AI Agent Developer

Rafe
Symonds

Building autonomous AI systems that do real work.
MSE student in CSE at the University of Michigan.

GitHub LinkedIn rsymonds[at]umich.edu
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+ users 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 coming 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 (GSI) 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 — 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.

MSE CSE University of Michigan
3 Internships TechSmith · Schwab · Microsoft
GSI EECS 281 & 291 (co-developed)
24/7 Agent Fleet Running
Projects
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. 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.

5 Agent Types 24/7 Autonomous Model Routing Circuit Breaking Semantic Memory
TypeScript SQLite OpenClaw Claude Codex
paw-engineering.com → GitHub
Flagship

Lobs

Always-On Personal AI Agent

Not a chatbot — an autonomous agent that runs continuously. Manages the PAW workforce, creates and triages tasks, handles communications across Discord, sets reminders, runs scheduled health checks, and proactively identifies work. Persistent semantic memory, 30-minute heartbeats, and a real-time web dashboard (Nexus) for full visibility into the agent fleet.

Semantic Memory 30-Min Heartbeats Multi-Platform Nexus Dashboard Proactive
OpenClaw TypeScript Claude Opus React Qdrant
lobslab.com →
Nexus Dashboard

Flock

Social Media Startup · Co-Founder & Lead Engineer

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

Swift FastAPI SQLAlchemy WebSockets OpenAI
Drawn Together gameplay

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. 10+ hand-crafted levels.

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

Game Dev Capstone Co-op
Play on itch.io →
Land of the Mage Lords

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+ users across 115 countries. Rated Very Positive (90%). Solo developer — design, code, UI, marketing, release.

Unity C# Steam
View on Steam →