Rafe Symonds

MSE CSE · University of Michigan

Rafe
Symonds

I build autonomous AI systems that do real work: agent fleets that program, research, write, and review code around the clock.

01

About

I got into programming by shipping something real. I built and published a game on Steam while still in high school: 14,000 lines of C#, 50,000+ players across 115 countries. That set the trajectory for everything that followed.

Since then I've interned at TechSmith (C++ licensing for Snagit and Camtasia) and Charles Schwab (real-time distributed systems for fractional trading: Java, Spring Boot, Kafka). This summer I'm interning at Microsoft on Azure hyperscale networking.

Now I'm an MSE student in CSE at the University of Michigan, where I'm a Graduate Student Instructor for EECS 281 (Data Structures & Algorithms) and co-developed EECS 291, a new Python-based applied DSA course, collaborating directly with the professor on curriculum and assignments.

These days my focus is on AI systems, specifically what it looks like when agents stop being toys and start doing real work. I'm building a multi-agent orchestration platform that runs 24/7, handling programming, research, writing, and code review autonomously.

Education
MSE CSE, University of Michigan
Internships
TechSmith · Charles Schwab · Microsoft
Teaching
GSI EECS 281 · co-dev EECS 291 & 498-016
First ship
Steam game · 50,000+ players · 115 countries
Agent fleet
Running 24/7 on a Mac Mini
02

Projects

PAW Engineering logo

P-01 · Flagship

PAW Engineering

Personal AI Workforce platform

Multi-agent orchestration where specialized autonomous agents (programmer, researcher, writer, code reviewer, architect) work in parallel on real tasks. An always-on orchestrator handles task queues, model routing across Claude/GPT/Codex, circuit breaking, failure recovery, and deduplication. Runs 24/7 on a Mac Mini.

Specs5 agent types · 24/7 autonomous · model routing · circuit breaking · semantic memory

StackTypeScript · SQLite · OpenClaw · Claude · Codex

paw-engineering.com ↗ GitHub ↗

Lobs logo

P-02 · Flagship

Lobs

Always-on personal AI agent

Not a chatbot. An autonomous agent that runs continuously: it manages the PAW workforce, creates and triages tasks, handles communications across Discord, sets reminders, runs scheduled health checks, and finds new work on its own. Persistent semantic memory, 30-minute heartbeats, and a real-time web dashboard (Nexus) for full visibility into the agent fleet.

Nexus dashboard showing live agent fleet status
Fig. 1: Nexus, the real-time fleet dashboard

Specssemantic memory · 30-min heartbeats · multi-platform · Nexus dashboard · self-directed

StackOpenClaw · TypeScript · Claude Opus · React · Qdrant

lobslab.com ↗

P-03

Flock

Social media startup · Co-founder & lead engineer

Full-stack social app with native iOS (Swift) and a strongly-typed Python backend. Real-time chat over WebSockets, location-based events, AI integration via the OpenAI API, and a Discord plugin for multi-platform engagement. Led a 3-person dev team across multiple codebases.

StackSwift · FastAPI · SQLAlchemy · WebSockets · OpenAI

P-04

Drawn Together, Pulled Apart

Couch co-op puzzle game · Capstone

Two-player co-op where you play as living magnets. Use magnetic forces to solve physics puzzles across 10+ hand-crafted levels.

with Alex Smart, Jack Kruger, Pat Attasaranya, Chawit Vongsuly

Playfree on itch.io

Drawn Together gameplay
P-05

Land of the Mage Lords

Published on Steam · High school

Where it all started. 14,000+ lines of C# in Unity, published on Steam to 50,000+ players across 115 countries and rated Very Positive (90%). Solo developer: design, code, UI, marketing, release.

StackUnity · C# · Steam

Land of the Mage Lords

Fig. 2: Live Steam listing

03

Teaching

T-02

EECS 281: Data Structures & Algorithms

Graduate Student Instructor

Teaching one of Michigan's core CS courses: discussion sections, office hours, and project support.

T-03

EECS 291: Applied Data Structures in Python

Co-developer

Co-developed a new Python-based applied DSA course, working directly with the professor on curriculum and assignments.