Ryan Ross
Computer engineering
University of Utah
Open to research work

Here is why I should be on your team.

No one assigned this work, and no one checked it. All of it is still running.

In March I could barely code. Everything on this page exists because something kept going wrong. Plans were dying quietly on a computer I was not sitting at, so a scheduler now runs at 7 AM without me and texts my phone. A course subscription cost more than I had, so I built fifty-two of my own. Calculus I is failed on algebra rather than on calculus, so I wrote the workbook that drills it. I use all three every day.

1,408automated tests
61phases closed
1,239commits
129decisions recorded

Every figure is counted from the repository by a script rather than typed by hand, and links to what it counts. See the evidence.

The main system

Nothing is allowed to disappear quietly.

Every scheduler I tried would let something vanish without saying so. A block slides one day, then another, and the goal is quietly dead. Cockpit inverts that: class and sleep cannot be touched, every tradeoff is stated out loud before it is paid, and work that was never logged is reported as missed. It fires at 7 AM with no session open.

Python · FastAPI · React · Google Calendar API · local LLM inference

Read the case study   See the evidence

Why this page exists

Five months ago I was bored, I had twenty dollars in my bank account, and I spent all of it on a Claude Code subscription. I could barely code in March. Everything on this page was built since.

I taught myself the Python fundamentals in a month working through 30 Days of Python, then the Java fundamentals in two weeks at eight hours a day. What stuck was not a language. It was that the tool which tells you fastest whether you were wrong is the one worth using.

The whole story →

The Cogito hub: spaced-repetition review queue, operator level, and course matrix 02

Cogito

Live · public

Fifty-two spaced-repetition courses, built because the subscription I wanted was too expensive. I open it instead of scrolling.

JavaScript · HTML · CSS · no framework

52courses
32stylesheet copies found
0frameworks

Read the case studyOpen Cogito

A page from the workbook: the picture-first explanation of a calculus idea 03

The Language of Calculus

On sale · public

A 185-page workbook drilling the algebra and trigonometry underneath Calculus I. I worked every problem myself with no notes and rewrote the lessons that did not survive.

Python · PowerShell · automated PDF pipeline

185pages
39lessons
$5one-time

Read the case studySee the book

On sale for $5 at store.ryanross.org, with a free five-lesson preview and no account to make.

How I work

Every project has one sentence that decides whether it is done, and I do not get to edit that sentence.

Written before the code exists. An acceptance test you may rewrite after seeing the result is not a test, it is a description of whatever you built.

01

The acceptance sentence is fixed first

02

Proved against written scenarios, not vibes

03

Decisions and mistakes are both written down

04

Deterministic code decides; the model only words it

All four are checkable: the test run, the phase table, the scenario suites and one decision in full are on the evidence page.

The record

I scrapped this project twice before it worked. Neither attempt is on the list below.

I built the first while I was still learning the tool. It had no organization, it got messy, and I scrapped it. The second I let run on its own to see whether it would organize itself. It advanced faster than its own foundations, and things broke because the infrastructure they needed did not exist yet. The third is this one, and the difference is that it is not allowed to get ahead of itself. Thirteen things are listed below. Twelve are in use, and the one that is not says so.

RefThe daily loopState
ENGDaily enginedeterministic Python; the model only words itrunning
CALCalendar integrationwrites only what it ownsrunning
SLPSlip watchflags assigned work that was never loggedrunning
BOTPhone notificationsa Telegram bot, after the obvious channel failedrunning
KnowledgeState
WIKISource-grounded wikievery claim carries its source361 pages
AUDCitation auditingsamples whether the source supports the claimshipped
INGIngest pipelineYouTube, PDFs and articles in; linked pages outshipped
ToolingState
SIMSimulation harnessexpectations written before the run15 suites
PITCockpit UIFastAPI and React; where a change gets approvedrunning
PUBWorkbook build pipelineworking course in, sellable book outlive
CoursesState
CALCThe Language of Calculus39 lessons, at store.ryanross.orgon sale
COGCogito52 courses, at learncogito.comlive
PENGPrompt engineeringbuilt from a book's own structurein progress

I built all of these for myself. The workbook is my own course, Cogito is what I open instead of scrolling, and the scheduler runs my day. None of it is a demo.

Contact

ryanross949@gmail.com

The fastest way to reach me. If you run a lab, a compute center, or a team where an undergraduate can be useful early, say what the problem is and I will tell you honestly whether I can help.

ResumeGitHubLinkedInEvidence