Tanaka Makoni | Portfolio

Experience

The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Davidson College, Davidson, NC

Student Consultant • May 2025 - July 2025

Built automated payout and transaction logging with n8n/Zapier across Forest Systems, Bill.com, and Excel.
Evaluated AI website builders and presented recommendations for the Hurt Hub redesign.
Partnered with Jan Black Marketing & Photography to redesign a client site improving navigation, content protection, bookings, and engagement by ~30%.

Truist Immersive Learning Experience

Virtual Externship

Extern • October 2025

Completed an immersive externship exploring how Truist uses technology, data, and design to build client centered financial products.
Collaborated with a student team to analyze a real business case and present recommendations to Truist professionals.
Networked with software engineers and product leaders to learn about early career opportunities in fintech.

Algorithms for Learning in Physics Applications (ALPhA) Lab

Davidson, NC

Undergraduate Researcher • May 2025 - July 2025

Explored latent space representations in TPCNet to capture key features of 3D AT-TPC point clouds.
Applied ML techniques including linear/logistic regression, SVMs, K-means, and t-SNE.

Residence Life Office

Davidson College, Davidson, NC

Resident Advisor • August 2025 - Present

Foster an inclusive, supportive residential community by mentoring first-year students through academic, social, and personal transitions.
Plan and run programs that build connection, promote well-being, and strengthen campus engagement while upholding community standards.

GrantFinder

Davidson, NC

GigHub Consultant • January 2025 – February 2025

Conducted in-person interviews with campus departments and offices that distribute student grants and gathered qualitative data on available funding opportunities.
Reviewed departmental reports and student survey feedback on past grant distributions to identify trends and categorize grants for the AI knowledge base.
Organized, documented, and structured findings to strengthen the AI’s ability to match students with relevant grants.
Collaborated with team members to ensure collected data aligned with overarching project goals and improved system accuracy.

Projects

Premier League City

A 3D Premier League data experience that turns the season table into a cinematic cityscape of live club towers.

Visit Site View Code

Crowdsource

A game built to explore systems, strategy, and emergent behavior.

Play on itch.io View Repo

HCI Design Portfolio

Coming soon: design case studies

A collection of UI/UX and HCI design work. Visit to explore case studies, prototypes, and process notes.

View Portfolio

Born Sinner

Digital audio story telling experience using tone.js o explore the complete build.

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Education

Davidson College

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Class of 2028)

Relevant Coursework: Data Structures, Algorithms, Software Design, Linear Algebra, Discrete Structures, Game Development, Human Computer Interaction

Honors & Awards: Belk Scholarship Recipient

Harare International School

International Baccalaureate Diploma (Class of 2024)

Relevant Coursework: Mathematics Analysis & Approaches HL, Physics HL, Economics HL, Chemistry SL, Language and Literature SL, Spanish SL

Honors & Awards: Renaissance Award; HIS Merit Scholarship Recipient

hi, i'm Tanaka!