Michelle A. Watson

Open to Relocation ✈️

Home 📍: Toronto Area

I’m a Biomedical and full-stack Software Engineer with a focus in Computing, AI and Epidemiology. I’m a lifelong learner always ready to take on a new challenge.

I’m passionate about using AI to improve systems and make them accessible to all. My transition from biomedical engineering to software development was driven by my experience as a teaching assistant in statistics and working at start-ups, where I saw how software engineering scales AI. Through six internships in software development, product management, and design, I’ve built a strong foundation in agile processes and user-centered solutions, and I’m eager to apply these skills to interesting projects.

I also love playing video games, reading webtoons, and watching animes or dramas. If any of your projets or interests overlap, or if you just wanna chat, let’s connect 🙂!

Message me on Discord for the fastest response! I’ll respond to any of the above socials.

Education

Diploma, Software Engineering @BrainStation - 2024

• Frontend: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, React.js, Document Object Model (DOM) APIs
• Backend: Python, Golang, Swift, Node.js, Express.js, Web APIs, User Authentication, OAuth
• Databases: MySQL, MongoDB
• Design: Figma
• Administration: Jest, Enzyme, XCTest
• Deployment & Development Tools: Heroku, GitHub, WebPack

Masters, Public Health @McMaster University - 2023 - 2024

• Courses and skills:
  • Biostatistics
  • Epidemiology
  • Population and Public Health Research Methods
  • Regression Analysis (R, SPSS, SAS)
• Teaching 👩🏾‍🏫:
  • Data Structures and Algorithms
  • Statistics

Bachelors, Biomedical Engineering @University of Waterloo - 2018 - 2023

• Minor: Artificial Intelligence, Computing
• Relevant Software Courses:
  • Data Structures and Algorithms (C++)
  • Linear Signals and Systems (MATLAB)
  • Pattern Recognition (MATLAB)
  • Machine Intelligence (python)
  • Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (R)
  • Image Processing (MATLAB)
  • Optimization (python)
  • Digital Systems (VHDL, assembly)
  • Medical Imaging, CAD (SolidWorks - see Behance)
  • Engineering Design
  • Statistics and Experimental Design (SPSS, Excel, Minitab)
• Relevant Health Courses:
  • Biomedical Engineering Economics
  • Biomedical Engineering Ethics
  • Moral Issues

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Experience

Software Engineer @phonic.ai

May 2022 ‑ Aug 2022

• Enhanced user experience by persisting crosstabs session data by adding Redux loading object to request and modifying MongoDB collections, and allowing user to delete crosstabs by tidying and standardizing React components in the code‑base
• Secured major client by taking the initiative to note and quickly solve pain points noticed during discovery calls

Product Manager @bld.ai

Jan 2022 ‑ May 2022

• Developed quick rapport with clients by demonstrating a clear understanding of their needs by way of big‑picture thinking and using my technical background to manage scope and create appropriate solutions, effectively securing $100k in closed deals
• Demonstrated rapid wireframe prototyping in Figma leading to quick design turnaround and increased likelihood of closed deals

Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer @cohere

May 2021 ‑ Aug 2021

• Built data pipeline and CLI tools to process 500M LOC with BPE for intuitive use by MLEs for code generation model training

Product Realization Engineer @Samsung

Jan 2021 ‑ Apr 2021

• Debugged major IMS features such as RCS and VoLTE through SIP Packets
• Sped up test run times in the lab by developing a web‑app to control signal attenuation from the user station at Bell Labs
• Performed SIP packet analysis on MediaTek chips to verify 911 requirements
• Developed APN tool in python to streamline testing and increase reliability when compared to manual testing

Software Developer @Elekta

Jan-Apr, Sept-Dec 2020

• Designed and created a build server along with batch scripts to make the manual build process less error‑prone and 85% faster

Quality Engineering @WorkMarket

May - Aug 2019

• Automated iOS mock tests (XCTest); increasing automatic test coverage by 20%
• Wrote and executed test cases and test plans for new features in TestRail
• Led mobile design team meetings, bridging the gap between dev and designer
• Created UX journeys, designed, and developed feature flows in Swift

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Projects

GameDeal Finder | Presentation Slides, GitHub

Dec 2024 ‑ present

• Built a full-stack React app using RESTful API with MySQL for game and price data management, allowing users to view platform-specific prices, streamlining the purchasing decision process for over 50 game titles.
• Requirements/My Plan:
  • Requirements are outlined in the proposal.md here
• Techstack:
  • React
  • sass
  • JavaScript
  • Rest APIs
  • IGDB API
  • node js
  • express
  • mysql
  • knex
  • responsive design
  • Testing: (Postman: my ever-growing endpoint testing 🚀👩🏾‍🚀)
• Challenges + What I learned:

  • Incorporating IGDB games with my own db with a different structure

    Cleaned IGDB data to fit the format of my db

  • Getting prices from multiple platforms

    Creating my own webscrapper (WIP)

• More info can be found on the GitHub Repo

CaptionAI for Meta Hackathon | Presentation Slides, Code Drive, GitHub - Server

Nov 2024

• Built a backend image captioning service using Express.js, integrating axios, multer and fs, enabling image uploads (as opposed to image URLs) and caption generation through AI APIs, improving user experience by 75%

• Meta’s Requirements:
  • Meta believes AI is for everyone. Meta has been at the forefront of AI development and integration. They’re creating brand new AI products as well as integrating AI features into their existing products such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. From making your own AIs to having Meta AI identify what’s around you, Meta’s leading AI features help their users learn, create and do more than ever. However, only 9% of Canadian businesses are using Gen AI. At the same time, public trust in AI is low: only 31% of Canadians trust AI, 23 percentage points lower than the global average. As AI integrates into daily life across all platforms, adoption is important… And fun!
• Requirements for My Contribution:
  • Create a backend that takes an image, and returns an AI-generated caption related to that image
• Techstack:
  • React
  • sass
  • JavaScript
  • node js
  • express
  • knex
  • Testing: (Postman: my ever-growing endpoint testing 🚀👩🏾‍🚀)
• Challenges + What I learned:

  • The only publicly availble API cost money (that I couldn’t afford) after a certain number of requests

    I intercepted another websites autocaptioner with a backend I can access that doesn’t require an API key, I did this by monitoring the network via developer tools

  • API could only accept public image urls

    I uploaded the users image to a burner account on imgbb, and deleted the image quickly using the ‘expire’ variable.

• More info can be found on the hackathon submission

CNN‑Based Approach to Emotion Recognition in Speech | Report

Jan - Apr 2021

• FOR: SYDE 522: Machine Intelligence - see Kaggle Competition Code
• Created neural network architectures (CNN, LSTM) on log‑scaled mel spectrogram features obtained from MFCC computation