Sam Praneis

Chicago, Illinois | sampraneis@gmail.com | github.com/samp5 | linkedin/sam-praneis

Education

University of Illinois at Chicago - Honors Collegeexpected May 2026
B.S. Computer Science, B.A. Chemistry
Relevant Coursework:

• Operating System Design and Implementation
• Systems Performance and Concurrent Computing
• Software Engineering I and II
• Parallel and Distributed Computing
• Computer Algorithms
• Intro to Networking
• Principles of Concurrent Programming

Skills

Technical: Rust Java, C, C++, SQL, Golang, Python, Git, Bash Scripting, Linux, Agile, Scrum, Jira
Interests: Networking, Operating-Systems, Open-source software, Developer Tooling

Experience

System Administrator - High Performance ComputingAugust 2025 – Janjary 2026
Electronics Visualization Laboratory

• Provisioned an HPC cluster (NVIDIA Thor) for the SAGE project, using PXE boot for automated bare-metal deployment
• Developed node configuration scripts and infrastructure-as-code (Ansible/bash) for reproducible provisioning
• Administered job scheduling via Slurm, including queue configuration, resource partitioning, and fair-share policies

Undergraduate Research Assistant - Machine-LearningFebruary 2024 – September 2025
University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Computer Science

• Designed and implemented a spiking neural network in C++
• Utilized PyBind11 to provide interoperation with Python, enabling easy integration with existing machine learning workflows
• Implemented custom serialization for efficient inter-process communication based on shared memory
• Developed remote procedure calls to support distributed deployment

Projects

EscapeRoom - github

• Developed a pixel-art escape room puzzle game using LibGdx
• Implemented a level editor for players to create escape rooms with default or user-defined items.
• Engineered composable property and condition systems for users to express complex behavior in their custom levels
• Designed an online Marketplace enabling players to download and play and community levels.
  

Connect-Four - github

• Collaboratively developed an online connect four application with JavaFX for CS 342: Software Design
• Awarded the number one project in the class, exempting our team from the final exam.
• Implemented various features including a friend system, leader board, AI opponent, profile customization, etc.
  

KeepTUI - github

• Created a terminal application in Rust for tracking to-do lists, inspired by GoogleKeep, supporting note tags and search
• Engineered a customizable terminal user interface enabling user-defined themes, layout, and key-binds
• Implemented a custom modal editor to emulate Vim-like key binds

Open Source Contributions

• Hyper: Rust Crate providing a low-level HTTP implementation
• Questionary: Python CLI Library

Extra-Curricular

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) - September 2024 – Present

• Organized meetings focused on teaching and practicing Rust
• Collaboratively developed a cross-platform shell in Rust with partial POSIX support

Awards

• American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Physical Chemistry2023
  
• Seccondino Family Scholarship, University of Illinois at Chicago2021 – Present
  
• Dean’s List at the University of Illinois at Chicago2021 – Present
  
• Honors College Scholarship, University of Illinois at Chicago2021 – Present