What does it take to help professional athletes improve their game? For Jazz Teoh, a 2025 BS in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation graduate, the answer lies in combining cutting-edge computer vision algorithms with robust software engineering. Jazz is currently working as a C++ software engineer at Rapsodo, where he collaborates with various teams to develop sports performance technology for athletes around the world.
Jazz’s path to computer science had an unconventional start. He initially wanted to pursue entrepreneurship and planned to further his studies in business and marketing. It was only while interning after he had graduated from the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program that his boss and manager offered advice that eventually changed his mind. “They suggested that an engineering or computer science degree would be much better given my dreams,” Jazz said, adding that they told him to look at the world’s most successful entrepreneurs who did not have business degrees. The advice stuck, and Jazz decided to pivot toward computer science.
When it came time to choose a university program, Jazz discovered DigiPen (Singapore) while browsing the Singapore Institute of Technology website. Two factors immediately caught his attention: the program’s impressive starting salaries for fresh graduates and its intriguing name. “Real-time interactive simulation just sounds cool,” Jazz admits candidly. He successfully enrolled, which marked the start of his software development journey.
Today, Jazz works at Rapsodo, a sports technology company that develops sophisticated algorithms using computer vision to analyze athletic performance. The company builds devices that utilize these algorithms, providing detailed analysis to help athletes train and improve. While Rapsodo plans to expand to more sports, its primary focus is on golf and baseball products for now.
In his role, Jazz collaborates with various teams across the company to integrate different technical components — from hardware sensors to computer vision algorithms — to build applications for users. This systems development work requires understanding how each piece fits together, ensuring that hardware, software, and algorithms work in harmony to deliver accurate, real-time performance insights to athletes.
According to Jazz, two things make working at Rapsodo particularly rewarding. First is the company culture, which emphasizes rapid iteration and continuous learning. “People here are driven, and we push for the results that we want,” Jazz explains. “But we also appreciate learning, so even if something fails, we learn fast, share that with others, and become better. It’s a wonderful environment for growing and exploring,” he says. Jazz also enjoys the broad scope of his responsibilities, which requires him to understand many different technical domains. “It’s tough, but it also allows more room for me to learn and grow,” he says. In particular, debugging unfamiliar embedded systems has been challenging, especially since this was new to Jazz. Thankfully, DigiPen’s rigorous project-based approach gave him the resilience and learning agility to tackle these obstacles. “I treated new topics like another adventure in Vulkan or entity component systems — I just did extensive research on my own then tackled the bugs,” Jazz says, referencing the complex graphics programming data architectures he encountered during his studies.
While this problem-solving mindset has served Jazz well, it’s his technical foundation in C++ that has proven especially valuable to his daily work at Rapsodo. Jazz explains that not many computer science degrees locally have a strong emphasis on C++ programming, but this was a key component of his education because of DigiPen’s focus on systems and simulations development. Since Rapsodo heavily relies on C++ for its flexibility and performance advantages, the match proved perfect.
From tackling complex engine development projects at DigiPen (Singapore) to integrating sports performance systems at Rapsodo, Jazz’s journey shows how technical depth —combined with the resilience to learn continuously — can launch a rewarding career in any field where high-performance systems matter.