ProjectDescription
The AI Backpack Web App was built to address a growing gap between education and real-world career pathways—especially for students and early professionals who often lack personalized guidance and access to the right opportunities at the right time.
Developed at Conectado Inc. in collaboration with Dr. Madeleine F. Wallace, Ph.D., the project began with a simple question: How can AI support learners beyond static resources and generic advice? From that question emerged the AI Backpack—an LLM-powered platform designed to act as a career companion.
The AI Backpack pairs intelligent opportunity discovery with the SEAM™ Career Coach, helping users clarify goals, explore pathways, and receive recommendations tailored to their interests, background, and aspirations.
MyRole
As a Software Developer Intern, I truly wore every hat—from research and UI/UX design to hands-on development and product strategy—gaining a holistic understanding of the product lifecycle.
AppliedTechnologies
- Next.js
- Firebase
- Material UI
- Figma
- Google Gemini API
MyContributions
- Engineered a seamless migration of 50,000+ documents from NoSQL to a relational SQL database, improving relational data handling, optimizing data accessibility, and reducing projected operational costs by ∼50%.
- Re-architected the codebase leveraging Next.js, leading to ∼35% faster page load times and simplified component management.
- Redesigned the frontend with Material-UI to deliver a responsive user interface, establishing a new and consistent company branding standard.
- Implemented advanced filtering logic and semantic search capabilities to improve relevance and accuracy of opportunity search results.