ZXZhan Xiong Chin
Singapore, Singapore · operatorZhan Xiong Chin (also written Chin Zhan Xiong) is a Singapore-based software engineer and founder. He represented Singapore at the International Olympiad in Informatics in 2008, 2010 and 2011, winning a bronze and multiple silver medals, and later trained the Singapore IOI team. He studied Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania (Bachelors + Masters, 2014-2018). His career spans software engineering roles at Nuro (ML Infrastructure, 2018-2021) and Airplane (Engineer #3, 2021-2023), and he co-founded the AI enrollment startup Havana as CTO (2023-2026), which was acquired by Cognition. He is currently a Member of Technical Staff at Cognition in Singapore.
- Current role: Member of Technical Staff at Cognition (Singapore), from 2026, following Cognition's acquisition of Havana; Cognition established its APAC headquarters in Singapore.2026
- Co-founded Havana (2023-2026) as CTO; Havana built an AI agent helping school enrollment teams converse with prospective students across channels, and was acquired by Cognition.2026
- Two Sigma Software Engineering Intern (summer 2016), on the Trading Engineering - Execution Engineering team in New York; Two Sigma is a quantitative investment manager. Role evidence is from the LinkedIn-profile index enrichment, not yet read on an independent primary page.2016
- Joined Airplane as Engineer #3 (2021-2023), a startup backed by Benchmark that was acquired by Airtable after its Series B.2021
- Software Engineer at Nuro (2018-2021), Mountain View, on the Machine Learning Infrastructure team of the self-driving-car company.2018
- Quant employment verification: CONFIRMED - see the dedicated note.
- Named inventor on Nuro patent filings including a 'Remote assistance system for autonomous vehicle' and 'Way partitioning for a system-level cache' (patent 11620243), alongside Albert Meixner and Young Jean Han.
- IOI contestant for Singapore across 2008-2011: bronze (2008), and silver medals in 2010 and 2011 (3x silver per his own listing).2011
- Earned a Bachelors + Masters in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania (2014-2018); previously Raffles Institution (2006-2011).2018
- Software Engineering Intern at Addepar (2017), Infrastructure team, San Francisco Bay Area; Addepar is a wealth-management software platform, not a quant trading firm.2017
- Trained Singapore's IOI team in C++ and algorithms in 2014; the team went on to win 2 gold and 1 silver medal.2014
- Received a University of Pennsylvania SEAS undergraduate award in 2018.2018
Havana builds an AI agent that helps enrollment teams in schools speak with prospective students. Acquired by Cognition.
Backed by Benchmark. Joined as Engineer #3, acquired by Airtable after Series B.
Machine Learning Infrastructure team at a self-driving car company.
Infrastructure team
Trading Engineering - Execution Engineering
Trained Singapore’s International Olympiad team in C++ programming and algorithms Team eventually obtained 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal
Competition record
Singapore · IOI