César Matos
Creative technologist · Immersive environments for communities
I build places people can step into: walk-in VR worlds at a NASA-legacy science center, the software my student senate runs on, and clean-energy research with high-schoolers, and I lead the people who use them.
Education
Framingham State University · B.S. Business Information Technology, Minor in Computer Science
May 2026Experience
Program Facilitator & CAVE Developer · Christa McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning
Dec 2023 – Present- Build immersive Unreal Engine 5 environments for the Center's three-wall VR CAVE (nDisplay, Cesium), including a to-scale net-zero Shoppers World model with ~9,000 hand-placed elements, premiered for the Massachusetts Secretary of Education and Senate President at Mass STEM Week 2025.
- Created a reusable CAVE toolkit (data-driven walkable navigation, location-triggered pop-ups, walk/fly/drive starter scenes) with docs and tutorial videos so staff can build their own scenes.
- Built Cave Slides, a browser slideshow studio that syncs both CAVE PCs, uses a phone as the remote and launches Unreal scenes onto the walls.
- Now developing a geothermal drilling training simulator in the CAVE for hands-on procedure practice.
Research Mentor → Internship Manager · Perspectives of Earth (PETM), McAuliffe Center
Summers 2024 – 2026- Led clean-energy research with 50+ MetroWest high-schoolers across three summers, twice funded by NASA Massachusetts Space Grant.
- Designed an Arduino heat-monitoring system students built themselves (2024); turned the team's net-zero Shoppers World plan into a CAVE model (2025).
- Managed nine interns designing an all-electric campus library; led the geothermal team (48 boreholes vs. 94 baseline) and co-authored the final report (2026).
Planning Intern · City of Framingham · Mayor's Summer Internship Program, inaugural cohort
Jun 2023 – May 2024- Analyzed U.S. Census data for the Framingham Housing Plan, supporting $120,000 in Community Preservation funding for rental assistance.
- Led a parking study and presented the data to consultants, resulting in a 15% increase in parking for a key project.
Energy Efficiency Program Assistant · MassEnergize
2024- Mass Save community education and trilingual Solar Para Todos outreach materials as a Solar Ambassador.
Projects
SGA Sync · Founder, sole designer and developer · sgasync.com
Jul 2025 – Present- Multi-tenant governance app (React 19, TypeScript, Firebase, Gemini) that runs Framingham State's student senate: live quorum, roll-call votes, auto-captured minutes and full legislation history.
- Designed Ask Sync, AI search that answers from the senate's own bylaws and minutes and quotes its sources (RAG); held launch until vendor data-use and FERPA wording were reviewed.
The Buddie System · Discord social world · JavaScript, Claude API, Firebase
2026- Draw a "bud," meet it through a guard-railed AI chat, and play live physics games with friends; built in about five days using Claude Code.
Leadership
Student Government Association2023 – 2026
- Senator → Treasurer pro tem → VP → President; managed a $419K student activity budget.
- Grew the senate from 6 to 32 members and spring turnout from 36 to 276 voters.
Orientation Leader2023 – 2026
- Welcomed 640 new students in one season with a team cut from 18 to 7.
Election Official · Lawrence, MA
2020 – 2024- Upheld election procedures, processed 1,800 ballots and assisted with translation.
Honors
- President's Public Impact Award, FSU2026
- Inclusive Excellence Award, FSU2026
- Kathleen Comitsky Roberts Award2026
- NASA Mass. Space Grant Award (×2)2024, 25
- ECHO Award for Equity & Anti-Racism2025
- BPA, 2nd in state, VB/C# programming2019
Skills
Immersive: Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints, UMG, nDisplay, Sequencer), Cesium, WebGL/GLSL
Software: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Python, Java, C#, Firebase, Tailwind, Vercel
AI: Gemini & Claude APIs, cited RAG, guardrails, Claude Code
Also: Arduino, Census/GIS data, Excel · Spanish