CUSEC 2025

Greg Wilson

Dr. Greg Wilson co-founded and was the first Executive Director of Software Carpentry, which has taught basic software skills to tens of thousands of researchers worldwide, and has authored or edited over a dozen books, including 'Beautiful Code', 'The Architecture of Open Source Applications', and most recently 'Software Design by Example'. Greg is a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation and a recipient of ACM SIGSOFT's Influential Educator of the Year award, and currently works as a software engineering manager at Plotly.

Lyn Chen

Lyn Chen is a serial entrepreneur and educator passionate about solving complex problems and empowering the next generation of leaders. She co-founded Webapp.io, a Y Combinator-backed DevOps tooling company backed by the former CTO of npm, scaling it to a $15M valuation. Lyn is also the co-author of the most popular free DevOps Engineering Course on FreeCodeCamp, with over 1M learners worldwide. As co-CEO of Cansbridge Scholars, Lyn mentors ambitious students under 25 globally, inspiring them to excel in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Named the youngest Forbes 30 Under 30 in North America for B2B enterprise software, she has taught and spoken internationally through programs like Rotman's CDL, TKS, and Techstars. Currently building a university, Lyn is dedicated to unlocking human potential with technology. She loves lifelong learning, traveling, trying new sports, and spending time with her husband, a video game developer, and their dog Penny and cat Zoe.

Edwin Sarmiento

I'm the Managing Director of 15C, a global consulting and training company that specializes in designing, implementing, and supporting Microsoft data platform solutions. A Microsoft Certified Master and a former Microsoft Data Platform MVP for 12 years, I specialize in the design and implementation of high availability, disaster recovery and system infrastructure solutions. The nature of my work got me interested in non-technology matters such as professional and organizational development, leadership and management matters, neuroscience, and human psychology. When not working with databases, you can find me playing jazz music on my Korg X50 or Kawai ES110 keyboards or acoustic guitar, going on nature hikes, doing wilderness camping, running races, and earning my private pilot's license.

Fatima Taj

Senior Software Engineer at Yelp

Fatima is a Senior Software Engineer at Yelp with a deep passion for mentoring early-career tech professionals. She has successfully guided many individuals through their first steps in the tech industry, helping them overcome challenges and achieve their career goals. In addition to her mentorship, Fatima is a prominent voice in the tech community, with a substantial following on LinkedIn, where she shares actionable insights on career development and growth. An experienced speaker, Fatima has presented at leading conferences including Developer Week 2024, the Southern California Linux Expo (Scale) 2023 and 2024, NDC Copenhagen Developer Festival 2023, Women of Silicon Roundabout 2022, cdCon+GitOpsCon 2023 (as a keynote speaker), Momentum 2024, and the Black is Tech Conference in 2022 and 2023. She has also spoken at over 80 hackathons across North America. Fatima holds a master's degree in Data Science from HEC Montreal and a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Nivy Kani

Software Developer at Google

Nivy graduated from the University of Toronto in 2022, studying Computer Science and Business Management. She currently works as a software developer at Google, with an interest in Cloud technologies. In her free time, she uses her leadership experience to help non-profits use technology to operate better. She also loves running and learning languages!

Rue Sriharsha

Trustworthy AI Consultant at Deloitte

Rue is on a mission to build products that improve life convenience. She is an AI/ML Consultant in Deloitte's Trustworthy AI practice. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a major in Computational Cognitive Science and triple minors in Computer Science, Statistics and Business. Rue has previously interned at Microsoft, Amazon and 3 Canadian startups. She is also an avid hackathon attendee with over 30+ successful projects and 5 wins under her belt.

Shan Wu

Entrepreneur, Founder, and CEO

Shan is a human. And here's a bunch of work things he did: RBC Tech & Ops intern. Bain consultant. Early team at 2 YC startups. And now Cofounder of a VC backed no name startup. He had mentors that changed his life when he was a student, and is excited to share whatever he can with everyone he meets at CUSEC.

Matthew Macrae-Bovell

Software Developer II at Jobber, Computer Science at Carleton University

Carleton University computer science student and previous President of the Carleton Computer Science Society. Software Developer with 5+ years of experience across freelance, internships, and more. Interned with various startups as well as The Bank of Canada, Kinaxis, and RBC, followed by a two-year tenure at Shopify. Currently working as a Software Developer II at Jobber (a SAAS for service providers).

Bilal Ahktar

Software Engineer at Cockroach Labs, Alumni UWaterloo Software Engineering

Bilal is a Software Engineer at Cockroach Labs. He works on CockroachDB's log-structured merge-tree (LSM) based storage engine, and in the process he has built a deep appreciation for reliable, highly-performant code. He has experience dealing with things that can go wrong in large, production distributed systems, and he is eager to share this experience at CUSEC. An alumni of UWaterloo's Software Engineering program, he's dodged his fair share of geese on campus and now the only honks he gets are from his oncall pager app. Outside of work, Bilal is an avid skier, long-distance runner and an advocate for housing affordability in Toronto.

Gaia Noseworthy

M. Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo

Gaia Noseworthy is a masters student of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. With a background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics, all at the University of New Brunswick, Gaia has built a life on local politics, research, and a love of learning. In their off-time, Gaia is known for podcasting, community outreach, and exploring their local city!

Tony Xu

MSc Electrical and COEN at McGill, SE from WesternU, Business from Ivey Business School

Tony is a MSc electrical and compute engineering student at McGill researching GenAI. He holds a dual degree in software engineering from Western University and business from Ivey Business School. He is researching copyright-free diffusion models. His previous research was in plaque segmentation from ultrasound, optimal needle placement in brachytherapy, driver drowsiness detection, and tornado segmentation from satellite. He is working on a microbiome startup on a mission to take the guesswork out of skincare and provide a better alternative to antibiotics. His industry experience includes AI engineering, asset management, and software engineering.

Florent Giraud

Senior Software Engineer at BusBud

I am a Senior Software Developer with a passion for building scalable and innovative front-end solutions. I am graduate of 42 School in France, I've cultivated a hands-on approach to tackling complex challenges and driving impactful results. My career has spanned roles such as Front-End Lead and Software Architect, where I implemented infrastructure-as-code solutions, established modern development practices, and guided cross-functional teams through complex transitions. I thrive on collaboration, mentoring, and fostering a culture of continuous learning. Whether it's facilitating 'Lunch and Learn' sessions, crafting roadmaps that align technical vision with business goals, or driving innovation. Beyond work, I enjoy exploring emerging technologies, sharing knowledge through workshops, and solving challenges that push the boundaries of what's possible in software development.

Mukund Mauji

Applied Mathematics and Engineering, Self Employed Software Engineer

Hi my name is Mukund and I am a curious person. In university, I studied Applied Mathematics and Engineering, interning in SF and running a hackathon along the way. Since graduating, I've worked in multi-material 3D printing and web-scale search. Currently, I'm self employed and exploring different opportunities and technologies. So far this year, I've worked on projects in computational neuroscience, climate science, insurance tech, 3D modelling, and RC cars.

Jocelyne Murphy

Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo

Jocelyne is a Systems Design Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. She's recently founded Wygo, a company to support community-builders, and been a key contributor to the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Waterloo through building Socratica, a collective of writers, artists, engineers, and everything in-between.

Maya Lehki

Computer Science and Business at Western University and Ivey School of Business

Maya Lekhi is a Computer Science and Business student at Western University and the Ivey School of Business. Her journey into engineering began in high school, where she applied microbiology and data analysis in researching how SCOBY biofilms can be applied as renewable biofilters to address Canada's water crisis. This groundbreaking research earned her recognition as a Canada-Wide Science Fair Finalist, placing her in the top 2% of research projects in Canada, and resulted in several publications. This early work led her to explore bioinformatics, studying mitochondrial haplotypes and their influence on DNA methylation for over a year. Maya has interned at 3 startups, TD Bank, Borealis AI, and is an incoming Software Engineer Intern at Microsoft. During her time at Borealis AI, she developed large language models and Fintech AI infrastructure supporting over 17 million clients. Beyond her internships, Maya has founded several startups, which she has grown through participation in the RippleX Accelerator and the Cansbridge Scholars program. Maya is committed to growing in the intersection of creativity and engineering, where she's passionate about turning bold ideas into meaningful, lasting solutions.

Victor Li

Upcoming Masters Student in Data Science

Hi! My name is Victor Li. I'm in my final year of Undergrad in CS and will start my Master's in Data Science in September. I have researched maritime ship prediction modelling, game theory, social networking, and reinforcement learning. While I gained valuable software development experience at Cerio, my passion lies in research, where I can tackle open-ended problems and explore innovative solutions. This interest has led me to focus on research-driven projects. A fun fact about me is that I represented Team Canada in Dragon Boat in Italy last year and am currently training for my Half-Ironman. See you at CUSEC!!

Rabab Azeem

Computer Engineering Student at Queen's University

Rabab is a 5th year Computer Engineering student at Queen's. Currently a Managing Director for the Queen's AI club, QMIND, she loves to lead and aspires to do AI research as a graduate student.

Sophy Sun

Software Engineer at HubSpot, Alumni UofT Computer Science

Sophy graduated from the University of Toronto in 2024 and started working full-time at HubSpot in Boston. She interned five times during undergrad and held two research assistantships.