Owen Tsao

SeattleLocal time   :   PM

Computer Engineering, University of Washington

Seattle, WA · Class of 2028

Founding Engineer, Clad (YC)

May – Oct 2026

Owen Tsao

A basketball hoop on a clifftop court at sunset, the Pacific behind it
Item 1 of 6: Clad Labs

Projects.

  1. 01Founding engineerMay – Oct 2026

    An AI-native support platform. As a founding engineer I built a lot of it, including Discord support, the AI drafting, the help center, and the company website.

  2. 02Track winner, DubHacks '26Oct 2026

    A project that lets a guest control a room they don't own by scanning a code and texting it. I designed the server and protocol behind it and tested it on real devices.

  3. 03Agent safety platformMay 2026 – present

    A project that sits between an AI coding agent and your computer and checks every action before it runs. I built it in Python to work with Cursor and Claude Code.

  4. 04Autonomous red teamSep 2026

    A project that attacks an AI support agent on purpose, finds where it breaks, and writes the rule to stop it. I built the whole thing myself, attacks to dashboard.

  5. 051st place, AISCHacksFeb 2026

    A project that recognizes who is typing from their keystroke rhythm instead of a password. I trained the typing model and built the check that flags a different typist.

  6. 06Menu bar appAug 2026 – present

    A menu bar app that puts everything you need in one place, from tasks and classes to your job search. I built it myself, including turning messy notes into a plan.

B-sides · four tracks

Hobbies.

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About

Hi there! I'm Owen, a computer engineering student at the University of Washington. I like building things that people find useful.

This past summer I worked as a founding engineer at an AI support startup, where I shipped features and heard directly from customers about what was and wasn't working. On campus, I've also written flight software for a student satellite team.

Lately I've been spending most of my free time researching AI agents. I built Sentinel, which checks what coding agents are about to do and blocks anything dangerous (trying to expand to multi-task agents soon), and Tenant, which lets a guest text a room and have an agent control its physical devices.

My hobbies include playing basketball, practicing guitar, and going on hikes. I love picking up new activities that challenge me, and I'm always looking for the next thing to try.