Vedant Saran
Enthusiastic high school senior with a strong focus on computer science, linguistics, and emerging technologies in NLP and LLMs. USACO Platinum achiever and Wikipedia administrator passionate about computational problem-solving.
About Me
I grew up as a kid who actually enjoyed vocabulary bees and reading. What started as just plain old memorization evolved into a love for language itself and how it actually works and forms on a fundamental level. I wanted to figure out how it could be applied to solve problems in real life, which led me to computational linguistics.
Around middle school, I discovered competitive programming through USACO and found myself drawn to the puzzle-solving aspect of algorithms. It reminded me of the linguistics puzzles I loved so much, and as someone who had never loved math, learning the deeper aspects of programming beyond math opened my eyes to a new world. Breaking down complex problems is satisfying to me, whether it's optimizing a trading strategy or figuring out how to detect Wikipedia vandalism.
These days, I spend my time tutoring other students in competitive programming, researching more about natural language processing (NLP), and contributing to Wikipedia (with over 12,000 edits and counting). I'm especially interested in how NLP technologies and machine learning can solve problems in real life, not just theoretical ones.
In my free time, I'm usually working on projects that combine my interests. I'm also always ready to chat about a good book, sports (I love baseball & basketball), or politics :)
Education
Lexington High School
2022 – Present
SAT: 1580/1600 | GPA: 3.8/4.0
AP Courses: Computer Science A (A), Biology (A), World History (A), US History (A), Chemistry (A)
Experience
Founder & Lead Quant Dev
Lexington Quantitative Research Group | 2024 – Present
Founded and lead a paper trading and quantitative analysis group focused on financial markets and algorithmic trading strategies.
→ Visit lexqrg.vercel.appARFlow Research Assistant
Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Summer 2025
Worked with Professor Tian Guo at WPI to enhance ARFlow technology by implementing RGB support, integrating FFmpeg compression capabilities, and conducting comprehensive testing of these technologies. Utilized Python, FFmpeg, Computer Vision, and Testing Frameworks to improve video processing and compression efficiency.
USACO Tutor
2023 – Present
Tutor 10+ students in USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) preparation, guiding them from Bronze to Platinum divisions. Provide personalized instruction in competitive programming, algorithms, and problem-solving strategies.
Wikipedia Administrator
2023 – Present
Contributed 10,000+ edits across multiple articles, yielding millions of page views. Developed automated tools to streamline editor experience and reduce vandalism while collaborating with a global community.
Linguistics Club Leader
2023 – Present
Facilitated weekly discussions on linguistics and computational linguistics. Organized problem-solving sessions and participated in national-level linguistics competitions.
→ Visit Club WebsiteComputer Science Club Organizer
2023 – Present
Planned and led weekly sessions on data structures, algorithms, and programming best practices. Mentored club members in coding competitions and developed practice problems to enhance problem-solving abilities.
Lexplorations Volunteer
Summer 2023
Assisted children with educational activities, helping to create a supportive learning atmosphere. Maintained a clean, organized environment and collaborated with staff for smooth program operations.
Projects
Wikipedia Antivandalism Tool
2024 – Present
Built a JavaScript tool that enabled hundreds of users to detect and revert thousands of vandalism edits, protecting millions of Wikipedia readers from harmful content.
Wikipedia Categorization Tool
2024 – Present
Developed a simple yet powerful categorization tool using C++ and JavaScript, allowing editors to organize and add categories to thousands of Wikipedia articles efficiently.
Ranked Choice Voting Explainer
2025
Created a beautiful, interactive website to explain ranked choice voting concepts and used it in the classroom to help teach voting systems. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to provide an engaging educational experience for students learning about democratic processes.
→ Visit rankedchoicevoting.vercel.appCivic Engagement Course Development
2024
Helped design and develop a weeklong educational course on voting rights and processes for high school students, promoting civic awareness and enabling many to engage with democratic processes for the first time.
Awards & Honors
USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) – Platinum Division
Achieved Platinum among ~400 participants at this level out of approximately 15,000 total competitors, with only 17 achieving this in this cycle (2024)
Demonstrated advanced programming skills and strong proficiency in high-level algorithms and data structures in a highly competitive environment.
→ View ResultsMIT Informatics Tournament
35th Worldwide, 5th Divisional
Achieved 35th place out of 500+ teams and thousands of competitors worldwide, including 5th in the division. Demonstrated advanced algorithmic programming skills.
North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO)
Invitational Qualifier (2025)
Among the top hundred linguistics competitors in the United States & Canada. Demonstrated advanced computational linguistics knowledge.
Testimonials
"Vedant helped me reach USACO Platinum through clear explanations and structured problem-solving approaches. His teaching style made complex algorithms easy to understand, and his dedication to my progress was key to my success."
"Vedant's work with the Quantitative Research Group has been impressive. He effectively combines financial concepts with practical implementation, and his leadership has helped our team develop better trading strategies."
"Thanks to Vedant's leadership in the Linguistics Club, I've developed a strong interest in computational linguistics. He explains complex concepts clearly and has been a great mentor in my learning journey."