Jason Yi, 19
Jason Yi: Engineering Real-World Leverage and Empowering the Next Generation of Builders
Jason Yi was initially drawn to the precise logic of software design. “I liked how logical everything felt. You write code, and it does exactly what you tell it to do,” Jason recounts. “But I fell in love with it when I started building real systems. [...] It made coding stop feeling like homework, and actually become leverage." Now, Jason approaches software engineering as a force multiplier for real-world impact.
Driven by a desire to create immediate public value, Jason stepped into the hacker community at the SF10x Hackathon, an event that permanently altered his path as a developer and innovator. Jason’s team built VoiceReach - an AI-driven platform designed to streamline civic outreach. They won the Lovable.dev x OutsideLands sponsor track, a remarkable achievement in itself for their first hackathon but this journey was just beginning, Jason worked to deploy VoiceReach with local non-profits before handing it off to the City of San Francisco’s Emerging Technologies Team. The team’s work led to an invitation to showcase the project on the main stage at OpenAI DevDay, where Jason presented alongside city leadership in front of over 2,000 developers. “Hackathons compressed years of learning into months,” Jason reflects. “They gave me proof that age doesn’t matter. If you ship something useful, doors open.”
That momentum fueled continuous exploration across major builder spaces, including CalHacks and the Midnight Hackathon. As Jason’s technical accomplishments grew, his focus expanded toward lifting up the developers around him. During TreeHacks, while constructing Prereq - a live lecture copilot that turns lectures into personalized, ever-evolving knowledge graphs - he noticed neighboring teams struggling with WebSocket scaling and transcription lag. In the true spirit of the hacker community, Jason stepped in to help. "We’d just solved a similar issue,” he recounts. “So we pulled up chairs and whiteboarded it out together. [...] By 2am, three different teams had refactored their real-time pipelines. None of us were competing in the same track. It didn’t matter." For Jason, true success in the hacker community isn’t just about placing on a leaderboard - it’s about ensuring the entire room levels up together.
This commitment to multiplying community impact defined his time as a fellow in his Major League Hacking (MLH) Fellowship. “I was surrounded by insanely talented builders from around the world,” Jason recalls. “What I realized early on was that many of them were brilliant technically but nervous about presenting. So I started running informal demo run-throughs before showcase days.” Acting as a mock judge, he prompted fellows with challenging questions and timed their deliveries, transforming complex technical ideas into compelling stories. The results spoke for themselves as cohort members delivered standout presentations. “Seeing that confidence shift was better than any personal win.”
On campus at UC Berkeley, Jason serves as a key contributor across Generative AI at Berkeley, AI Entrepreneurs at Berkeley, and UpSync Technology Consulting. Bringing his multiplier mindset to every community he joins, Jason proves that true engineering leverage lies not just in writing powerful software, but in using that momentum to empower everyone building alongside him. “What makes me stand out isn’t just the projects I’ve built. It’s that I care about raising the level of the room.”
Quick Facts
Jason Yi, 19
Jason Yi: Engineering Real-World Leverage and Empowering the Next Generation of Builders
Jason Yi was initially drawn to the precise logic of software design. “I liked how logical everything felt. You write code, and it does exactly what you tell it to do,” Jason recounts. “But I fell in love with it when I started building real systems. [...] It made coding stop feeling like homework, and actually become leverage." Now, Jason approaches software engineering as a force multiplier for real-world impact.
Driven by a desire to create immediate public value, Jason stepped into the hacker community at the SF10x Hackathon, an event that permanently altered his path as a developer and innovator. Jason’s team built VoiceReach - an AI-driven platform designed to streamline civic outreach. They won the Lovable.dev x OutsideLands sponsor track, a remarkable achievement in itself for their first hackathon but this journey was just beginning, Jason worked to deploy VoiceReach with local non-profits before handing it off to the City of San Francisco’s Emerging Technologies Team. The team’s work led to an invitation to showcase the project on the main stage at OpenAI DevDay, where Jason presented alongside city leadership in front of over 2,000 developers. “Hackathons compressed years of learning into months,” Jason reflects. “They gave me proof that age doesn’t matter. If you ship something useful, doors open.”
That momentum fueled continuous exploration across major builder spaces, including CalHacks and the Midnight Hackathon. As Jason’s technical accomplishments grew, his focus expanded toward lifting up the developers around him. During TreeHacks, while constructing Prereq - a live lecture copilot that turns lectures into personalized, ever-evolving knowledge graphs - he noticed neighboring teams struggling with WebSocket scaling and transcription lag. In the true spirit of the hacker community, Jason stepped in to help. "We’d just solved a similar issue,” he recounts. “So we pulled up chairs and whiteboarded it out together. [...] By 2am, three different teams had refactored their real-time pipelines. None of us were competing in the same track. It didn’t matter." For Jason, true success in the hacker community isn’t just about placing on a leaderboard - it’s about ensuring the entire room levels up together.
This commitment to multiplying community impact defined his time as a fellow in his Major League Hacking (MLH) Fellowship. “I was surrounded by insanely talented builders from around the world,” Jason recalls. “What I realized early on was that many of them were brilliant technically but nervous about presenting. So I started running informal demo run-throughs before showcase days.” Acting as a mock judge, he prompted fellows with challenging questions and timed their deliveries, transforming complex technical ideas into compelling stories. The results spoke for themselves as cohort members delivered standout presentations. “Seeing that confidence shift was better than any personal win.”
On campus at UC Berkeley, Jason serves as a key contributor across Generative AI at Berkeley, AI Entrepreneurs at Berkeley, and UpSync Technology Consulting. Bringing his multiplier mindset to every community he joins, Jason proves that true engineering leverage lies not just in writing powerful software, but in using that momentum to empower everyone building alongside him. “What makes me stand out isn’t just the projects I’ve built. It’s that I care about raising the level of the room.”
