01 —
Make it useful
I like projects with a clear reason to exist. Something small that helps is a good place to start.
Chapter IV About
About / Essam Khawaja
A little more
about me.
I study Computer Science at the University of Calgary and work across software engineering, machine learning, and applied research.
01My story
I’m Essam Khawaja, a Computer Science student at the University of Calgary with a Data Science minor, a Software Engineering concentration, and current honours research. I work across software engineering, machine learning, and applied research.
Essam.The longer story
At MIPSLAB, I contributed to PET/CT tumour segmentation and downstream cancer-staging experiments. My honours work at ETHEREAL Lab studies communication-partner prompts and participant interaction state in AutomaViC, under Dr. Mea Wang and Dr. Diwakar Krishnamurthy.
Outside the lab, I contribute to FrontierSat ground-station software with CalgaryToSpace, ROS 2 and Gazebo simulation with AUV Calgary, and a hackathon platform with Code The Change YYC. My projects also include a browser-based gesture recogniser, a financial app, and a Python game.
I like technically difficult problems where the parts need to work together. That might mean taking messy data through preprocessing and evaluation, or connecting a database, API, model, and interface into a system someone can use.
Earlier work as a data analyst intern and through my web agency, CRTStack, taught me to explain technical decisions and deliver for other people. I also serve as VP Academics in the Computer Science Undergraduate Society and contribute to MOSAIC’s community work.
I’m interested in 2027 internships in software engineering, machine learning, AI, and research engineering, including technically challenging startup teams. My full name is Syed Essam Uddin Khawaja; I go by Essam.
04What I come back to
In the work and outside it
02 —
Learn by making
Reading gets me started. Building something is usually where I find out what I don’t understand yet.
03 —
Work with people
I’ve learned a lot from team projects, community events, and the people willing to try an early version.
04 —
Step away sometimes
There’s a world outside the editor. A change of scenery helps; the mountains are a good one.
In the open
@Essam-Khawaja A year of making things.
Some of the work between the projects. Commits, pull requests, and other contributions on GitHub.
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“For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.”