# Tyler Menezes Tags: #person **Early stage startup leader with an interest in education.** [email protected] (206) 739-4741 https://github.com/tylermenezes ## Bio Tyler Menezes is the CEO of [CodeDay,](https://www.codeday.org/) where he has helped more than 70,000 students use technology and creativity to make meaningful changes to their world. Born in Canada but raised in the Pacific Northwest, he briefly attended the University of Washington before dropping out to start a Y Combinator and venture-backed social video startup in 2011. This, combined with stints working in machine learning at Microsoft Research and as a programmer at several Seattle startups, led to his work finding data-driven solutions to build a more talented, creative, and innovative technology workforce since 2014. Tyler's work in education has led to his recognition as one of Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30" in 2019, Forbes "Under 30 Innovators You Need to Know", Tech&Learning Magazine's "Most Inspiring in EdTech", and others. He has authored many peer-reviewed publications on CS education, served as Principal Investigator on National Science Foundation awards for STEM education, and has spoken about technical mentorship at leading software engineering and education conferences around the world. You can learn more about Tyler on [the mostly-accurate Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Menezes). ## Skills **Management:** Product Leadership, Strategy, Flat Organizations **Software Development:** Microservices, Distributed Systems, CI/CD **Languages:** Typescript, Javascript, Python, HTML/CSS **Libraries:** React, GraphQL, TypeGraphQL, Prisma ## Work Experience ### CodeDay **Executive Director**, 2013-Present - Led expansion from a local volunteer-run non-profit to a team of 9 employees and ~900 yearly volunteers, who built curriculum-integrated partnerships with hundreds of K-12 districts and community colleges to deliver experiential learning to 75,000+ students. Collaborate with board comprising former C-suite leaders from 50B+ public companies, startup founders, government contractors, and alumni. - Led product management to increase program outcomes 350% reaching highest in industry and 70+ NPS with students and educators, while overseeing engineering effort to develop in-house technology to scale using modern technology stack. - Developed a sustainable funding stream including private fee-for-service, foundation grants, research grants, and state budgets. - Built a research program leading to over a dozen CS education publications in-house and with external collaborators from R1 universities. ### Framebase **Co-Founder & Engineering Leader**, 2012-2013 - Founded a Y Combinator backed startup which simplified the way developers worked with video in web and mobile applications, and raised a ~\$1M seed round from Initialized Capital (Garry Tan, Alexis Ohanian, Harj Taggar), Pear VC (Pejman Nozad), Streamlined Ventures, and others. - Led team to ship cloud transcoding backend and web/iOS libraries, and built developer marketing strategy which drove thousands of signups. ### eNotes.com **Software Engineer**, 2012 - Full-stack developer focused on PHP, Javascript/Jquery, and HTML/CSS. Launched quiz taking, creation, and scoring. ### Microsoft Research **Machine Learning & Applied Statistics Intern**, 2010 - Developed Python ML engine to break CAPTCHAs, and created web platform for user research studies, resulting in published research to improve platform security; built prototype foldable phone using surplus Zune OLEDs and FPGAs. ### Atigeo **Machine Learning Intern**, 2009 - Improved backend tooling for AI recommendation platform used by major brands such as Nordstrom; built early version of algorithmic Twitter timeline using our tool. ## Education ### Y Combinator **Alumnus**, 2012 ### University of Washington **Computer Science (Dropped Out)**, 2010-2011 ## Volunteering ### Ignite Seattle **Board Member and Producer**, 2019-Present "Enlighten us, but make it quick." 5 minute talk series focused on science and storytelling, started in 2006 by Bre Pettis and Brady Forrest. In addition to my service on the board, I produce the event, coordinating speaker training workshops, call for proposals, speaker training, promotion, budgeting, and day-of logistics for the ~1,000 attendees at each of 3x annual events. ### Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) **Expo Hall Leader**, 2015-Present Coordinate logistics and help thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees have a fun time at the largest video game/table top expositions in North America. ### Wintergatan **Collaboration Software Developer, Marble Machine X**, 2020-2021 Developed open-source software to manage collaboration from Wintergatan community members contributing to open-source musical instrument for popular band with 3M YouTube subscribers. ### Garfield High School (Seattle Public Schools) **Teacher, Projects in Computer Science**, 2015-2021 Taught first period Projects in Computer Science at Garfield High School through Microsoft TEALS program. ### Rainier Beach High School (Seattle Public Schools) **Teacher, Intro to Computer Science**, 2014 Taught first period Intro CS at Rainier Beach High School through Microsoft TEALS program. ## Publications ### [The Multifaceted Nature of Mentoring in OSS: Strategies, Qualities, and Ideal Outcomes](http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.05600) **CHASE**, 2025-04-27 Feng et al. #### Citation Zixuan Feng, Igor Steinmacher, Marco Gerosa, Tyler Menezes, Alexander Serebrenik, Reed Milewicz, and Anita Sarma. 2025. The Multifaceted Nature of Mentoring in OSS: Strategies, Qualities, and Ideal Outcomes. In Proceedings of the the 2025 IEEE/ACM 18th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.05600 ### [AI-Grading Standup Updates to Improve Project-Based Learning Outcomes](https://doi.org/10.1145/3649217.3653541) **ITiCSE**, 2024-07-08 Menezes and Egherman *Recommended* #### Citation Tyler Menezes and Lola Egherman. 2024. AI-Grading Standup Updates to Improve Project-Based Learning Outcomes. In Proceedings of the 29th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1 (ITiCSE '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524763 ### [Industry Mentoring and Internship Experiences at a Community College Baccalaureate Program in Software Development](https://doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630878) **SIGCSE**, 2024-03-20 Han et al. #### Citation Kendrick Hang, Tyler Schrock, Tina Ostrander, Roseann Berg, Tyler Menezes, and Kevin Wang. 2024. Industry Mentoring and Internship Experiences at a Community College Baccalaureate Program in Software Development. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630878 ### [A Scalable Approach to Support Computer Science Students in Their Learning and Preparation as Software Engineers](https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343322) **FIE**, 2023-10-18 Narayanan et al. #### Citation Sathya Narayanan, Leslie Maxwell, Mariana Anita Garcia, Utsab Saha, and Tyler Menezes. 2023. A Scalable Approach to Support Computer Science Students in Their Learning and Preparation as Software Engineers. In Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343322 ### [What Skills Do CS Grads Need? Colleges And Employers Disagree.](https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576369) **SIGCSE**, 2023-03-15 Menezes #### Citation Tyler Menezes. 2023. What Skills Do CS Grads Need? Colleges And Employers Disagree. In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2 (SIGCSE 2023). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1425. https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576369 ### [How Gender, Ethnicity, and Public Presentation Shape Coding Perseverance after Hackathons](https://doi.org/10.1145/3564721.3564727) **Koli Calling**, 2022-11-17 Gan et al. *Recommended* #### Citation Emilia Gan, Tyler Menezes, and Benjamin Mako Hill. 2022. How Gender, Ethnicity, and Public Presentation Shape Coding Perseverance after Hackathons. In Proceedings of the 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 10, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3564721.3564727 ### [Open-Source Internships With Industry Mentors](https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524763) **ITiCSE**, 2022-07-01 Menezes et al. *Recommended* #### Citation Tyler Menezes, Alexander Parra, and Mingjie Jiang. 2022. Open-Source Internships With Industry Mentors. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1 (ITiCSE '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 365–371. https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524763 ### [Closing The Gap Between Classrooms and Industry With Open-Source Internships](https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3439576) **SIGCSE**, 2021-03-03 Parra et al. #### Citation Alexander Parra, Mingjie Jiang, and Tyler Menezes. 2021. Closing The Gap Between Classrooms and Industry With Open-Source Internships. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1250. https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3439576 ### [A Few Simple Guidelines Related to Image CAPTCHAs](https://tyler.vc/papers/0001892.pdf) **ICASSP**, 2011-05-27 Menezes and Kirvoski #### Citation Tyler Menezes and Darko Kirvoski. 2011. A Few Simple Guidelines Related to Image CAPTCHAs. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, NY, USA. ## Press Coverage ### [How Do Leaders Help Ensure Accountability Within An Organization?](https://executivedirector.io/qa/how-do-leaders-help-ensure-accountability-within-an-organization/) **Executive Director**, 2024-07-03 ### [Why is Diversity and Inclusion Important in Fintech?](https://thefintechtimes.com/why-is-diversity-and-inclusion-important-in-fintech/) **The Fintech Times**, 2024-06-11 ### [Virtual internships: Tech companies and students adjust as pandemic forces remote experience](https://www.geekwire.com/2020/virtual-summer-seattle-pandemic-upends-tech-intern-experience-coveted-roles-go-remote/) **GeekWire**, 2020-06-04 ### [Inventing Impact: Decisive Moments of Under 30 Visionaries](https://www.forbes.com/sites/themacallan/2019/11/06/inventing-impactdecisive-moments-of-under-30-vision/) **Forbes**, 2019-11-06 *Recommended* ### [Best of Canada: The Forbes Under 30 Innovators You Need to Know](https://www.forbes.com/sites/marleycoyne/2019/10/10/best-of-canada-these-are-the-forbes-under-30-innovators-you-need-to-know/) **Forbes**, 2019-10-10 ### [Game Changers: Tech & Learning’s Most Inspiring in EdTech in 2019](https://www.techlearning.com/resources/game-changers-tech-and-learnings-most-inspiring-in-edtech-in-2019) **Tech & Learning**, 2019-06-24 *Recommended* ### [30 Under 30 2019](https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2019/education/#3c7074473e24) **Forbes**, 2018-11-11 *Recommended* ### [Bridging the tech divide by getting youth the digital skills they need](https://diginomica.com/sapphire-now-2018-bridging-the-tech-divide-by-getting-youth-the-digital-skills-they-need) **diginomica**, 2018-06-06 ### [After startup stint, CodeDay’s Tyler Menezes returns to focus on kids and coding](https://www.geekwire.com/2016/tyler-menezes/) **Geekwire**, 2016-11-11 ### [30 Under 30 2015](https://425business.com/30-under-30-2015/) **425 Business**, 2015-05-29 ## Public Work ### [GraphCTF](https://github.com/graphctf/graphctf) Modern GraphQL backend for high-performance, highly scalable CTF challenges built in Typescript and Prisma. ### [Inventory](https://github.com/cqpllc/inventory) Inventory system which integrates with Alien RFID readers for automatic tracking of assets, powered by GraphQL, Websockets, and Typescript. ### [RFID Credential Provider](https://github.com/tylermenezes/Rfid-Credential-Provider) C# and C++ project allowing users to log into Windows XP through 8 using an RFID reader. ## Talks & Interviews ### [Nurturing the Next Generation of Software Developers Through Open Source Contributions](https://highimpact-tec.org/) **HI-TEC 2025**, 2025-07-23 ### [Mentorship as an Onramp to Open Source Contributions](https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/22x) **ScALE 22x**, 2025-03-06 ### [Equitable Outcomes: Bridging the Gap Between College and Career for CCB Students](https://www.accbd.org/conference-2025/) **Community College Baccalaureate Association**, 2025-02-05 ### Non-Profit Business Models **University of Washington**, 2024-10-30 ### [Encouraging Open Source Contributors](https://www.ocxconf.org/event/2024/websitePage:26bc9d91-446a-49e1-9f08-8fcc4680073e?session=40ec1bd3-1d47-4e5f-9a49-812deca88b5f&shareLink=true) **Eclipse Foundation OCX**, 2024-10-24 ### [Open source mentorship programs: what’s in it for you as a mentor, maintainer, or mentee?]() **FOSSY**, 2024-08-01 ### [Nurturing the Next Generation of Developers](http://toorcamp.org/) **Toorcamp**, 2024-06-26 ### [(Better) Mentoring: How to nurture the next generation of Pythonistas](https://us.pycon.org/2024/) **PyCon**, 2024-05-18 ### [Recruiting Overlooked Open-Source Contributors: Building OSS Partnerships with Community Colleges](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP7FcXiQbLo) **Linux Foundation Open Source Summit**, 2024-04-16 ### [Mentorship as an Onramp to Open Source Panel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Zz5VgstdM) **Linux Foundation Open Source Summit**, 2024-04-16 ### [Nurturing the Next Generation of Open Source Contributors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixyt3Nsi6Gw) **ScALE 21x**, 2024-03-16 *Recommended* ### [Building an Industry Mentoring and Internship Experience at a Community College Baccalaureate Program in Information Technology and Computer Science](https://www.accbd.org/ccba-2024-featured-speakers-and-general-sessions/) **Community College Baccalaureate Association**, 2024-02-16 ### [Mentorship as an Onramp to Open Source](https://ucospo23.sched.com/event/1RHXo/track-2-panel-mentorship-as-an-onramp-to-open-source) **UC Santa Cruz**, 2023-09-28 ### Helping CS undergrads get jobs **WACSE**, 2023-05-05 ### [Getting Students Into Open Source Software](https://events.hubilo.com/pycon-us-2023/session/194172) **PyCon**, 2023-04-22 ### [Industry Mentoring and Capstones for IT Students](https://www.accbd.org/2023-conference/) **Community College Baccalaureate Association**, 2023-02-14 ### [From Hack to Hire: How Industry is Using Hackathons to Drive Student Interest in Big Data and Recruit Talent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlBqj5un4xY) **HPCC Systems Conference**, 2022-10-10 ### [Reshaping Education: Sparking the Curiosity and Passion to Learn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt1onWOCYBw) **TEDx**, 2022-05-07 *Recommended* ### Teaching Over 50,000 Students To Program **SpotClub**, 2021-09-20 ### My entrepreneurial journey making coding more accessible **MIT LaunchX**, 2021-07-27 ### [How To Be An Effective Mentor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjm1ao25rw) **Innovate Pasadena**, 2021-04-15 ### [Taking The Plunge When You're On The Wrong Path](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB_W6HX_RlA) **Pursuing Greatness**, 2021-03-04 ### [Virtual CodeDay and the Big Data Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASeoOKYVmXw) **HPCC Systems Conference**, 2020-10-09 ### [My journey from a college dropout to raising 1M for my startup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAEepQUYPg0) **SEC**, 2020-09-25 ### [An Introduction to Writing and Deploying Software in the Cloud](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-DrN4r3ME) **CodeDay Labs**, 2020-07-30 ### How to Inspire High School Students to Study CS **Google**, 2020-01-31 ### [Social Engineering Tech Education](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEVrdrKDa1o) **ToorCamp**, 2018-07-01 ### The Why and How of Informal Computer Science Education **US State Department IVLP**, 2017-08-10 ### Entrepreneurial Undergrad and Transitioning After Graduation **University of Washington Foster School of Business**, 2017-01-17 ### How (Not To) Fail at Startups **Western Washington University**, 2014-10-20 ### Helping Students Make the Jump to Building Tech Projects **Geekwire Radio**, 2012-03-31 ### What The Internet Can Teach Us About Everything, and Why **TEDx Redmond**, 2012-01-04 ## Research Grants ### (Submitted) Streamlining the IT Pipeline: College in High School; Work in College **National Science Foundation**, 2025-2028 Dr. Lindsey Handley, Dr. Stephen Foster, Kevin Wang, Tyler Menezes. ### (Submitted) CUE-P: Building Pathways to Persistence: An incentive based model for engaging early-college CS students through flexibility, community, and holistic learning **National Science Foundation**, 2025-2028 Dr. Sathya Narayanan, Leslie A Maxwell, Tyler Menezes, and Dr. Sonia M Arteaga. ### Software Development Technical Interview Prep (6150-7624-40) **Washington Employment Security Department**, 2025-2026 Tyler Menezes and Kevin Wang. ### [Enabling Access to Artificial Intelligence Careers for Overlooked and Underserved Community College Computer Science Students Using Micro-Internships and Industry Mentorships (ITE-2347311)](https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2347311) **National Science Foundation**, 2024-2027 Tyler Menezes and Kevin Wang. ### CodeDay Career Connect (6150-7622-70) **Washington Employment Security Department**, 2023-2024 Tyler Menezes and Lola Egherman. ## Affiliations and Professional Organizations ### Association for Computing Machinery **Member**, 2017-Present Section membership: SIGCSE, SIGGRAPH, SIGCHI ### Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers **Member**, 2011-Present Section membership: Education society. ### American Educational Research Association **Member**, 2024-Present Section membership: Postsecondary division. ### Free and Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) Mentoring **Founding Member**, 2023-Present ### STEMM Opportunity Alliance, AAAS **Member**, 2024-Present ### Eclipse Foundation **Associate Member**, 2024-Present Working group membership: Open Regulatory Compliance, Eclipse IDE ### Linux Foundation **Associate Member**, 2024-Present ## Professional Service ### National Science Foundation, TIP, EDU, and SBIR **Review Panelist**, 2023-Present Review proposals for NSF grants in the Experiential Learning in the TIP, EDU directorates. ### ACM SIGCSE **Organizing Committee, Associate Program Chair, Session Chair, and Reviewer**, 2017-Present. ACM SIGCSE TS Organizing Committee - 2026-2027; Associate Program Chair, Reviewer Session Chair - 2017-Present. ACM ITiCSE Reviewer - 2022-Present. ACM SIGCSE Virtual Reviewer - 2024-Present. ### IEEE Frontiers in Education **Reviewer**, 2024-Present. ### AAAI **Reviewer**, 2024-Present