Biya Kazmi
Software Development Engineer @ Amazon
Hello and welcome!
I am an aspiring software engineer starting at Amazon. On this site I will be sharing my career goals, recent achievements, fun things I've done and blog posts about life as a software engineer.
I am open to the following:
Side projects that positively impact our community
Speaking at conferences/panels/workshops about inclusivity in the tech space
I also offer interview prep and resume critiques on LinkedIn
*I wrote a new blogpost about my Quarantine Graduation here!*
Take a look around to find out more about my interests and feel free to email me with any questions and inquiries.
Travel
Here are a couple trips I took to become a better engineer, teammate and organizer. I look forward to travelling to more conferences in the future.
Grace Hopper Conference
I was honoured to present at GHC 2019!
Speaking at the Grace Hopper Conference this year has taught me a lot about my place in the tech community. I understand that there is a lot to do to create open and welcoming spaces for women and women of colour across the board.
For my part, I conducted research on how to host more diverse and inclusive events on campus like hackathons, networking events and conferences. I presented this research at GHC and learned so much! Blog post coming soon!
Take a look at the poster below!
HackCon 2019!
5 DeltaHacks Execs attended HackCon in New York to learn how to improve our hackathon.
I had an amazing time at HackCon and learned so much from the talks, panels, workshops and social activities.
We divided the talks beforehand so each head would be able to go to all the talks that pertained to them. I looked for talks about hacker experience, logistics, teambuilding and team management. However when we got there, I tried to go to every talk I could to learn more about roles that I wouldn't otherwise have access to. I learned about sponsorshop, marketing, and most enjoyed a talk about mental health in developers.
I wrote a quick blog post on what to expect at HackCon, take a look below!
My Time at McMaster
McMaster's Computer Science program was the perfect place for me to learn, grow, and hone my skills as a developer and researcher. My first internship was at McMaster University where I spent the summer going to schools in the GTA and teaching students how to code.
Below are a couple of my favourite takeaways from my time at McMaster.
Literature Review
Literature Review on Pattern Matching Algorithms on Regular and Indeterminate Strings
I conducted a literature review in my final year at McMaster to better understand pattern matching on strings. There are many uses for string manipulation and pattern matching and this paper delves into common and newer algorithms that deal with indeterminate strings.
I was motivated to write a paper explaining the more researched algorithms to first time learners, breaking down every step and explaining their usefulness. Take a look, though it is still a work in progress.
VP at DeltaHacks
A Hackathon for Change. We connect engineers with healthcare workers, environmentalists, social workers and more!
My most memorable hackathon was the one I organized with a team of 50+ execs where we hosted DeltaHacks VI for over 1000 attendees! My role as VP-Hacker Experience was to ensure that every hacker, attendee, judge, sponsor, mentor, and executive member felt safe and respected at our event. I organized workshops, talks, panels and activities so the attendees could socialize and make connections that would last throughout their career.
Here is a presentation I created to help any company, event or hackathon implement changes to their culture to improve diversity and inclusion!
Research
While interning, I also published a paper!
I published A Framework for Preadolescent Programmers to Create Cooperative Multiplayer Reading Games with my professor in my third year at McMaster University.
Teaching students how to code has always been a passion of mine and I try to go out to schools and summer camps as often as I can to volunteer.
Demos of Past Work
Here are a few features I've implemented for a diary logging app. Resiliance is an app designed to encourage children with mental illnesses to record diary entries, thoughts and moods.
Avatar Creator
Resilience App: Home screen
I designed this feature with diversity as the driving force. I wanted every user to feel like they could identify with the application and find a safe space for themselves. The resilience app was very user-centric and would only benefit the children if they felt comfortable enough to record diary entries, log moods and ask for help. My goal was to make the avatar creator as welcoming as possible.
Mood Sliders
Resilience App: Mood Logging
Children were required to log their daily activities and mood on the Resilience Application. As a fun way to record their moods, these sliders were designed to make the process of logging emotions more visual. A wide array of emotions could be displayed with images alone so users did not have to write diary entries as often.
Take a look at the mood slider gallery to see some of the possible moods. Demo coming soon so you can try it out, too.
"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by light."