About
With a strong foundation in machine learning, AI, and backend engineering, I bring a blend of startup agility and big-tech rigor to problem-solving. As an early startup engineer at Coverbase based in SF, I am currently building AI-driven solutions for the regulated fintech space involving Vendor and Third Part Risk Management for Banks and SaaS Companies. Previously as an SDE-1 at Amazon AWS, I delivered crucial projects across the Amazon Go org, and writing powerful code modules which were adopted by downstream teams. My research in LLMs, computer vision, and NLP is backed by a Master’s in CS with a specialization in ML and Data Analytics from the University of Chicago from where I graduated last December, and I have experience leading AI and full SDLC for NIH-projects and labs. I am passionate about high-impact engineering and thrive in collaborative environments where innovation meets execution.
Software Developer & ML/NLP Engineer.
I have over 9 years of experience in Computer Science and have been coding since high school. I pursued a Master's degree to deepen my foundations in Machine Learning, NLP, and AI, believing they are the future of many industries.
- Phone: +1(872)-330-3585, +91(9990658089)
- City: Chicago, IL, USA
- Degree: Master
- Email: avaid@uchicago.edu, akhilvaid21@gmail.com
Previously, I worked as a professional Software Development
Engineer (SDE-1) at Amazon AWS for almost 2 years.
I worked at Amazon Go organization in the Visual Interaction
Detection Services (VIDS) team where we detected interactions
b/w customers and products in the store using Computer Vision,
Machine Learning, Edge Computing algorithms.
Facts
Some quick facts about me
Years of Professional Work Ex with Amazon as SDE-1
Internships Full stack development, Applied NLP, Computer Vision Research
Years of Coding Started with Turbo C in High school
Paper Authored Presented at ISCMM 2021
Skills
I have had the opportunity to work with numerous languages and frameworks throughout my career in the Computer Science industry. Below are some of the languages I am most proficient in.
Resume
Below lists my education and professional Experience
Education
Master of Science in Computer Science
Sept. 2023 - Dec. 2024
The University Of ChicagoWorking towards my Masters in Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning and Data Analytics from UChicago. Expected graduation is December 2024
Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering
2017 - 2021
University of Delhi | Netaji Subhas Institute Of Technology (NSIT)Completed my Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and Engineering from NSIT in 2021. It is one of the most prestigious colleges in India and getting admission in the CS branch is highly competitive.
Work Experience
Early Software Engineer
CoverbaseFeb 2025 - Present
Full-time Employee in SF-based early stage startup
- Working at Coverbase: As employee #7 in an early stage B2B SaaS startup, with a small, high-performing team tackling diverse engineering challenges by integrating AI solutions for Vendors and Third Party Risk Management(TPRM) in regulated banking/Fintech industries.
- Key Projects: Delivered key internal projects such as enhancing internal AWS Bedrock KnowledgeBase ingestion pipeline, enabling Bulk DB Exports of Vendor and Assessment Reports and feature of AI-driven autofill for vendor portal, using Python and AWS.
Lead AI and Data Science Consultant
Proact-AIAugust 2024 - December 2024
Worked Remotely helping pre-seed startup with AI and Computer Vision consultancy
- DomainLed technical vision for pre-seed startup, enabling on-premise AI/ML for shoplifting, violence, and gun safety detection
- Consultancy Improved YOLOv8 models with custom training, designed Boosting Models for hyperparameter tuning, reduced false positives.
Full Stack Developer
NIH Funded Project @ UChicagoJune 2024 - December 2024
Summer Internship for Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago
- Cross Platform Flutter App: With funding of $350,000 from NIH, collaborating with Dr. Yulei Jiang to develop a multiplatform Flutter app., record radiologist readings of ROC curves on synthetic images, apply ML algorithms to uncover weak analysis areas
- Develop from scratch: A single codebase for streamlined development. My responsibilities include both designing the front-end and back-end followed by development, with a focus on gamifying the user experience to enhance engagement.
Machine Learning Engineer
MiiE Lab, University of ChicagoMarch 2024- June 2024
MLE and Research Assistant (RA) for MiiE Lab, Harris School of Public Policy
- Natural Language Processing(NLP): Developed Transformer models fine-tuning NLP models to identify underlying biases and their impact w.r.t Texas based School Superintendents published in media News Articles.
- Capture Social Bias: Models capture Coverage, Nominal, Sentimental, and Lexical biases for superintendents (VAD Model)
Software Development Engineer - 1
Amazon, Bangalore, IndiaAugust 2021- July 2023
Software Development Engineer (SDE)-1, AWS Organization
- Health Check modules: Successfully wrote a series of vital Health Check Modules to check ECA Devices readiness status with AWS tools. Key to reducing manual effort by over 4 hours/store launched, which led to 20% time saved/workflow
- Integrated CloudWatch scripts: Streamlined accuracy testing for team’s high recall models of Random Forest classifiers, 3D CNNs in JWO org; wrote CloudWatch/Python scripts and successfully brought time to triage weekly errors from 25 to 0.5 mins, increase of 98% efficiency overall; scripts were adopted by downstream teams after success in this service
- Store-Fixture-Monitoring (SFM):Developed Java modules for SFM which monitored product status automatically, successfully reduced developer efforts by 40% by 2.5 hours/week for large format stores and 1 hour/week for smaller stores
- Mentorship: Mentored 2 new SDE interns at Amazon and conducted interviews for potential candidates for SDE-1 (L4) roles
Achievements
Listing below some of my Achievements and Test scores that I am most proud of over the last 4-6 years!
Most Innovative Award, UChicago Winter Tech Showcase 2023
Winner of Most Innovative Award for UChicago Winter tech showcase 2023, for work in presenting a "Generative Music AI" which generates a composition based on few notes provided by musician
Winner of Smart India Hackathon 2020
Winner of Smart India Hackathon, Govt. of India, won 1st prize/60,000+ teams in our problem statement nationwide. Created a Forest Patrol Application for forest rangers to record valuable information in zones of low internet.
ICPC 2019, Represented our College
Took part in 2 regional qualifiers of ICPC 2018-19 at IIT-Kharagpur, UIET Kanpur Secured rank 29 among 10000+ students across India
IRC 2020
Came 6th/20 alongside teams from Poland, Bangladesh, India in Indian Rover Challenge 2020 Devised algorithms using Stereo IR Cameras and contour detection for autonomous traversal task of ARES rover
JEE MAINS/ADVANCED Rank
Ranked 2412 in JEE Mains out of more than 1 million students in National Engineering Exam Ranked 5010 in JEE Advanced out of 100,000 students
Performance Evaluation of EfficientNet on Malaria parasite detection in blood smear images
Authored, Published and presented my paper at ISCMM 2021 during CoVID. It helps doctors to create lightweight models to efficiently detect malaria parasite from blood smear images.
Testimonials
Some of the testimonials I have recieved while working with my teams, supervisors in the past!
I am delighted to formally extend this internship offer at the University of Chicago. Accordingly, you are being offered a Summer Research Internship with the Department of Radiology, within the Biological Sciences Division
Dr. Yulei Jiang
Associate Professor of Radiology and the Committee on Medical Physics
Dear Akhil! We are delighted for you. Thank you for being a member of our team this past quarter. We appreciate your help with this project! Please also keep in touch and let us know if there is any way we can be helpful. All best wishes, Anjali
Anjali Adukia
Assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
and the director of the MiiE Lab
My interaction with Akhil started after I joined the VIDS team in the Amazon Go organization in February 2021. Since and before then, Akhil has been an integral part of VIDS by inventing solutions that make the team's life easier, contributing towards the Operational Excellence of the group, and duly delivering on projects assigned to him. Akhil embraces the Amazon leadership principles of Diving Deep, Inventing and Simplifying and has excellent communication skills.
Nishant Desai
Software Development Manager, L6
Amazon Go Organization
Amazon
During his internship, he showed good analytical skills to identify the shortcomings of the existing algorithm and studied the standard Computer Vision algorithms for tracking, learning, and detection of objects. Also, his communication skills and his quality to work in a team are appreciable.
Dr. Chetan Arora
Associate Professor,
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India
We found him extremely inquisitive, hardworking, AI enthusiast remain abreast in Learning Data Science models featured in Business applications. He is willing to put his best efforts and get into the depth of the subject to understand it better
Dipanjan Goswami
PhD,
Director and Head Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory,
Visiting Prof. Business Intelligence,
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India
Contact
Grad student specializing in Machine Learning and Analytics at University of Chicago , Fall '23 to Dec '24
Location:
Hyde Park, Chicago, IL, USA
Email:
avaid@uchicago.edu
Call:
+1 872 330 3585