Welcome

Hi, I am Michael Placzek.

Park Ridge, IL

I am an M.S. in Computer Science graduate building backend, full-stack, and systems projects. I focus on clear architecture, measurable performance, and practical delivery.

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  • Primary Stack
    • Go
    • Python
    • Java
    • C++
    • TypeScript
    • Vue.js
  • Performance Highlight Custom allocator benchmarked 3.5x faster than the Windows baseline
  • Recent Impact Helped improve Microsoft Security Score by over 300% during my internship

About

I like engineering work where correctness, performance, and maintainability matter.

Engineering Style

I prefer clear data models, small service boundaries, measurable behavior, and code that can be debugged by the next person who reads it.

Best Fit

  • Backend API development
  • Full-stack product work
  • Security-aware systems
  • Performance optimization

Current Focus

  • 01 Building XRayView as a desktop imaging workstation.
  • 02 Deepening Go, Vue, PostgreSQL, and Docker project work.
  • 03 Practicing systems performance through memory and benchmark projects.

Experience

Security and infrastructure work that sharpened my production instincts.

Information Technology Intern

Eli's Cheesecake Company - Chicago, IL

  • Increased Microsoft Secure Score by over 300% through targeted hardening and remediation efforts.
  • Diagnosed and resolved network and system issues across 20+ production systems, improving uptime and reliability.
  • Conducted security assessments and vulnerability analysis to strengthen infrastructure integrity.
  • Implemented access control improvements and supported system upgrades across hardware and software environments.

Education

  • DePaul University

    Master of Science in Computer Science

    Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity, minor in Computer Science

  • Oakton Community College

    Associate of Science

Certifications and Training

  • CompTIA Security+

    In progress

  • Boot.dev Backend Development Track

    In progress

Projects

Selected projects with the clearest engineering signal.

Go + Wails + HTMX/TypeScript

Current Project

XRayView

BMP bitewing X-ray workstation for viewing, processing, and analyzing images with grayscale filters, pseudocolor palettes, calibration-aware measurements, and compare mode.

  • Desktop workflow built with Go, Wails, HTMX, and TypeScript.
  • In-process Go backend handles BMP rendering, processing jobs, analysis overlays, and measurements.
  • BMP Imaging
  • Wails Desktop
  • Go Backend
View repository

C++ Systems

Custom Allocator

C++ allocator with explicit metadata, next-fit allocation, block splitting, and coalescing in a fixed heap. Benchmarked 3.5x faster than the Windows baseline allocator in x86 release builds.

  • Implemented allocation, free-list traversal, splitting, and coalescing logic.
  • Used benchmark results to compare allocator behavior against a platform baseline.
  • Heap Management
  • Next-Fit Allocation
  • Split / Coalesce
View repository

Go + Vue.js + PostgreSQL

SkillSwap

Full-stack skill-exchange platform with booking, messaging, and video lessons. Built Go services (Gin/GORM) and integrated Vue, PostgreSQL, and Docker.

  • Modeled a multi-role product with bookings, lessons, messaging, and persistence.
  • Connected a Vue frontend to a Go API and PostgreSQL-backed workflow.
  • Vue 3 + Vuex
  • Go + Gin API
  • PostgreSQL + Docker
View repository

Contact

Looking for a software engineer who can move between backend, systems, and product work?

Email is the best way to reach me. I am open to full-time software engineering roles.

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