Jay Panchal

As a Teaching Assistant this spring, I support students and faculty across multiple computer science subjects through open lab hours. Unlike the previous semester, where I served specifically as a Machine Learning TA responsible for grading and course-specific labs, this role is more general. Students from different courses can drop in with questions, seek guidance, or work through technical challenges across a wide range of CS topics. Key contributions: Hold open lab hours to assist students with programming assignments, debugging, and core computer science concepts across multiple subjects. Provide one-on-one technical guidance, helping students understand problems, think through solutions, and build stronger conceptual foundations. Assist both students and faculty with coursework-related questions, technical issues, and lab activities. Support students preparing for projects, interviews, and final deliverables by helping them review concepts and problem-solving approaches. Create a welcoming and collaborative environment where students feel comfortable asking questions and working through challenges. This role allows me to interact with students from different courses and backgrounds, giving me a broader perspective on the challenges they face. It continues to strengthen my ability to explain concepts clearly, adapt to different problem types, and support learning across various areas of computer science while growing alongside the LMU community.

After gaining hands-on exposure to film production workflows in the Lighting & Grip department, I transitioned into PostTech RECA Support to understand the post-production side of filmmaking, particularly editing and finishing workflows. This role allowed me to work closely with students, faculty, and technical staff while supporting professional-grade post-production environments. Key contributions: Managed and supported post-production editing suites, including audio, video, and color correction rooms, ensuring systems were ready and functioning for daily use. Provided front-line technical support—acting as IT support for post-production—helping users troubleshoot real-time issues such as audio output problems, playback inconsistencies, sync and timeline issues, and software-related errors. Supported a wide range of industry-standard tools: Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Avid Pro Tools, Adobe After Effects, and Animate. Managed suite reservations and access, ensuring fair usage and smooth scheduling across multiple courses and productions. Worked closely with students, faculty, peers, and supervisors to diagnose issues, learn new workflows, and continuously improve support quality in a fast-paced environment. This role strengthened my technical troubleshooting, communication, and problem-solving skills while giving me deep exposure to real-world post-production workflows—turning a long-standing interest in film and editing into hands-on experience.

Served as a Teaching Assistant for an upper-division Machine Learning course, supporting students and faculty throughout the semester with grading, lab instruction, and technical clarification. Key responsibilities and contributions: Evaluated and graded student assignments involving machine learning fundamentals, including model implementation, experimentation, and result analysis. Supported lab sessions, helping students debug code, understand model behavior, and apply concepts such as regression, classification, clustering, and neural networks. Reviewed student work written primarily in Python, providing feedback on correctness, logic, and approach. Worked closely with the course instructor to resolve grading questions, clarify assignment expectations, and align on evaluation criteria. Assisted students in understanding theoretical concepts and translating them into practical implementations. I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Mandy Korpusik for recommending me for this opportunity and for consistently believing in my potential. I am equally grateful to Dr. Lanyu Shang, under whose guidance I served as a Teaching Assistant. Their mentorship and support were instrumental in my growth, and I strive to carry forward the same spirit of guidance and encouragement when supporting students. This role strengthened my understanding of core machine learning concepts, improved my ability to evaluate technical work critically, and enhanced my skills in explaining complex ideas clearly.

Pleased to be part of the LMU Student Housing team as a Facilities Assistant! From inspecting furniture and fixing equipment to managing move-in readiness and assisting students, our job is to ensure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes. But as a Computer Science student, I see things through a different lens—an Agile one. We follow Scrum methodology: • Trello to manage tasks by priority and story points • Daily stand-ups to align as a team and play to each other’s strengths • Weekly sprints to stay goal-focused • And yes, if we drew a burn-down chart… we’re definitely underpaid! Grateful to be part of a team that values collaboration, planning, and efficiency. No matter the role, I believe every job can be optimized—with the right mindset and tools.

Chose this role to gain first-hand exposure to how one of the top film schools operates behind the scenes, working within highly collaborative and passionate student production teams. Coming from a backend engineering background, I was curious to understand how complex, real-world workflows function outside software systems, while building strong soft skills. Key contributions: Managed film equipment orders by assigning, reprioritizing, and reassigning tasks using a Kanban-based workflow to meet changing shoot timelines. Coordinated equipment packing, distribution, returns, and post-shoot checks during time-critical, high-pressure production schedules. Served as a shift lead and primary point-of-contact, coordinating between student crews, faculty, and staff to keep operations running smoothly. Worked closely with cross-functional teams to support reliable production logistics and resolve last-minute issues. This role strengthened my leadership, communication, and decision-making skills, and gave me valuable insight into how large, passionate teams collaborate to deliver complex projects under real-world constraints.

As a Software Engineer, I worked on building, testing, and improving backend and application-level features for production systems used by real users. My role involved writing and refactoring code, improving test coverage, optimizing database performance, and supporting reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines. Key contributions: Backend & Application Development: Developed and enhanced application features, refactored existing code to improve maintainability, and fixed bugs to improve overall system stability and performance. Automation & Testing: Built and maintained automated test suites using Selenium, Postman, and Appium, reducing manual testing effort and improving confidence in releases. Performed functional, regression, and performance testing as part of regular development cycles. CI/CD & Release Support: Worked with Jenkins-based CI/CD pipelines to automate builds and test execution, helping reduce deployment time and minimize release-related issues. Database & Performance Optimization: Wrote and optimized SQL queries, improved schema usage, and applied indexing strategies to speed up data retrieval and reduce processing time. Cross-team Collaboration: Collaborated with developers, testers, and other stakeholders to troubleshoot issues, review changes, and deliver features on schedule. This role strengthened my ability to build, test, and deploy production-ready software while working across development, testing, and release workflows.

As a Backend Developer, I worked on building backend services used across multiple application modules, focusing on API development, secure request handling, and data management using Node.js (Express), Java (Spring), MongoDB, and MySQL, with API testing and debugging using Postman. Key contributions: Built and maintained RESTful APIs across multiple modules: Developed APIs using Express and Spring with consistent request–response contracts, structured error handling, and basic logging to support reliable integration. Implemented authentication, authorization, and robust request validation: Integrated JWT-based authentication with role-based access control, added input validation, and centralized exception handling to ensure secure and stable API behavior. Designed scalable APIs with pagination, filtering, and versioning: Implemented pagination and filtering for data-heavy endpoints and maintained API versioning to support feature evolution without breaking existing modules. Designed and optimized MongoDB and MySQL data layers: Designed schemas and collections from scratch, handled relationships, wrote complex queries and joins, and applied indexing to improve query performance. Handled file uploads and followed production engineering practices: Implemented backend support for file uploads, managed schema changes, and worked in a Git-based workflow with pull requests, code reviews, bug fixes, and debugging. This role strengthened my backend engineering fundamentals and gave me hands-on experience building secure, scalable APIs and data layers in a real-world application environment.

During my internship at Praxware Technologies, I worked as a software engineer on a web-based application built using Python (Django) and MySQL, with primary responsibility for backend development and data-driven functionality. Key contributions: Built backend features using Django, including models, views, authentication (login/signup), session handling, forms, validations, and REST APIs. Designed and implemented the MySQL database schema and connected it with Django, handling full CRUD operations and data persistence. Developed backend logic for sales and inventory management, including CRUD workflows, basic calculations, and database-driven reports. Used Python and SQL to extract and prepare data for reporting and business analysis. Created Power BI dashboards as a supporting extension to visualize sales and inventory data and reduce manual reporting effort. Ensured all major application features functioned correctly end to end, focusing on reliability and correctness. This internship gave me hands-on experience building backend systems from scratch, working across application logic, databases, and data visualization, and reinforced my foundation in practical software engineering.

As a Software Engineer Intern at HN Techno, I had the opportunity to develop and optimize a web application that streamlined operations for shopkeepers, improving their day-to-day tasks. My work involved both front-end and back-end development using technologies like Angular, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Key contributions include: Web Application Development: Developed a user-friendly web application to streamline receipt management, inventory tracking, and payment processing for shopkeepers, improving operational efficiency. Performance Optimization: Implemented efficient algorithms and data structures to ensure real-time updates, significantly optimizing application performance and responsiveness. Scalability Enhancements: Focused on the scalability of the application, making it capable of accommodating future growth and higher user demand, ensuring long-term stability and success. This internship provided me with hands-on experience in full-stack development, where I contributed to both improving user experience and ensuring robust system performance.