Also on file

2024 iv.

Game Library — a full-stack catalog for a fictional library.

Django + SQL with full CRUD, schema design, and the database that holds it all together. UVA coursework.

Takeaway

The first project where I got full-stack website creation experience.

2025
v.

Capstone Project: UVA Club Hub — a single ecosystem to meet needs currently being met by Instagram, Discord, and GroupMe.

React + Firebase directory and announcement layer for UVA campus life. Real-time search, join flows, and broadcast announcements. We built this to replace the scattered mix of Instagram, Discord, and GroupMe that clubs were using to reach members and keep them updated on club matters.

Takeaway

Stakeholders tend to explain how their process is struggling, but root cause analysis tells you why. The goal is to build for the why, not the symptoms.

2026 vi.

Career Conductor — a career navigation platform with AI woven into every aspect.

Users build a profile, set and track milestones, and receive a Living Document continuously updated by AI. A flexible notes system lets users define their own page structure. A chat interface connects to Claude Sonnet 4.6 with full user context injected so the model can answer questions about that exact user's situation.

Takeaway

AI is most useful when it has context, but that's also the hardest part to manage. Injecting the right information at the right time is when an AI system is at its best.

03

Background.

Naval Information Warfare Center · 2024 — present

Period	Role	What it produced	Result
Summer 2025 Engagement 01	Interactive Power BI dashboard for leadership. NIWC · Data Analysis	Consolidated eleven fragmented datasets into a single interactive dashboard for leadership. The visualizations were designed to surface data that was once scattered across multiple domains and built for the leadership making critical decisions.	11 → 1 Data sources consolidated across multiple domains
Summer 2024 Engagement 02	Power Apps automation, account-management workflow. NIWC · Process Automation	Identified a recurring manual process eating work hours and producing possible error, then scoped a solution and designed a Power Apps replacement built to scale across a large government organization. Designed, documented, and handed off.	7 accounts Designed & built for
Summer 2024 & 2025 Engagement 03	Documentation & testing, secure communications system. NIWC · Documentation & QA	Researched and identified relevant data points to support documentation of a communications system, with a focus on surfacing the information most useful to leadership making decisions under real operating conditions.	2 systems Tested & documented

04

Writing.

Two long-form, on file

Final Research Paper · 2026

First-Generation Participation in Professional Organizations at Higher Education Institutions: A Qualitative Research Study Using Social Capital and Bioecological Systems.

Argues that institutional opportunity structures, not individual choice, are the primary driver of inequity in first-generation students' access to professional and career-oriented organizations. Based on semi-structured interviews with first-generation UVA students, analyzed through Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory and Putnam's social capital framework. Finding: awareness shapes access, access shapes engagement, and the institutional exosystem controls all three.

15 pages, completed Read paper →

Applied AI Research · 2025

ESG and Public Sentiment Analysis for Predicting Short-Term Stock Movement.

FinBERT sentiment fed into Logistic Regression and XGBoost classifiers to test whether ESG signal in financial news can predict next-day stock movement. Findings: the approach is limited in predicting short-term movement but may be helpful in longer-term prediction.

Final project report Read paper →

The archive

Other writing: essays, course papers, and short pieces.

Browse the writing index →

The blog

Short-form notes on business, AI, technology, and the market.

Latest: Lego's record growth and adult audiences →

Welcome to My Portfolio.

Opening.

Selected work.

ScamShield — a device that intercepts phone scams in real time to protect older adults.

AI Decoded — An AI newsletter covering a different topic each week.

Macro Map — a live globe modeling global commodity trade routes and supply chain risk.

Game Library — a full-stack catalog for a fictional library.

Capstone Project: UVA Club Hub — a single ecosystem to meet needs currently being met by Instagram, Discord, and GroupMe.

Career Conductor — a career navigation platform with AI woven into every aspect.

Background.

Writing.

First-Generation Participation in Professional Organizations at Higher Education Institutions: A Qualitative Research Study Using Social Capital and Bioecological Systems.

ESG and Public Sentiment Analysis for Predicting Short-Term Stock Movement.

Feel free to reach out.