Hi, I'm Kiki.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Mohammad Zulkifli Katili — most people call me Kiki. I'm a software engineer from Gorontalo, Indonesia. I like problems where engineering, data and design meet, and I care as much about why something should be built as how.

Engineering journey

I studied Information Systems at Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, graduating as the best graduate of the Faculty of Engineering. My undergraduate thesis became Sindasi, a decision-support system using AHP-TOPSIS.

While studying I built production apps for real clients: Raisa, an inflation early-warning system for Bank Indonesia's Gorontalo office during my internship, then TimeMarket, a workload-management PWA for the same office. Project work followed — a nearest-mosque API and admin panel for Digimosque, a scheduling system for IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo, backend modules for Contag School, and spatial sales intelligence for PT. Makassar Raya Motor.

Current focus

I'm working on payment systems — payment gateways, B2B/B2C flows and the APIs around them — where correctness, idempotency and consistency matter more than anything clever.

AI, knowledge graphs & RAG

My master's in Computer Science at IPB University (Computational Intelligence & Optimization, GPA 3.83) focused on knowledge graphs and network analysis. The thesis became VektorPedia and a Scopus-indexed paper. Knowledge graphs are one of the most useful ways to give language models real context, which is why I keep exploring retrieval-augmented generation and LLM tooling.

Design background

Before I wrote much code, I designed. I led the multimedia division of the campus Linux Study Group, reached the finals of a national graphic design competition, and have designed logos and brand systems — HEXSTUDIO, Katili Corp, Kotaluwuk.com, and the GenBI Gorontalo identity. That habit shows up in the interfaces I build, including this site.

How I work

• Start from the problem. Understand who is affected and what "better" looks like before choosing a stack.
• Meet users where they are. Sometimes that's a PWA on the phone they already carry; sometimes it's an Excel import instead of an API.
• Be clear about ownership. On team projects, I say what the team built and what I built.
• Leave it maintainable. Conventions, small modules and readable code outlive clever ones.

Leadership

As chairman of Generasi Baru Indonesia (GenBI) Gorontalo (2020–2021), I led 60 activities in a year — community service, entrepreneurship seminars, capacity building — rebuilt the member scoring system, and initiated the community's 2025 vision.

Publications

1. Katili, M. Z., Herdiyeni, Y., & Hardhienata, M. K. D. (2024). Leveraging Biotic Interaction Knowledge Graph and Network Analysis to Uncover Insect Vectors of Plant Virus. JISEBI. Link
2. Katili, M., Amali, L., & Tuloli, M. (2021). Implementasi Metode AHP-TOPSIS dalam Sistem Pendukung Rekomendasi Mahasiswa Berprestasi. Jambura Journal of Informatics, 3(1), 1–10. Link

Awards