André Alves

I managed a six-person software engineering team developing scalable cloud microservices for a multinational client with millions of daily customers.

I worked as a full stack software engineer at a software company serving billion-plus-Euro-revenue clients. • Designed, developed, and deployed a high-performance system that processes more than 40 million daily order requests across hundreds of locations within minutes. • Developed and deployed a responsive, user-friendly, full-stack data-aggregation module across more than 30 countries which serves millions of daily customers. • Designed and implemented creative solutions to making synchronous and asynchronous calls to the SAP Subscription Billing module in building and going live with a new, multinational, physical-goods-delivery subscription service on an e-commerce platform serving millions of customers.

I wrote my bachelor's thesis with IBM Quantum’s Firmware team, focussing on building (classical computing) algorithms and a prototype program for dynamic partitioning of quantum computers. • Ideas from my thesis formed the foundation of two quantum-computing patent applications that have been submitted by IBM and are currently pending.

In this full time internship, I worked on a team developing the firmware for the (classical computing) embedded electronics that power IBM's experimental quantum computers. My focus was on partitioning of the quantum computers and on maintaining and improving existing driver software. Accomplishments included: • Developed and implemented automated testing of different partitioning schemes that included obtaining test coverage statistics. • Developed a random partition generator that would generate partitioning schemes for real-time system configurations in order to increase test coverage. • Modified driver software such that system initialization speed qualitatively increased to the point where tasks that previously took several seconds to complete were near-instantaneous.

As a working student developing software at Werum, I wrote an Apache Spark data source reader in Java that could parse information from TDMS files (the file format for LabView) and import that data into Apache Spark in a scalable way.

As a part of my computer engineering study program, I participated in a six-month software engineering internship with the MITRE Corporation. During that time, I participated in two projects: a quantum computing project where I was a full-stack developer on a webapp, and a dashboard and data visualization project where I was elevated to technical lead and developed two stand-alone webapps, performed data analysis tasks, and further developed a prototype Power BI dashboard. During my internship, I received three internal performance and impact awards. • Modified an ASP.NET backend written in C# and a vue.js frontend to incorporate user authentication and ownership into a quantum computing webapp. • Performed load testing to ensure the suitability of SQLite as a backend database. • Wrote the initial documentation for a quantum-computing webapp using VuePress. • Developed two data visualization dashboards - one in Python (Plotly Dash) and one in R (Shiny) - to imitate a Microsoft Power BI dashboard. • Converted an Excel-based dataset into a three-table relational database in Microsoft Access. • Presented my team's dashboard to multiple U.S. Government agencies and contractors.

As a member of one of three teams at my university tackling the same problem from different angles, I used a large dataset of photovoltaic inverter diagnostics data to research inverter failure. Specifically, my team approached the issue from a first-principles perspective, developing a model for inverter aging. My contributions included: • Designed, installed, and maintained an Ubuntu (Linux) server for maintaining and working with large data sets. • Wrote and applied Python (Pandas) scripts to visually identify high and low-quality data sets. • Developed a model using MATLAB that demonstrated the close correlation between environmental temperatures, voltage, and current to inverter temperatures.

Worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant (tutor in Germany) for an Electrical Engineering 2 and Electronics 1 course. The job involved helping students solve exercise problems throughout the semester and prepare for their exam at the end of the semester. Along with weekly meetings, I also prepared more than 7.5 hours of videos walking students through how to solve the exercises and explaining electronics concepts.

As a working student in Deposit Solutions' IT Service and Administration office, I provided IT support to the roughly 200 employees of the company across more than a half dozen countries. I also became the office's Apple MacBook and iMac specialist. Specific accomplishments included: • Developed and implemented administrative and logistical solutions for the company's fleet of more than 50 MacBooks. • Developed multiple IT-related workflows, and wrote or improved the documentation and user guides for more than a half-dozen workflows. • Wrote and distributed an app written in BASH (Shell Script) to automate printer installation for all the company's Macs.

I started an entrepreneurial venture to open a brewpub (a restaurant that brews its own beer) in San Antonio, Texas, which did not open its doors.

I served as a U.S. diplomat to Venezuela during a period of hyperinflation, escalating crime, political turmoil, and during months when most Americans associated with the embassy were evacuated from the country due to the local security situation and political uncertainty. My reporting to policymakers on key bilateral and multilateral issues influenced national policy on Venezuela, and included information on local politics, security topics, and local events. Throughout this tumultuous period, I maintained a network of contacts with host government officials and local diplomats from other countries, as well as supervised locally employed staff.

After learning how to be a diplomat and improving my language abilities, I analyzed the significance of political and economic events in Venezuela and Latin America as a whole. Together with partners from other government agencies, I helped determine information gaps requiring additional attention and resources, and I advised senior officials on matters related to Venezuela and Latin America.

I was the Executive Officer, Operations Officer, and an Inspecting Officer for Marine Corps Embassy Security Group Region 4, responsible for Marines providing embassy and consulate security throughout South America. As Executive Officer: • Responsible for the budget requirements of 13 detachments in 11 countries, as well as the headquarters unit. • Second in command of a unit consisting of more than 100 Marines. As Operations Officer: • Redesigned travel practices in such a manner as to reduce annual travel costs by nearly $100,000. • Planned and oversaw two international conferences which included more than two dozen participants from 27 detachments and two headquarters units from more than 25 countries. • Conducted a nearly 1000-page command investigation into an international incident which garnered international media attention and was discussed by the U.S. Secretary of Defense. As Inspecting Officer: • Performed more than 30 readiness inspections of Marine detachments in a dozen embassies and consulates throughout South America.

I was both the Communications Platoon Commander and the Staff Communications Officer for Marine Wing Support Squadron 272. As platoon commander: • The platoon I led was made up of more than 70 Marines. • I was responsible for millions of dollars worth of communications equipment. As a staff officer: • Advised the commander on all matters related to computer, telephone, and radio networks and equipment. • Participated in the planning for two field exercises that each had more than 200 Marines deploy to the field.

As an individual augmentee to a recently-deployed unit, I was both the Transmissions Platoon Commander and a Systems Control Watch Officer for the communications detachment for the Second Marine Expeditionary Brigade. As Transmissions Platoon Commander: • Led a platoon of 55 Marines and three airmen. • My platoon maintained all single and multichannel radio and satellite links that made the physical backbone of the brigade's communication architecture. As Systems Control Watch Officer: • Monitored the data, telephony, radio, and satellite networks to ensure communications with more than 10,000 troops and several NATO allies within Helmand Province. • When there was a network outage, I participated in troubleshooting and repairing the outages.

Thesis: An Efficient Prototype Program for Dynamic Partitioning of Experimental Quantum Computers