Reliable backend systems for APIs, auth, Postgres, and deploys that stay predictable in production.
I'm Samuel Mount, a Rutgers CS student who builds and runs backend systems. I care about clear contracts, steady releases, and small improvements that add up, like shaving CI time, tightening auth flows, and keeping data models consistent as features grow.
- 5person team; I led milestones alpha → v1.0
- −48%CI build time (Docker layer caching)
- 3releases, zero unplanned downtime
- 49IT staff across 11 lab locations
- 1,100+SN tickets resolved (VPN, Azure, MFA, M365, …)
- 80+consultants trained in RCA & customer service
Supervisor of the Year — OIT Busch & Cook/Douglass Labs, 2025.
I like backend work that keeps products stable and easy to evolve. I care about clear APIs, clean data models, and changes that are safe to ship.
At Change Now I build and maintain the backend for our capstone team. At Rutgers OIT I supervise lab operations and support, which keeps me sharp on triage, communication, and fixing the underlying issue.
I own the cross company integration work between Collab Lab and Agoro. I'm building an MCP server around Collab Lab's codeboard and whiteboard meeting space so Agoro and other LLM clients can interface through a clean, typed tool surface. I'm using fastmcp and keeping capabilities, permissions, and real time events explicit so the core product stays decoupled.
I've also integrated Claude MCP tools into my day to day workflow, including Chrome MCP for quick UI checks, debugging, and verification.
- Deploys you can repeat: CI gates, Docker layers, prod parity.
- Auth that fits the client: JWT + HTTP-only cookies where it matters.
- Postgres integrity: constraints and tests that catch drift early.
Projects
A mobile app that tracks workouts and turns logs into clear, visual progress.
- Cut CI build time 48% with Docker layer caching
- Zero unplanned downtime across 3 releases (domain + Nginx + HTTPS on EC2)
- CI gates: Playwright + Jest required before merge
- JWT + HTTP-only cookie dual-mode auth to support both API clients and browser-safe sessions
- OpenAPI/Swagger so contracts stay explicit — easier for teammates and for future AI/automation clients
- Postgres schema designed for referential integrity across users, exercises, and workout logs
Built a fastmcp-based integration that exposes CollabLab teaching surfaces as tools and endpoints for learning LLMs, starting with Agoro and designed to stay extensible for other clients.
- One integration surface for codespace, board, and avatar control instead of one-off hooks
- Extensible design so additional LLM clients can plug in without changing CollabLab internals
- Keep orchestration outside CollabLab and expose stable capabilities over an MCP tool layer so either side can evolve independently
- Favor explicit tools, permissions, and events so behavior stays auditable and safe in live sessions
A Java desktop app to manage a university vehicle fleet: reservations, trip history, and department cost reports.
- MVC separation kept business rules testable and the UI straightforward to iterate on
- Black-box test strategy across UI and model logic with JUnit
- Singleton pattern for shared state where it simplified coordination without duplicating logic
- Inheritance + polymorphism to reduce repeated business rules in the model layer
A lightweight dashboard that pulls live weather API data and compares AQI metrics across multiple cities.
- Dynamic reflow UI: 8 widgets reposition automatically as cities are added
- Color-mapped AQI (green → crimson) to make severity obvious at a glance
- UI layout prioritized clarity and quick comparisons over dense charts
- Kept dependencies minimal to ensure fast startup and easy sharing