Hey! My name is

Aref Malek.

Aspiring Experimentalist

Current CS Senior at Purdue that likes building side projects. Taking it one day at a time and trying to grow.

About Me

I’m currently a CS Senior @ Purdue, graduating May 2024! In my final semester of CS, I’m hoping to learn a bunch more about fundamental CS topics, specifically Compilers and Databases. In the past, I really enjoyed coursework with ML, Algorithms, as well as OS - hoping to continue getting out of my comfort zone learning.

Professionally I’ve been all over the place, I’ve recently just completed an internship at Tesla where I worked as a full-stack dev on the Energy Product Software Team. Previously I’ve interned at NASA working on Computer Vision for drones, AWS for application platforms for Machine Learning, and I’ve been a TA for my University’s Computer Architecture course.

Focus is a funny thing, I’ve realized less is more and learning happens best by doing, I’m hoping to build my foundations of CS until I graduate and use that knowledge to tackle fun problems from there on!

Here's some tech I've picked up along the way:
  • Python
  • C/C++/x86 Assembly
  • Java
  • Typescript/Javascript
  • React/Next.JS/Jest
  • Node
  • Express/Fastify
  • Tensorflow, PyTorch
  • Docker/NGINX

Experience

Software Engineering Intern, Energy - Tesla
Sept 2023 - Dec 2023

Currently I’m an intern on Tesla’s energy division. I worked on separate aspects of Energy’s Commercial UI’s, including:

  • Developed internal tools for the supercharger network, think Google Maps for the health and expansion of superchargers.
  • Built a analytics collections service for all of Tesla’s frontend energy products. Learned lots about working inbetween teams and launching platform-agnostic services.
  • Moved fast and broke (possibly too many) things :^)
Computer Vision Intern - NASA
June 2023 - Aug 2023

Worked on real-time segmentation algorithms for drones with hyperspectral imaging for wildfire detection.

  • Built a real-time wildfire detection algorithm with OpenCV/Tensorflow, and demonstrated in simulation
  • Designed and trained classification/segmentation deep neural networks for multispectral remote sensing imagery
  • Completed full, self-directed research pipeline including literature review, experimentation, and presentation
Software Development Engineer - Amazon
May 2022 - Aug 2022

Interned on AWS Panorama on the application platform team. Helped to reduce deployment times for ML applications.

  • Introduced a sideloading feature that reduces wait times by 70%. Aimed to improve developer experience with an simpler, more efficient interface for Panorama
  • Built a device-side server that manages internal device state while receiving customer data Sideloading is now live and accessible on AWS Docs.
Teaching Assistant, Computer Architecture - Purdue CS
Jan 2022 - Apr 2022
Worked in weekly recitations for Purdue’s Computer Architecture course. Instructed, assisted, and assessed 20 students weekly on knowledge as well as organize lab procedures with undergraduate and graduate TAs.

Education

2020 - 2024
Bachelor of Computer Science
Purdue University, West Lafayette
GPA: 3.9 / 4.0

Specialized in Machine Intelligence, Systems Programming. Minored in Math.

Extracurricular Activities

  • Worked heavily with ML@P, Purdue’s largest Machine Learning club.
  • TA for Computer Architecture.
  • Galavanted around a few Research labs, tried my hand at AR Research
  • Spent some time with the AMP undergrad team, first real exposure to computer vision

Projects

Airdraw
Python React Typescript OpenCV
Airdraw
A vision based drawing application. Debuted at number 4 on Hacker News, and got lots of great feedback about what people like.
Electoral Analysis
Python Pandas Seaborne Numpy
Electoral Analysis
Analsis that shows how weighted votes of the electoral college leads to discrimination towards race, age, and gender.
Sorting Visualizer
Javascript HTML CSS
Sorting Visualizer
Personal sorting visualizer for algorithms such as bubble-sort, heap-sort, and merge-sort.

Get in Touch

I am a benefactor of cold messaging, so please message about anything. I check platforms often, try multiple if I’m unresponsive.