Zaddeen Benaissa: Personal Website

Bio

I've always loved problem solving, and I found that programming was the perfect way to blend my creativity with something that challenged me. I'm currently working at Google as a Software Engineer on the Google Cloud Andromeda team after finishing up my Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Compute Science at Northwestern at the end of 2022. In my free time I enjoy watching sports and playing video/card games, and I'm excited to start working on personal projects that reflect those interests.

Education

Master's of Science in Computer Science

December 2022

Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science

June 2022

Kellogg Certificate Program for Undergraduates in Managerial Analytics

June 2022

Programming Languages & Skills

NBA Visualization

Javascript, D3.js

I started watching the NBA in middle school, and I've been hooked ever since. So, when trying to decide what data to use for an interactive visualization in D3, basketball was an easy choice. I created this visualization along with 4 other developers to show how the 3-point shot has revolutionized the NBA over the last 15 years, particularly since the arrival of Stephen Curry. We created three interactive and animated sections with the goal of highlighting the power of the 3-pointer at the player and team levels and showing our audience just how important the shot is in today's game. This was one of my favorite projects I've worked on so far, so check out the visualization by clicking on the title or the photo of Steph. Remember to use the buttons/menus in each section to get the interactive experience, and enjoy!

September - December 2022

stroller chaser

Unity: C#

If you've ever played games like Geometry Dash, you know how rewarding it is when you finally nail the perfect movements and are able to move past a difficult level. In the spirit of Geometry Dash and other similar games, I created stroller chaser with two other teammates as a quarter-long project for our Game Development Studio class. I had a ton of fun combining my personal love of video games with my computer science education, and it was great sharpening up my Unity skills as well. In addition to the code that I wrote I put my creative side to the test and designed all of the sprites. The game is available to play on the web by clicking on the title or stroller image - enjoy!

January - March 2022

Evanston Vaccine Alert

Javascript (React), EJS

As COVID-19 vaccines became more and more available during the Spring of 2021, my friends and I at Homebase wanted to do our part to help our fellow Northwestern students and Evanston residents find appointments as painlessly as possible. To do this we created Evanston Vaccine Alert, a free service that users could sign up for to receive automatic emails with potential appointments in the Evanston & Chicago area. Optionally, we also offered the ability to receive text message updates instead. The project was a great way to give back to the community while also learning about the automation tools provided by services like AWS and SignalWire.

March - May 2021

Simple Search Engine

Java, Javascript (React)

For a project in my Scalable Software Architectures class, I created a Simple Search Engine modeled off of Google. It was an excellent way to both become more familiar with Java and HTTP requests, both of which I had never limited experience with. Then, I worked with a partner to deploy the entire system onto AWS, making it publicly accessible and autonomous.

The components included a crawler to grab the most recent news data (in the form of WARC files) and post them to S3 storage, a Tomcat server to fetch the results of queries, and a React page to allow users to search and view results. Click on the title to watch the showcase video of all the components in action!

January 2021

Visualizing Sorting Algorithms

Javascript (React)

While working remotely over the summer, I became totally transfixed with videos of sorting algorithms in action. Thinking about it, I realized that I was familiar with all of the pseudocode for the algorithms, so I decided to make my own project! I created this React App my spare time in order to showcase and animate some of the most popular/interesting sorting algorithms, including Merge Sort, Quicksort, and a few others. The project was a great way to learn React and hone my JavaScript knowledge, and I'm excited to continue adding to it in the future. The link to the live version is above, and I've also pushed all of my code with extensive comments to a GitHub repository right here. Feel free to play around with it, I hope you enjoy watching as much as I do!

July 2020

Elate

HTML, CSS, Javascript

For our final project for Human Computer Interaction, my team members and I designed Elate, a website to help people keep track of the positive aspects of their lives through journals and goals. We were able to user test on a weekly basis, which helped us quickly respond to feedback and easily incorporate our new ideas. Since the class focused UX (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) we implemented no backend, but we found that testers enjoyed our simple and visually pleasing design. You can check out the live prototype at the link above (use the username "buymepants" and the password "password2" to log in) as well as the GitHub repository right here.

January - March 2020

Galaga

C++

This final project was my first experience with game design, and I had a ton of fun re-creating one of my childhood favorites. The goal was to re-create the video game of our choice, following a list of functional requirements that we determined as those most essential to the user experience. It was a great way to have fun while also developing my object-oriented programming skills.

March 2019

Software Engineer

Google

I am now working at Google full time as a Sofware Engineer on the Google Cloud Andromeda team. I collaborate extensively with my teammates to design, build, and test infrastucture features using C++ and Python, and I'm enjoying developing my backend skills in addition to my existing front end experience.

September 2023 - Present

Software Engineering Intern

Google

This summer I had the opportunity to join Google as a Software Engineering Intern, and I couldn't have had a better time. My project was to write a dashboard application to centralize data about machine learning models for my team, App Ads. I was tasked with writing both the frontend and backend, based off of some existing code that had been written by my two hosts earlier in the year. I started by converting the existing backend structure from Golang into Python, adding significant functionality and eventually creating an HTTP server capable of automatically parsing data from thousands of internal files, storing that data in a globally distributed database, and serving the data through several API endpoints. I then created an Angular app to handle the frontend, which allowed users to view model data in two ways: a table, which listed the name of each model and linked to its internal location, and a D3.js tree, which displayed any models branched from the current production models and a wealth of data about each of them (including their most recent file changes, if any children were being live tested internally, and more). In just 12 weeks I was able to complete the entire dashboard and host it on an internal job scheduling framework so that it could run on its own, making this one of my quickest and most rewarding experiences yet.

June - September 2022

Software Engineer

Homebase

During the summer of 2020, some close friends of mine created Homebase, a platform for Northwestern students to find better off-campus housing. I joined as the third member of the Startup, and it was a total blast. Whether it was writing custom Python functions to interact with our database, re-styling pages based on mockups using HTML and CSS, or even creating our own automatic email service in TypeScript, I got real experience with a ton of different programming languages and fields that other opportunities just couldn't offer. Though we eventually decided to shut down Homebase in November 2021, it was an amazing opportunity that really helped me gain my footing as an experienced Software Engineer.

September 2020 - November 2021

Advanced App Engineering Summer Analyst

Accenture

I had the privelege of joining Accenture as a Summer Analyst during the summer of 2020, and it was an amazing opportunity that taught me a ton about both the consulting field in general and test automation, which was my main job focus. I helped analyze over 500 automated test scripts across a range of different teams in order to ensure the fastest build times possible, and I eventually ended up re-designing the entire suite to slash thes existing times by more than 25%. Overall, I learned a ton from working closely with my supervisor, and the Accenture company culture was one of the best I have ever experienced.

June - August 2021

Research Intern

Northwestern University IEMS Department

As a Research Intern, I work closely with several specialized teams in order to help model and improve school districts' transportation systems and enrollment capabilities. In order to do so, I utilize optimization software packages within Python to understand and visualize how changes in the district will affect the larger community.

Hi! I'm Zaddeen Benaissa, welcome!

Bio

Education

Programming Languages & Skills

NBA Visualization

Javascript, D3.js

September - December 2022

stroller chaser

Unity: C#

January - March 2022

Evanston Vaccine Alert

Javascript (React), EJS

March - May 2021

Simple Search Engine

Java, Javascript (React)

January 2021

Visualizing Sorting Algorithms

Javascript (React)

July 2020

Elate

HTML, CSS, Javascript

January - March 2020

Galaga

C++

March 2019

Software Engineer

Google

September 2023 - Present

Software Engineering Intern

Google

June - September 2022

Software Engineer

Homebase

September 2020 - November 2021

Advanced App Engineering Summer Analyst

Accenture

June - August 2021

Research Intern

Northwestern University IEMS Department

March 2020 - June 2021