Burak Kucuktopal

Burak Kucuktopal

Math, physics, computer science. Eight internships in three years.

I studied three fields and squeezed eight internships in alongside them, from chip makers like NXP and ASML to a startup. I am good at hard problems, and I am good at explaining them. That is what I offer here: coaching for interviews, engineering for hire, and tutoring in maths and science.

See what I offer

Services

Three ways to work with me.

Pick the one that fits you. Each starts with a short call, on me.

01

Interview coaching

Walk into the interview ready.

For students and engineers facing technical interviews at strong companies.

  • I passed Google's technical interviews for a summer internship, so I know the bar firsthand.
  • We practise the real thing: algorithms, data structures, and system design, out loud, under time.
  • You get blunt feedback on where you are losing points, and a plan to fix it.
02

Freelance engineering

The work that has to be right.

For teams that need backend, AI, or tricky systems work done well.

  • I have built in production at NXP, ASML, and a startup: backends, AI tooling, and security-critical code.
  • Comfortable across Python, TypeScript, C++, and .NET, with the tests and pipelines to keep it stable.
  • You get a clear scope up front and code you can still maintain after I am gone.
03

Maths and science tutoring

When it finally clicks.

For high school and university students in maths, physics, and statistics.

  • I have tutored more than 20 students, from exam panic to university courses.
  • I studied maths and physics myself and finished top of my class, so the basics are second nature.
  • I explain things until they make sense, not until I have said them once.

Proof

Proof, not adjectives.

A few things behind the three services. The full history lives on my portfolio.

Experience

  1. NXP Semiconductors

    AI research intern, master's thesis

    Sep 2025 to present

    My thesis, with NXP. It lets a small device use AI on private data without ever revealing that data, by running the model on encryption it cannot read.

    • Four separate pieces of this had been built before, but never together. I designed and built one framework that runs them as a single pipeline, and tested it on four real neural networks.
    • It beats the standard library on every cost that matters to the device, with server keys up to 7.6 times smaller and uploads 6 to 42 times smaller.
    • Part of it predicts the result's accuracy ahead of time, 6 to 13 times faster than running the real thing, so you can tune a setup without waiting hours for it.
    Encrypted AIFramework designC++
    ckks-deploy
  2. ASML

    Formal verification intern

    Nov 2024 to Apr 2025

    Using maths to prove software is correct, on the machines that print the world's computer chips.

    • Tested the approach against a codebase of over five million lines to see if it could scale.
    • Presented the results to more than 100 engineers deciding whether to adopt it.
    Formal verificationC++Concurrency
  3. Macadamia (YC W25)

    AI engineer intern

    Nov 2025 to Jan 2026

    Tools that let AI assistants like Claude do real engineering work, not just chat.

    • Built three of these tools that let agents carry out multi-step tasks on a codebase.
    • Made them 40 percent cheaper to run by feeding each agent only the context it actually needs.
    MCPAgentsNeo4j
  4. Punch Powertrain

    AI engineer intern

    Jan 2026 to Mar 2026

    An AI system that writes the tests for car engine software, a job people usually do by hand.

    • Covered more than 95 percent of the logic across 200 plus engine control modules.
    • Built it as a team of six AI agents kept apart on purpose, so none of them could cheat the test.
    Multi-agentTest generationSimulink

Selected projects

  1. Codebase Time Machine

    Personal project, published

    2026

    A tool that tells you why a piece of code exists, by tracing it back through its history to the discussion that led to it.

    • Built and released it myself on two marketplaces, where anyone can install it today.
    • It plugs into AI coding assistants and gives them 32 ways to dig through a project's history.
    Developer toolsPublishedPython
    codebase-time-machine
  2. ProtossPAKEBench

    Research project, paper in progress

    May 2025 to present

    Measuring how fast a new way of proving passwords is, against the current standard, across four languages.

    • Built it from scratch in C, C++, Rust, and Python to compare them fairly.
    • Came out 20 percent faster than the method it competes with.
    CryptographyRustBenchmarking
    ProtossPAKEBench
  3. AquaSeal

    First place, WAIB Summit Hackathon

    Nov 2025

    A tool that hides an invisible signature in a file, so you can prove you made it even after it is copied.

    • Won first place in a 24-hour contest against more than 80 people in the room.
    • The signature survives being compressed, resized, or converted, and is recorded so ownership can be checked later.
    Web3SteganographyFastAPI
    AquaSeal
See the full work history

Background

Where the range comes from.

Burak Kucuktopal

I started in maths and physics, added computer science, and took eight internships while I studied. They were not all in one area. I have written cryptography research, proved software correct at a chip maker, built AI tooling at a startup, and shipped plain backend code. The point is the range. Most people pick one of these and stay there. I can move between them and still keep the thread.

Education

  • Dual M.Sc. Computer Science and Applied Mathematics

    Eindhoven University of Technology, 2024 to 2026

    Computer Science cum laude (9.0/10), Applied Mathematics 8.2/10. 190 ECTS in two years against a three year nominal duration. Joint thesis with NXP graded 9.5/10.

  • Dual B.Sc. Mathematics and Physics

    Hasselt University, 2021 to 2024

    Summa cum laude with felicitations of the jury. Best bachelor's thesis award.

Honors

  • Passed Google's technical interviews for a summer SWE internship
  • First place, WAIB Summit Web3 and AI Hackathon
  • Dual master's completed in two years, computer science cum laude
  • Summa cum laude with felicitations of the jury (bachelor's)
  • Limburg Chess Champion