About Me

👋🏾 Hi! I’m Tawana, a Computer Science student at Carleton University specializing in AI/ML with a minor in Business (GPA 3.95/4.0). I’m passionate about building intelligent, scalable systems through experiences in cloud engineering, distributed diagnostics, and machine learning.

💻 I’ve had the opportunity to intern at Microsoft and Raven Connected, where I architected distributed diagnostic engines, AI-powered agents, and vision systems for real-time compliance. I enjoy working at the intersection of machine learning, systems design, and cloud platforms to create tools that make a real-world impact.

Tawana Hondonga

Experience

  • Software Engineer Intern @ Microsoft

    - Cut Sev0/Sev1 (Critical Incident) investigation time >95% (hours → <5 min) by architecting & launching a platform that automates root-cause analysis across global cloud infrastructure.
    - Built a distributed, config-driven Python diagnostic engine facilitating parallel anomaly detection across 100+ telemetry sources with intelligent batching and fault isolation.
    - Created a LangChain-based low-code layer enabling AI-powered diagnostic agents to parse NL playbooks & generate executable diagnostics.

    Duration: May 2025 - July 2025

  • AI/ML Engineer Intern @ Raven Connected

    - Integrated seat-belt compliance detection into the cabin-facing pipeline (97% accuracy, F1=0.99) using a 2-stage detector, ensuring zero regression across existing event classes.
    - Engineered real-time semantic mapping for construction zones (98% accuracy, F1=0.98) by chaining depth and segmentation models to enable roadway safety enforcement.
    - Fine-tuned an object detector on a custom dataset to identify temporary speed limits (mAP@0.5=1.00), powering real-time speeding alerts.
    - Built a NL-to-SQL microservice to translate plain English into MySQL queries, enabling self-serve analytics for support staff.

    Duration: September 2024 - April 2025

  • Teaching Assistant @ Carleton University

    - Supported 700+ students across lectures, labs, and office hours; delivered weekly live code demos to 75+ attendees.
    - Provided detailed feedback on 60+ assignments/week, contributing to measurable gains in course pass rates.

    Duration: September 2023 - April 2024

Tawana Hondonga

Projects

Skej Project

Skej (uOttaHack 2nd Place)

AI-powered course scheduler generating conflict-free timetables in <5 mins.
(Typescript, HTML, CSS, Python)

Tawana Hondonga

DataPrepML

ML pipeline & Data preprocessing tool.
(Python)

Tawana Hondonga

EchoGPT

Smart AI Assistant.
(OpenAI API, React, Next JS, Firebase, Vercel)

Tawana Hondonga

iPantry

AI powered pantry tracker.
(React, NextJS, Firebase, Vercel, GCP, Gemini API)

Tawana Hondonga

iMedify

Integrated media consumption platform.
(HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Node, Express, SQLite)

Tawana Hondonga

Personal Website

You're already there!
(HTML/CSS)

Tawana Hondonga

Phantom Pursuit

Multithreaded simulation using POSIX threads & semaphores.
(C, Linux, Makefiles, Valgrind)

Tawana Hondonga

Migraine Classification Neural Network

Classifies seven types of migraines with 93% accuracy.
(Python, TensorFlow, Pandas, Scikit-learn)

Even more...

🔍 Currently seeking Summer 2026 SWE/MLE/ML SWE internship opportunities!

💻 Technical skills:
Languages: Python, C/C++, Java, JavaScript
ML / Deep Learning: PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, scikit-learn, ONNX, TFLite, OpenCV
ML Ops / Data: Pandas, SQL (MySQL), NoSQL, Kusto (KQL), data labeling & ETL
Cloud / DevOps: AWS, Azure, Docker, Linux, Bash, Git, CI/CD
Frameworks / Tools: LangChain, LangGraph, Node.js, Next.js, Express, Valgrind
Focus Areas: Computer Vision, LLM fine-tuning, Prompt Engineering, Model Optimization, Hyperparameter Tuning

🎓 Awards & Honors:
● President’s Faculty Scholarship ($16k)
● Award of Excellence ($5k)
● Dean’s Honor List (2022-2025)
● Vice President & Co-founder @ ColorStackCU

Tawana Hondonga