Hi.
I'm Ryan.
I'm a Computer Science student at McGill University.
- Previously worked at Amazon as an SDE Intern
- Worked on ML research at McGill DISCS Lab in 2025
- Love playing golf in my free time
You can reach out to me via email at ryan.zhao2@gmail.com.
Experience
Software Engineer Intern
Amazon
June 2026 - August 2026•Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Stores team
Software Engineer Intern
Loblaw Digital
January 2026 - April 2026•Toronto, ON, Canada
- GenAI Team
Machine Learning Research Assistant
McGill University
August 2025 - December 2025•Montreal, QC, Canada
- Researched Agentic AI approaches for adaptive tuning of vector databases to improve semantic retrieval, increase adaptability across diverse datasets, and optimize performance for downstream applications
- Optimized HNSW hyperparameters using agents, achieving 90% recall@k across dozens of experimental configurations
- Engineered an evaluation framework to benchmark HNSW performance across 200+ automated experimental trials
Software Engineer Intern
Workerbee
May 2025 - September 2025•Toronto, ON, Canada
- Streamlined vector embedding generation and retrieval for RAG pipelines using Python, reducing document processing time and significantly increasing data throughput
- Developed and deployed a candidate filtering AI agent using Vertex AI, improving profile screening efficiency
- Optimized LLM integration by developing benchmarking scripts in Python to evaluate 20+ models across key performance indicators, reducing average latency of internal tools
- Orchestrated the transition of the notification system from Slack to Microsoft Teams using SQL migration scripts and a secure JavaScript webhook service, reducing notification delivery failures
Education
McGill University
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science Major
- Major: Computer Science (AI Concentration)
- Relevant Coursework: Data Structures & Algorithms, Software Design, Operating Systems, Programming Languages and Paradigms, Software Systems, Statistics, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Probability
Projects
A transformer project focused on attention-based sequence modeling.
- Python
- Machine Learning
- PyTorch
Vaswani et al., Attention Is All You Need (CC BY-SA 4.0)
AI-powered basketball referee system that detects travels, double dribbles, and interceptions in real-time using computer vision and machine learning.
- Python
- OpenCV
- YOLO
- TypeScript
- MongoDB
- Jupyter Notebook
Climb 5 is an interactive climbing route planner that allows users to create, visualize, and simulate climbing routes on a 3D wall model.
- Python
- TypeScript
- React
- Flask
- Three.js
- HTML
Advanced AI-powered shopping assistant that helps users discover products, compare prices, and receive personalized recommendations.
- JavaScript
- CSS
- MongoDB
- Express
- React
- Node.js
- AWS
Stock forecasting app using LSTM models to predict trends. Users can visualize historical data, test predictions, and explore future price scenarios.
- Python
- PostgreSQL
- FastAPI
- Flask
Blog
Thoughts, insights, and interesting finds
Contact
Have a project in mind? Want to discuss technology or just connect? I'm always open to interesting conversations and new opportunities.