I graduated from Stanford University in 2013 with dual Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering and Architectural Design, and in 2015 with a Master’s in Structural Engineering. I was project manager of Stanford’s first-ever entry to the U.S. DOE’s 2013 Solar Decathlon. I’m Co-Founder of City Systems, a nonprofit consultancy, and program manager / lecturer at Stanford’s Future Bay Initiative. Previously, I taught at The Nueva School and worked on architecture and urban design under the name Cloud Arch Studio. I grew up in Arcadia (SoCal) but currently live in San Francisco.
Other interests:
- Book reviews on Goodreads
- Read my guide to Asimov
- Playlists on Spotify
- Film reviews on Letterboxd
- Photography on Flickr
Features:
- 5/20/20 – “SafeGraph Data Consortium Seminar – Leveraging Data To Support Local Government And NonProfit Partners In COVID-19 Response.” A presentation of work by my practicum course at Stanford.
- 8/21/19 – “Behavior Change Case Study: City Systems & Affordable Housing,” Meeting of the Minds. A discussion of my nonprofit work in East Palo Alto.
- 3/7/19 – “Explore Stanford Summer Institutes,” Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies. Some comments from me about my experience teaching high school students.
- 12/1/14 – “Re-engineering the Start.Home CORE for the Developing World with Derek Ouyang,” Stanford+Connects Seattle.
- 10/9/14 – “Thinking Outside the Bubble: Project-Based Learning in the 21st Century with Derek Ouyang,” Stanford+Connects NY.
- 9/4/14 – “Home Energy’s 30 under 30.”
- 6/20/13 – “The House That Teaches: Derek Ouyang at TEDxStanford.”
- 10/15/13 – “Derek Ouyang, home improver with a green goal,” LA Times.
Leave me anonymous questions/comments here.
Best albums, films, and books of the last few years:
Albums
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
| 1 | American Football – American Football (LP3) | Say Sue Me – When We Were Together | Big Thief – Capacity | Bon Iver – 22, A Million |
| 2 | The National – I Am Easy to Find | The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships | The National – Sleep Well Beast | Frank Ocean – Blonde |
| 3 | Caroline Polachek – Pang | Big Red Machine – Big Red Machine | The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding | Whitney – A Light Upon the Lake |
| 4 | Fruit Bats – Gold Past Life | Luluc – Sculptor | Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. | Lambchop – FLOTUS |
| 5 | Big Thief – U.F.O.F. | The Tallest Man On Earth – When The Bird Sees The Solid Ground | Rostam – Half-Light | Blood Orange – Freetown Sound |
| 6 | Clairo – Immunity | KIDS SEE GHOSTS – KIDS SEE GHOSTS | Jens Lekman – Life Will See You Now | Kanye West – The Life of Pablo |
| 7 | Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising | Rhye – Blood | SZA – Ctrl | Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam – I Had a Dream That You Were Mine |
| 8 | Hand Habits – placeholder | Trace Mountains – A Partner To Lean On | Real Estate – In Mind | Solange – A Seat At the Table |
| 9 | Stella Donnelly – Beware of the Dogs | Yo La Tengo – There’s A Riot Going On | Mac DeMarco – This Old Dog | Drake – Views |
| 10 | Bayonne – Drastic Measures | Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer | Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up | James Blake – The Colour in Anything |
Films
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
| 1 | Parasite | You Were Never Really Here | Get Out | Moonlight |
| 2 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Hereditary | Raw | Green Room |
| 3 | Knives Out | A Quiet Place | The Florida Project | The Handmaiden |
| 4 | 1917 | First Reformed | Dunkirk | Everybody Wants Some!! |
| 5 | Uncut Gems | Into the Spider-verse | Call Me By Your Name | Arrival |
| 6 | Marriage Story | Cold War | Wind River | La La Land |
| 7 | Little Women | Death of Stalin | Detroit | Manchester By the Sea |
| 8 | Peanut Butter Falcon | First Man | Lady Bird | Sing Street |
| 9 | Climax | The Favourite | Good Time | Hell or High Water |
| 10 | Avengers: Endgame | Avengers: Infinity War | Molly’s Game | Hunt for the Wilderpeople |
Books
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
| 1 | Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner | Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu (2004) | The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (2008) | Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996) |
| 2 | Exhalation by Ted Chiang | Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2017) | Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss (2017) | Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer |
| 3 | Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2015) | The Overstory by Richard Powers | Evicted by Matthew Desmond (2016) | Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862) |
| 4 | An American Summer by Alex Kotlowitz | Enlightenment Now: The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker | The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) | A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (2015) |
| 5 | The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells | The Book of Why by Judea Pearl | Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit (1984) | 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (2009) |
| 6 | Know My Name by Chanel Miller | Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck by Eliezer Yudkowsky | Death’s End by Cixin Liu (2010) | The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (2012) |
| 7 | Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (2018) | Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami | Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (2016) | Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Fortune in China by Evan Osnos (2014) |
| 8 | Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017) | The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) | Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs (1992) | The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker (2010) |
| 9 | There There by Tommy Orange (2018) | The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann | The Expanding Circle by Peter Singer (1981) | The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014) |
| 10 | Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch | The Captured Economy by Brink Lindsey & Steven M. Teles | When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016) | The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (2006) |
