Daniel Cheng

CS Honors @ Pitt 27’ | Incoming SWE Intern @ CapitalOne | Prev. SWE Intern @ PNC

Exton, Pennsylvania, United States

About

Hello! My name is Daniel Cheng, and I am a student at the University of Pittsburgh pursuing a major in Computer Science and Minors in Business and Music. This summer, I will be working for CapitalOne through the Technology Internship Program. I previously worked as a Software Engineering Intern at PNC Bank on the Payments Transformation team. I am highly interested in WebDev and have experience with Next.js and Tailwind. Beyond academia, I have a deep love for music. For over 12 years, I have been playing violin and piano, and I love to sing, compose, write, and produce. In my free time, I love to cook, draw, do digital design, box, and play golf.

Experience

  • Summer Intern at Capital One
    May 2026 - Present · 2 mos

  • Executive Director - SteelHacks at Pitt CSC (Computer Science Club)
    Jan 2025 - Sep 2025 · 9 mos

    Managed team of 30+ people to plan SteelHacks 2025 and raised $50,000+ to fund Pitt’s largest hackathon to date Negotiated with 10+ companies like Google, Amazon, and PNC, delivering highest funding round in event history Recruited over 1000 students from 92 universities to apply for SteelHacks 2025, resulting in the highest attendance record of any hackathon at Pitt and 100+ project submissions at the event

  • Technology Intern at PNC
    May 2025 - Aug 2025 · 4 mos

    Built Java REST API app with Spring Boot and MongoDB to send payment status over Kafka topics for 1M+ users Led a team of 4 to architect and implement a connector app, improving data transfer reliability between Java payment apps and legacy mainframe systems Diagnosed and resolved critical defects across 7 PNC payment apps, including fixing a faulty validation process that blocked payment completion Created secure Kafka endpoints within payment simulator application to prevent users behind the PNC firewall from initiating unauthorized payments without security keys

  • Research Assistant at STIW Lab (Dr. Aakash Gautam)
    Mar 2024 - Jul 2025 · 1 yr 5 mos

    Led research with Dr. Aakash Gautam to explore disparities in K–12 data literacy and propose curriculum solutions Designed interactive learning plans with No Code AI, resulting in improved engagement in data literacy modules Co-authored study analyzing data from 30+ middle school students, presented findings to 2,000+ researchers at NCUR 2025 to promote equitable tech education in underserved districts

  • Research Assistant at Surreality Lab
    Jan 2025 - Jun 2025 · 6 mos

    Developing solutions in the medical space with cutting-edge spatial computing, AI, and robotics Currently working on an AR application to map patient data to a virtual interface using Swift and C#