PeopleofSuperintelligence

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Walden Yan

Walden Yan is co-founder and CPO of Cognition, the company behind Devin, an AI software engineer. In June 2020 he presented research on description-based neural program synthesis at the PRIMES conference, with mentor William Moses, and in 2020 he won a gold medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics, placing 19th. In 2020 he arrived at Harvard as an incoming freshman, studied computer science and economics, and worked on cryptography and machine learning. He cofounded the security startup DeepReason, and in 2023 he worked as an early engineer at Anysphere on Cursor before leaving Harvard to cofound Cognition with Scott Wu and Steven Hao. In March 2024 Cognition unveiled Devin, in June 2025 he published an essay on context engineering, and in July 2026 he welcomed the TierZero team to bring their automation work into Devin.

Now at
Cognition

Timeline

  1. June 2020

    Neural program synthesis research

    In June 2020 he presents “Improvements on description-based neural program synthesis models” at the PRIMES conference, with mentor William Moses.

  2. 2020

    Gold at the informatics olympiad

    In 2020 he wins a gold medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics and places 19th.

  3. 2020–2023

    Harvard, DeepReason, and Cursor

    In 2020 he arrives at Harvard as an incoming freshman, studies computer science and economics, and pursues work in cryptography and machine learning. He cofounds DeepReason, a security-oriented startup, before he leaves Harvard to pursue Cognition full time. In 2023 he works as an early engineer at Anysphere on Cursor.

  4. 2023

    Co-founding Cognition

    In 2023 he co-founds Cognition with Scott Wu and Steven Hao.

  5. March 2024

    Unveiling the agent Devin

    In March 2024 Cognition unveils Devin, an AI software engineer.

  6. June 2025

    An essay on context engineering

    In June 2025 he publishes “Don’t Build Multi-Agents” and describes context engineering as the core of reliable agents.

  7. July 2026

    Welcoming the TierZero team

    In July 2026 he welcomes Anhang, Yun, and the TierZero team to Cognition and describes bringing their automation work into Devin.

  8. As of October 2026

    CPO of Cognition

    He is co-founder and CPO of Cognition, the company behind Devin.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Walden Yan yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. PRIMES Conference 2020 math.mit.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  2. Coding for gold seas.harvard.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  3. Walden Yan stats.ioinformatics.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  4. Cognition Explodes Out of the Agentic AI Startup Pack goldsea.com. Checked 16 October 2026.
  5. Cognition AI - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  6. The Wu Tapes: Q&A with Cognition's Scott Wu - Colossus colossus.com. Checked 16 October 2026.
  7. Don’t Build Multi-Agents | Cognition cognition.com. Checked 16 October 2026.
  8. Welcoming TierZero to Cognition | Cognition cognition.com. Checked 16 October 2026.
  9. Cognition Claude Platform (API) case study | Claude by Anthropic claude.com. Checked 16 October 2026.