Hi, I'm Ali

I create education tools for the motivated autodidact.

About Me

Who I am

I'm a Software Engineer who has successfully delivered mission-critical SSO and user authentication APIs at enterprise scale with a high functioning team, achieving key codebase and directory migrations in a record 11 months. My technical stack includes Node.js/TypeScript and Python, complemented by extensive AWS Cloud and DevOps experience, including Terraform for infrastructure and TeamCity for CI/CD.

I'm driven by a passion for learning and identify as a life-long academic who loves education. Leveraging insights from my experimental psychology background and professional academic research experience, I'm currently advancing my skills in AI and machine learning to build a passion project, 'The Pocket Professor': an agentic AI-powered learning assistant designed to create personalized learning guides for my fellow autodidacts, blending technical expertise with pedagogical insights to enhance the self-taught learning journeys.

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My Experience

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Education

University of Texas San Antonio • 2018

Experimental Psychology

Focus in behavior research, experimental design and stats analysis using ANOVA I/II, factor analysis.

Independent Study: "Cross Cultural Stressors of Adolescents In A Bi-Cultural Environment

Coding Dojo • 2021

Full Stack Development Bootcamp

Project Driven intense learning sprints that helped launch my career in technology

Web Stack (HTML, CSS, JS), Python, MERN, Java

Certifications

AWS Cloud Practitioner

Amazon • 2023

Scaled Agile Scrum Master

SAFe® Enterprise • 2023

Full Stack Web Development

Coding Dojo • 2021

Professional Experience

Security Specialist

Accenture • 2024-2025

Continued all G.E. SSO Services and beyond, now taking time for further professional development.

Software Engineering Specialist

The General Electric Company (G.E.) • 2021-2024

Part of a full SDLC team, helped deliver and maintain 14 mission-critical user auth and management APIs in 11 months as part of a stack migration from Java to Node.js/Typescript while simultaneously migrating to a new Identity provider and directory (PingID, PingDirectory).

Technology Apprentice

MAXX Potential • 2021-2022

Accelerated career development program providing technical support across VA/NC region and beyond. Gained hands-on experience with enterprise software development, leading to successful placement to G.E. Assignment.

Researcher III - Animal Attendant

Lab Animal Resources Center at UTSA • 2013-2015

Principal Investigator: Dr. Marcel Perret-Gentil. AAALAC Int. certified, R01 Federally funded laboratory into military-grade field research and NIH funded cancer research, with animal husbandry tasks and delivery of autoclaved equipment to off-site research labs.

Work Study

Hermann Laboratory at UTSA • 2016

Principal Investigator: Dr. Brian Hermann. AAALAC Int. certified, R01 Federally funded spermatogenesis research laboratory, with tasks including chemical solution creation, biological material disposal, file-system organizing of archived research materials.

Skills

Node.js Typescript Python Vue.js Terraform WSL2 mTLS OpenSSL Envoy Docker TeamCity CI/CD Apigee Git/Github Kanban - Rally SAFe® Agile Certified RSA Cryptography Prompt Engineering TensorFlow Machine Learning Educational Technology AWS Cloud Practitioner Certified AI - local LLM workflow integration Natural Language Processing Tools Certificate Chain/Key management

Customized Learning

The Pocket Professor

This app serves as a mock graduate-level college instructor of sorts, creating customized learning plans to provide users with a personalized syllabus on any subject they wish to learn!

My background in experimental psychology as well as my own subjective experience with self-learning made me deeply skeptical of popular neuromyths like "learning styles." My goal is to combine peer-reviewed seminal research and meta-analysis with natural language processing tools to build an engine based on proven learning mechanics—like Active Recall and Spaced Repetition—to make your learning experience more efficient and most importantly: effective.

I designed the app to appeal to my fellow autodidacts on their self-teaching learning journey, breaking down their learning path with week-by-week lessons based on their skill level on the subject (novice, intermediate, expert), and their time committment.

Try It Out
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