Grace Jennings
Predoctoral Researcher at Computational Social Science Lab at Penn
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolGrace Jennings is a predoctoral researcher and software engineer with seven years of experience building and maintaining complex systems, currently expanding large-scale data infrastructure for the Penn Media Accountability Project in Philadelphia. She brings deep compiler expertise from her work on Microsoft’s DirectX Shader Compiler—contributing features, diagnostics, and LLVM integration—that reflects strong backend engineering and systems-level reasoning. Her background spans industry research internships and academic collaborations (MIT CSAIL, Technical University Munich) where she applied C++, Python, and embedded/autonomy tools to real-world problems. Comfortable navigating large codebases and open-source communities, she pairs rigorous technical skill with empirical research interests in media bias and science communication. An unassuming detail: her compiler work included adding user-facing flags and nuanced diagnostics, showing a focus on developer ergonomics as well as correctness.
6 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
Trinity College DublinBachelor of Engineering - BE, Computer Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering - BE, Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt UniversityCorona de Mar High School
Github Skills (8)
hlsl10
compile-time9
cprogramming-language9
diagnostics9
c-language9
compiler9
dx8
dxc8
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
microsoft/DirectXShaderCompiler
Aug 2021 - Aug 2022
This repo hosts the source for the DirectX Shader Compiler which is based on LLVM/Clang.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:16 reviews, 11 commits, 25 PRs in 1 year
Contributions summary:Grace primarily contributed to the DirectX Shader Compiler by implementing and improving compiler features. Their work included adding a version flag, integrating source encoding options, and introducing warnings for shader model version promotions and unwritten outputs. The user also worked on fixing logical operator behavior, along with tests, and supported the use of options to compile API, including set private and root signature features.
directx-shader-compilercppclangbgfxhosts
gracejennings/Spotifeatures
Dec 2019 - Nov 2022
Contributions:4 pushes, 1 branch in 2 years 11 months
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