Vetted Teaching Assistants

Kaustubh Rai

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Mid-level Software Engineer specializing in distributed systems and cloud-native microservices

PA, USA2y exp

“Software engineer with ~2 years at UnitedHealth Group plus CMU coursework/TA experience, spanning backend modernization and cloud-native operations. Worked on migrating a customized open-source EDI system from Python 2 to Python 3 while improving SQLite database traceability via JSON exports, and has hands-on Kubernetes microservices deployment on Azure using Helm, HPA, and Jenkins-based Git-triggered CI/CD. Also built a large-scale real-time ride-hailing simulation using Kafka + Samza with explicit fault-tolerance strategies.”

“Partnerships/integrations leader with experience running multiple simultaneous ISV launches and executive-level cross-functional cadences. Created a CEO-backed, data-driven partner/integration prioritization scorecard that helped increase partnership revenue 13.5x, and has operated in high-confidentiality environments supporting major global product launches (Samsung).”

“Robotics software engineer with hands-on ROS2 experience building an audio conversion node and integrating Whisper LiveKit for streaming speech-to-text in a simulated hostile (outer space) robot environment. Also worked on a 2023 LiDAR + ML vision obstacle-detection project for a hospital-nurse-assistant robot, and has strong large-scale CI/CD deployment experience from AWS (2022–2024) across alpha/pre-prod/prod stages.”

“Robotics engineering intern and mechanical engineering master’s student who bridges hardware testing and ML/ROS2 software: built a PyTorch model to map motor test data across motor types using electrical specs (Kv/Kt/R/L) and validated it against new motors to meet strict torque/thermal accuracy targets. Also integrated CNN-based perception into ROS2 for real-time navigation and implemented MPC with time-synchronized multi-topic messaging to avoid stale-data control issues.”

“Backend engineer who evolved the X-Ray gaming analytics platform, leading a zero-downtime MongoDB→AWS DocumentDB migration with dual-write, checksum-based validation, and Kubernetes canary rollouts while maintaining real-time monitoring for millions of concurrent sessions. Strong in FastAPI/Python API scaling and performance tuning (cut latency from ~2s to <150ms and reduced DB load 90%) plus production-grade auth/RLS security patterns (JWT, Supabase Auth, PostgreSQL RLS).”

“LLM/RAG engineer who built a production-style multi-agent orchestrator for resume-to-recommendation workflows (PDF ingestion through screening and recommendations), emphasizing prompt tuning and strict JSON output contracts. Currently building a RAG application for an NGO using Airflow (DAGs + embeddings) and tackling messy, missing/imbalanced data; has hands-on retrieval stack experience (FAISS/HNSW, bge embeddings) and uses rigorous evaluation metrics for groundedness and hallucination control.”

“Operations/program support professional with experience at Meta and a ~25-person sports/partnerships agency (Innovative Partnerships Group). Known for quickly diagnosing bottlenecks and implementing lightweight systems (e.g., Airtable recruiting dashboard with 150 applicants; monthly vendor accrual process bridging engineering, vendors, and FP&A) to improve executive visibility and operational throughput.”

“CMU IoT coursework project builder who implemented an end-to-end TinyML gesture recognition system on a Particle Photon + ADXL345, streaming data via MQTT/Node-RED to a real-time Node.js frontend and deploying a quantized logistic regression model on-device. Also explored multi-drone coordination, implementing leader-follower offset control and a pivot/arc turning strategy to avoid collisions, and brings practical Docker/Kubernetes plus CI/CD workflow experience from internships.”

“Internship experience deploying cloud-based services into production, including navigating security/resource provisioning and coordinating approvals across impacted teams. Built a Python backend for a local Ollama-based app using open-source models, and has hands-on distributed systems experience implementing and debugging Paxos with extensive logging/state tracing.”

Rediet Gesesse

Screened

Mid-level Software Engineer specializing in FinTech and full-stack platforms

San Francisco, CA4y exp

“Built a kitchen capacity management system for merchants, owning deployment through stabilization and continuously tuning capacity based on fulfillment and cancellation outcomes. Also designed customer-support decision workflows for refunds/credits with a focus on fraud cost reduction, and has hands-on experience with Kafka, Flink, relational databases, and production incident mitigation via feature-flag rollbacks.”

“Built and productionized a dual-agent LLM invoice-processing system for GFI Partners, adding guardrails and audit trails to earn stakeholder trust and drive adoption while cutting operational burden by 75%. Uses LangSmith observability to diagnose real-time workflow regressions and has experience teaching agentic AI concepts (e.g., at Carnegie Mellon) through hands-on, scaffolded demos.”