Ayaan Ahmad

AI/ML Engineer & Researcher

πŸ“± (925) 351-7749
βœ‰οΈ ayanahmad175@gmail.com

Computer Engineering graduate (May'26), GPA 3.9 with a focus in AI/ML and Mathematical Computation. Experienced in building AI agents and scalable ML solutions; seeking opportunities in ML/AI roles.

Education & Certification

University of California, Santa Cruz
Bachelor's in Computer Engineering
Minor in Mathematical Computation
May 2026

GPA: 3.9

AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer
Associate Level (Pursuing)

Relevant Experience

Securin
AI/ML Researcher
πŸ“ Bay Area, CA
April 2025 – Present

Cybersecurity firm specializing in AI-powered Attack Surface Management (ASM), Vulnerability Intelligence (VI), Penetration Testing, and Vulnerability Management solutions to help enterprises proactively identify and mitigate security threats across their entire digital attack surface.

  • Designed and implemented AI agents to autonomously interface with internal APIs, enabling comprehensive CVE data sheet & report generation and accelerating vulnerability intelligence workflows for enterprises.
  • Led research and analysis of MCP Server based vulnerabilities, uncovering critical security weaknesses to support proactive defense strategies and improve enterprise threat resilience.
A79.ai
AI/ML Co-Op
πŸ“ Palo Alto, CA
November 2024 – April 2025

A79 is an enterprise agent platform powered by LLM for building and deploying, high ROI complex AI Agent workflows within weeks.

  • Accelerate model training leveraging K-shot injection utilizing LLM's API and seamlessly integrate the resulting intelligence into intuitive UIsβ€”enabling faster deployment of robust, data-driven experiences from start to finish
  • Design and build AI agents and APIs for real-world use at scale. Worked on an API that uses AI to search LinkedIn effectively and developing email AI agents to streamline email outreach.
Stealth Startup
AI/ML Intern
πŸ“ San Francisco, CA
October 2024 - November 2024
  • Organized and cleaned patient datasets, tested machine learning models (random forest and linear regression), optimized algorithms by removing unnecessary variables, and collaborated with experts to develop an AI/ML companion for cancer patients.
Uber
Software Engineering Fellow
πŸ“ San Francisco, CA
January 2023 - August 2023
  • Chosen among the top 4% from a pool of 2,500 applicants.
  • Career Prep Software Engineering Training Program
  • Collaborated with a Software Engineering mentor to learn and apply data structures along with core software engineering principles, such as modular design, code efficiency, and debugging techniques.

Research Papers

Exploring New Methods for Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) in Multimodal AI
  • Collaborating on a research paper led by a PhD student, exploring novel approaches to Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) in machine learning. Contributing to the development of techniques aimed at improving large language models' (LLMs) ability to understand and generate images.
  • Assisting in the training and evaluation of multimodal AI systems that bridge vision and language. Supporting the research with literature reviews, model experimentation, and results analysis.
Neural Network Node Pruning with UCSC Mathematics Department
  • Conducting research under the guidance of the Head of the Mathematics Department at UCSC on neural network pruning.
  • Investigating how many nodes can be removed from a trained model while maintaining acceptable accuracy.
  • Aiming to improve model compression strategies for deployment in low-resource environments.

Specialized Skills

Languages

Python Java C++ JavaScript TypeScript Go Scala Ruby R SQL HTML/CSS

Libraries & Frameworks

Docker Kubernetes React.js MATLAB SwiftUI

Developer Tools

VS Code PyCharm Git MongoDB AWS Azure Docker Google Workspace

Hardware & Systems

Raspberry Pi

Extracurricular Activities

πŸ›οΈ Student Government | Executive Director of Programs and Services (2023-2024)

Created and provided services for underfunded/underrepresented students

πŸ† Chevron Design Challenge: First Place District Wide (2020)

Designed and created a prototype for a better and scalable classroom desk

πŸ† Crypto Hacks Hackathon: First Place District Wide (2020)

Created a restaurant menu with AR codes displaying food on users' phones using Apple ARKit for augmented reality presentation

πŸ”¬ Computer Science Research Papers (2022-2024)

β€’ Designed a Python-powered simulation sandbox for analyzing gravitational effects on large bodies of mass (with Professor)
β€’ Designed a physics sandbox for students to understand projectile analysis more intuitively (with Physics Professor)

βš›οΈ Quantum Computing

β€’ Completed IBM Quantum Computing Training: Gained hands-on experience with quantum circuits, Qiskit framework, and IBM's quantum systems through practical exercises and simulations.
β€’ Developed Quantum Algorithms: Worked on quantum algorithms such as Grover's search and quantum teleportation, exploring applications in optimization and cryptography

Awards

  • πŸ… AMATYC Math Competition - Finalist
  • πŸ… AMC Math Competition - School Wide Top 3