Thomas Bean

Software Engineer

About

Software Engineering student at Brigham Young University with a 4.0 GPA, specializing in automation, web development, and data processing. Currently leading development teams at the BYU Record Linking Lab, building scalable tools for genealogical research in collaboration with FamilySearch.

Education

Brigham Young University (BYU)

B.S. in Software Engineering (Honors Program)

GPA: 4.0 / 4.0 | Provo, UT

Member of the BYU Honors Program, pursuing graduation with honors through interdisciplinary research and scholarship.

Experience

Team Lead & Research Assistant

Record Linking Lab (RLL), BYU

Supervisor: Dr. Joe Price

  • Lead a team of developers building scalable automation tools for genealogical research
  • Developed Grail (grail.rll-dev.byu.edu) — a full-stack web platform streamlining record linkage analysis
  • Designed backend and automation workflows in Python, with supporting technologies in JavaScript, TypeScript, Terraform, Docker, HTML, and CSS
  • Collaborated with FamilySearch and academic researchers to improve data matching accuracy and efficiency
  • Mentored junior developers and managed project timelines

Technical Skills

Languages

Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL, HTML, CSS

Tools & Platforms

Docker, Terraform, Git, Linux, AWS

Focus Areas

Software Engineering, Automation, Web Development, Data Processing

Projects

Grail – Record Linking Lab Platform

  • Sole/primary developer of a research platform used by genealogical scholars
  • Implemented data pipelines, automation, and interactive web features
  • Full-stack development with Python backend and modern JavaScript frontend

FlexibleDate – Date Standardization Library

  • Python library for advanced date standardization and comparison
  • Parses potentially dirty date data into structured FlexibleDate objects
  • Implements scoring algorithms for date similarity matching
  • Published as open-source package for genealogical research applications

Leadership & Involvement

  • BYU Honors Program – Engaged in interdisciplinary research and scholarship
  • Team Lead, Record Linking Lab – Managed a development team and coordinated efforts with external stakeholders including FamilySearch