About
Michael Kurilko
Passionate about cutting-edge tech, deep research, and taking things apart just to figure out exactly how they work.
I spent last summer on IBM's z/OS Test Services team building developer tooling in the form of CLIs to bridge outdated processes. Outside of that recently I've conducted research, been running a small software company, and ship apps on my own.
Experience
Where I’ve worked and studied
May – Aug 2026
Poughkeepsie, NY · On-site
Backend Developer Intern · IBM
Four months on the z/OS Test Services infrastructure team. I took the initiative on two products, both validated in production environments.
- Mainframe batch job developer tooling and AI integration platform. Co-developed a production-grade tool that changes how engineers interact with z/OS batch infrastructure, validated across multiple production environments.
- z/OS control block metadata modernization platform. Co-developed a CLI and Python library, with one other intern, replacing a fragmented multi-tool compiler pipeline for the foundational data structures of a major enterprise operating system. A schema-validated JSON interchange format acts as the single source of truth, giving deterministic round-trip conversion between assembly, systems programming language, and C header representations, on or off the mainframe.
Ongoing
Founder · Mythron LLC
My own software company, for mobile products and the utilities I want to exist. I do all of it: architecture, state management, backend APIs, and App Store releases. LucidAI is the first thing to ship under it.
Undergraduate
Computer Science (Honors), Economics minor · Marist College
Honors coursework, a thesis benchmarking post-quantum cryptography for real migrations, and a record linkage paper that took first place in AI/ML at the Mid-Hudson Valley Tech Meet.
Background
The longer version
What I actually do
I am an honors computer science student at Marist with an economics minor, and most of my real experience is in data aggragation, AI integration, and pythonic development. At IBM that meant z/OS: batch job tooling and a metadata platform that took a pipeline held together by four different compilers and replaced it with one validated format. Away from that I run Mythron LLC, where I build and ship mobile apps end to end, and I keep a couple of headless Linux boxes running because I would rather own the whole stack than rent it.
How I got here
I have been taking things apart since I was a kid, and Minecraft is where that turned into programming. I have modded it for years, digging through Java, Fabric, and Forge internals to change game mechanics and squeeze more performance out of servers. It is still the fastest place I know to test an idea about game loops or low-level code, and it is the reason I was comfortable reading someone else's codebase long before anyone paid me to.
Research
Three papers so far. One compares Transformer, gradient-boosted, and Fellegi-Sunter models for deciding whether two records describe the same person; the composite protocol I outlined beat all three individually and took first in AI/ML at the Mid-Hudson Valley Tech Meet. One is a trust-flow framework for proving one account per person without a central authority. The third is my honors thesis, benchmarking what post-quantum cryptography actually costs to deploy rather than arguing about which primitive is best.
Painting and photography
I paint (amateurly), mostly oil (havn't uploaded most of my more typical works), mostly landscapes. It is the one thing I do where there is no undo, which is a useful counterweight to a job with version control. The photography started while I was studying abroad in Florence and never stopped; I shoot architecture and street scenes on a Nikon Z 30, and those photos usually end up as inspiration for whatever I am painting next.
Writing
I write dystopian, fantasy, coming-of-age and speculative fiction. I love expressing patterns I see in the world, philosphies, and moral standpoints as commentary via abstracted symbolism.
Toolkit
What I work with
Languages
- Python
- TypeScript
- Java
- C++
- C
- SQL
- Lua
Systems & platforms
- z/OS mainframe infrastructure
- Assembly & C header formats
- Headless Linux administration
- Distributed systems
- REST API design
Tooling & data
- CLI design
- Python libraries
- Schema-validated JSON interchange
- Compiler & build pipelines
- Benchmarking
Product & research
- React & React Native / Expo
- Record linkage
- Post-quantum cryptography
- Applied ML
- Technical writing
Questions
Frequently asked
What did you actually build at IBM?
Two things, both on the z/OS Test Services infrastructure team. The first is a developer tool for working with mainframe batch jobs in a modernized unix fashion, with an AI integration layer, now validated across multiple production environments. The second replaced a fragmented multi-tool compiler pipeline for z/OS control blocks with a single CLI and Python library, using a schema-validated JSON format as the source of truth so you get deterministic round-trip conversion between assembly, systems programming language, and C header representations.
Why mainframes?
Because that is where the interesting constraints are. z/OS runs systems that cannot go down and cannot be rewritten, so improving anything means understanding decades of decisions before you touch a line. The tooling around it is also genuinely behind, which means small changes have outsized effects on the people using it every day.
What is Mythron LLC?
My own software company. It is where I put mobile products and the utilities I want to exist, and I handle all of it: architecture, state management, backend APIs, and getting things through App Store review. LucidAI is the first release under it.
How do painting and writing connect to engineering?
All three involve ingenuity, creativity, and iterative execution. A software project needs to be brainstormed and developed; fiction works require intense world building and thought; a painting is an iterative build on an initial creative vision. They train the same instinct from different directions.
What are you looking for?
Backend and AI/ML work, especially anything involving developer tooling, systems or products in need of active brainstorming and development, or research that has to survive contact with production. Email is the fastest way to start that conversation.