In December 2022, I earned my B.S. in honors computer science with a math minor from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and I finished my accelerated M.S. degree in computer science in December 2023.
My primary career goal of low-level programming (in software or embedded systems) stems from my high level of proficiency and interest in C++ and C and desire to write highly optimized code. Most of my undergraduate coursework was in C++, and my favorite class was COSC 360 – Systems Programming in which I learned C and implemented malloc()/free(), a primitive shell, and a multithreaded chat server. Since then, I pursued graduate-level coursework in low-level concepts such as computer architecture and design/implementation of operating systems (I thoroughly enjoyed the novel challenges of building such a system and found it very rewarding!). I also gained experience working with microcontrollers, sensors, and motors hands-on while building projects in a human-computer interaction course as well as during my four years of C++ programming on UTK's competitive VEX U robotics team.
I worked as an undergraduate research assistant under Dr. Michela Taufer for two years (with my primary work getting published by IEEE!) and was a teaching assistant in computer science for five semesters. I served as vice president and programming lead of my robotics team for about two and four years, respectively. These positions allowed me to supplement my extensive coursework with additional unique problem solving, communication, and collaboration opportunities via creating effective presentations and data visualizations regarding my research, breaking down and explaining complex concepts to students, tackling interdisciplinary challenges in robotics, reading many different pages of documentation, and generally being a member of a large variety of teams throughout my academic career.
I also have valuable industry experience as a software engineer from my Summer 2022 internship with Coursera, where I specialized in backend development in a CI/CD environment. I contributed high-quality code with a strong sense of ownership and understanding of what I was building—I sought to grasp the system as a whole rather than only work within the scope of my project, considered unit testing and metrics logging, and was able to independently utilize available resources for implementing and debugging my solutions with the best practices. In Summer and Fall 2023 during my software engineering internship turned co-op at Wabtec, I developed and internally deployed a Django web application from the ground up, gaining full stack knowledge and exposure to designing database schemas and effective user interfaces.
In my free time, I like to practice classical piano (one of my current favorites) and, of course, play video games.
If you'd like to get in touch, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at brandanroachell@gmail.com.