Harika Gummadi

As a Graduate Teaching Assistant for Cloud Computing, I am supporting students through labs, office hours, and discussions by reinforcing cloud fundamentals, bridging theory with hands-on AWS usage, and helping them build confidence in designing and reasoning about real-world cloud architectures.

Co-founded TechTeaSpill to help students and early-career professionals navigate tech through real, honest stories from industry professionals. I interview engineers, managers, and leaders from companies like Amazon, Apple and Google, sharing insights on breaking into tech, career growth, and day-to-day work. Our content has reached 500K+ and 150K+ views, sparking meaningful conversations and questions from aspiring technologists. Focused on making tech careers feel more accessible, transparent, and human.

I am dedicated to bringing women in tech together and easing their professional journeys by fostering connections and mutual support. I achieve this by meticulously planning, coordinating, and executing strategic events that facilitate meaningful networking and knowledge transfer among fellow tech women. My role involves managing event logistics and curating engaging content, which directly contributes to building collaborative environments and enhancing crucial soft skills like communication and empathetic leadership, all vital for dynamic software engineering teams.

Mentored students in core software engineering concepts through hands-on Java development, focusing on OOP, design patterns, data structures, and SOLID principles. I helped them confidently implement real-world patterns like Factory, Strategy, Command, and MVC, while reinforcing best practices in unit testing and version control with Git. Together, we improved codebases of 1,000+ LOC, resulting in cleaner, more scalable software.

Hosted weekly office hours providing academic and career support to graduate CS students, addressing complex technical and career-related questions and connecting them to specialized resources when needed. Organized and led technical workshops featuring industry professionals, collaborating with university departments and alumni to enhance learning opportunities. Served as a liaison for student technology clubs, promoting engagement and cross-functional collaboration. Actively engaged in leadership training and cohort initiatives, helping to create a more supportive and connected technical community for students.

Built an AI-powered retail checkout system that uses YOLOv8 and OpenCV to detect products in real-time from a live video feed, eliminating the need for barcodes or RFID. I built a full-stack web app with Flask, JavaScript, and MongoDB to manage virtual carts, customer profiles, and dynamic invoicing. The system achieved over 90% detection accuracy, reduced average checkout time by 40%, and supported secure, scalable deployment using Docker and hardware acceleration. This project significantly enhances customer experience and billing accuracy in modern retail environments.

I spearheaded marketing and outreach initiatives that boosted event participation by 60% through strategic promotion and collaboration with faculty and leadership to bring in high-impact guest speakers. I partnered with multiple departments to coordinate workshops and technical events, ensuring seamless execution and strong student engagement. I also managed the club’s annual technical magazine, overseeing content, production, and publicity, which highlighted over 100+ student innovations. Additionally, I played a key role in organizing the annual project showcase, increasing visibility for student work and attracting a record number of attendees.

I developed "Artificial Visual Sense", a real-time assistive system using smart spectacles to detect faces, recognize individuals, and analyze emotions through live video, with voice feedback to support visually impaired users. I built and trained CNN models using TensorFlow and Keras, integrated OpenCV for video processing, and used pyttsx3 for speech output. The system achieved over 92% accuracy in face recognition and identified 7 emotions with 85% real-time accuracy. This project bridges AI with human emotional understanding for inclusive assistive tech and smart surveillance applications.

I led the creation and deployment of the company’s official website from scratch using React and Next.js, delivering a fast, SEO-optimized, and mobile-responsive experience. The site, deployed via Vercel with a secure Node.js + SendGrid contact form, improved load times by 40% and boosted client inquiries by 3x within the first month. I also integrated Google Analytics to track user behavior and drive data-informed updates. This full-stack solution reflects the company’s mission and strengthened its digital presence for partners and clients alike.

I led a team of 5 developers to build a responsive, user-centric website using React, Node.js, and Strapi, improving cross-device usability and cutting content update time by 60%. We followed Agile methodologies with weekly sprints and code reviews, which helped us deliver on time and ensure high code quality. I also implemented automated testing with Selenium, achieving 99% cross-browser compatibility and reducing post-deployment issues. The site saw a 2.5x increase in user engagement and significantly streamlined internal content workflows.

• RELEVANT COURSEWORK: - Scalabale Distributed Systems - Machine Learning - Programming Design Paradigms - Cloud Computing - Algorithms - Web Development - Database Management Systems

• RELEVANT COURSEWORK: - Operating Systems - Artificial Intelligence - Advanced Data Structures - Data Science - Software Engineering - Python Programming - Java Programming - Cyber Security - Big Data Analytics - Computer Networks

• RELEVANT COURSEWORK: - Advanced Physics - Advanced Mathematics - Advanced Chemistry