Joshua Dirga · Co-Founder and CTO at Alora

Co-Founder and CTO at Alora · Cornell CS

Selected work

I turned one client into a company.

Alora · Co-Founder and CTO

I lead engineering on a harness that lets companies put their own data to work with AI. Three active clients, three developers on my team.

I hacked our face login 66.5% of the time.

GoTo Financial · Data Science Intern

I red teamed the face verification system to find where it broke, then helped make it stronger. I also worked on the company's AI customer service bot.

I shipped an iOS app for couples.

Double Chin · Solo Developer

A private daily photo just for two, built for people in long distance relationships. Live on the App Store since July 2026.

I traced the real impact of climate research.

Cornell Systems Engineering · Undergraduate Researcher

I trace the path from climate patents to real deployment to power sector emissions, to see where innovation actually cuts carbon in the energy sector.

Experience

Jan 2026 - now

Alora · Co-Founder and CTO

Apr - Aug 2026

Cornell Systems Engineering · Undergraduate Researcher

Sep 2024 - now

Cornell AppDev · Developer to AI Dev Lead

four roles across two years · taught the iOS course along the way

May - Aug 2025

GoTo Financial · Data Science Intern, security AI

Dec 2024 - Apr 2025

AstroDoc · iOS Developer

May - Aug 2024

GoTo Financial · Data Science Intern

Research

A climate patent is only worth as much as the power it eventually cleans up. I built a 30 year panel that follows the whole chain, from patents to real deployment to power sector emissions, to measure where innovation actually cuts carbon in the energy sector.

6,390 rows 238 entities 1995 · 2024 panel fixed effects + distributed lag

42 countries · Mt CO2e · 2000 to 2023

One result from the panel: the red line is what the 42 countries actually emitted, the dashed line is what they would have emitted if the renewable share had stayed frozen at its 2000 level of 16.3%. The gap is the carbon that clean energy deployment avoided, about 2,990 Mt in 2023 and 19,936 Mt over the period. Sources: OWID generation, EDGAR emissions.

Recognition

2026 Cornell Undergraduate Research Award
2025 CS 4620 Standout Project
2024 Big Red Hacks · 2nd place for Nocturne
2024 RCareWorld Hackathon · 1st place
2023 Valedictorian
2023 Honors Diploma in CS and Physics

Beyond

Cornell AppDev

Backend subteam at Cornell AppDev, the student team behind Cornell's campus apps.

Indonesian Association at Cornell

Former Co-President. Led IndoNight and hosted Indonesia's Vice Minister on campus.

Joshua teaching the backend course at the front of a Cornell classroom

Backend Course Instructor

Co-taught Cornell AppDev's backend course. Lectures are public: Fall 2025 and Spring 2026.

Repairing a donated computer at the workbench

Cornell Computer Reuse

Refurbishing donated machines for communities that need them, with the Cornell Computer Reuse Association.

TEDx@SWA

Speaker and organizer. Watch the talk.

Languages · English and Indonesian, native · Chinese and Japanese, elementary