About

My name is Michael Dacanay, and I'm honored for your visit to my website. At North Carolina State University, I major in Computer Science and minor in Statistics and Business Entrepreneurship. In my free time, I try to make an effort and expand my skills, whether it be the latest interesting Cloud/AI/ML course on Coursera, or brushing up on my Chinese/Spanish fluency. I'm passionate about meeting like-minded people, from technology to entrepreneurship to public speaking.

Curious & Diligent

  • Phone: +1 919 218 8294
  • City: Raleigh, NC
  • Graduation: Dec 2023 (undergrad), May 2024 (masters)
  • Degree: Computer Science BS
  • Book I'm reading now: Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg
  • Exercise of choice: Swimming (freestyle)
  • Email: mzdacana@ncsu.edu

I am actively applying for internships for the summer of 2023. I am looking for roles in software engineering, cloud infrastructure, and applied machine learning. I am the current Finance/Operations/Sponsorships director for Hack_NCState, NC State University's premier and largest hackathon. If you are representing a company and interested in sponsoring Hack_NCState, please send me an email at: mzdacana@ncsu.edu! It would be greatly appreciated!

Besides the hackathon at NC State, I am passionate about participating in hackathons, particularly in-person ones. Sadly, COVID-19 disrupted the second and third years of my college experience, but I'm trying to make the best this senior year and next year (when I'll be a masters student). So far, I have been to HackHarvard, HackDuke, HackNC, and NC State's Make-a-thon and Datathon. I've been fortunate to win 3rd prize Solving Inequality category at HackDuke, 1st prize Sustainability NCSU Make-a-thon, Most Insightful at NCSU Datathon, and finalist at cup stacking at HackHarvard :). I have been so blessed to meet so many wonderful people, teammates and mentors.

My past three internships have been at Fidelity Investments, the first two being remote and the third (summer 2022) hybrid/in person at their location in the RTP/Durham. I've been able to experience the work at 3 different business units/teams, including backend/systems, frontend/UI/UX, and automation pipelines for Fidelity's cloud transition.

Prior to that, I've been a Code Coach/Instructor at theCoderSchool in Raleigh. I taught fundamentals of computer science/coding using Scratch, JavaScript, and Python, usually 1 or 2 students in an hour-long session.

I am a Caldwell Fellow, one of ~30 fellows selected in a rigorous selection process focused on servant leadership. During my sophomore year, I was part of a team that led a project to build maps using ArcGIS to support policy to increase allocation of funding to building more affordable housing in NC, which can be seen here.

For the latest, see my blog here.