Software Engineer & AI Researcher

Walter
Briones

CS sophomore at Clemson University with an AI minor. I build full-stack apps and research vision-language models 😎.

Hackathon Attempts
1st CUhackit Win
Yippyyyyyy
3+ Projects Shipped
Walter Briones
📍 Clemson, SC
01

About Me

I'm a sophomore studying Computer Science with an AI minor at Clemson University. I work as an undergraduate researcher at Watt AI, Clemson's AI research lab, where I study how vision-language models can analyze video advertisements through a multimodal pipeline.

Outside the lab, I'm Treasurer of Clemson's first ColorStack chapter, a hackathon competitor, and a solo builder. I care about removing friction — in code, in products, and in the way people interact with technology.

The basics

School Clemson University
Major CS + AI Minor
Year Sophomore
Location Clemson, SC
Status Open to Internships ✦

Tech I work with

Python JavaScript React React Native Node.js FastAPI AWS PostgreSQL DynamoDB Claude API Hugging Face Git
02

Projects

001 🏆 CUhackit Winner

Reeliable

Chrome extension that fact-checks health and fitness content on Instagram in real time. Built with FFmpeg, Whisper, and Claude Haiku — won South Carolina's largest hackathon.

Chrome Extension FFmpeg Whisper Claude API
View on GitHub
002 📱 Full Stack App

Food Tracker

Full-stack nutrition tracking app with JWT auth, a React frontend, FastAPI backend, and a PostgreSQL database. Built to learn the full auth flow end to end.

React FastAPI PostgreSQL JWT
View on GitHub
003 🌟 Live Site

Lux & Shine

Fully deployed business website for a professional cleaning company. Designed and built to give a small business a polished, credible web presence.

Web Design Deployed
Visit Site
03

Experience

Jan 2026 — Present Clemson University

Undergraduate Researcher

Watt AI Research Lab — Studying how vision-language models (Qwen 2 via Hugging Face) can analyze video advertisements through a multimodal pipeline using Groq Whisper for audio transcription. Building end-to-end systems that combine visual and language understanding.

VLMs Hugging Face Groq Whisper Multimodal AI Python
Jan 2026 — Present Clemson University

Treasurer, ColorStack

Founding treasurer of Clemson's first ColorStack chapter — a community focused on increasing the success of Black and Latinx CS students. Managing chapter finances, supporting events, and helping build a network that didn't exist here before.

Leadership Finance Community Building
Aug 2025 — Dec 2025 Clemson School of Computing

Teaching Assistant — Computer Science I

Supported students learning foundational CS concepts, held office hours, and assisted with grading and lab sessions for introductory programming coursework.

Teaching C Mentorship
Mar 2024 — Present River House

Server Assistant

Supporting front-of-house operations at a full-service restaurant in Bluffton, SC. Developed strong communication, teamwork, and composure under pressure in a fast-paced environment.

Customer Service Teamwork Communication
Mar 2026 CUhackit

Hackathon Winner

Won South Carolina's largest hackathon on my fourth attempt with Realiable — a Chrome extension that detects misinformation in fitness content on Instagram. Iterated through failure across three prior events to finally ship something that landed.

Chrome Extension Claude API Whisper FFmpeg

say hello ✦

Let's build
something

I'm actively looking for summer internships in software engineering. If you're working on something interesting, let's connect.