Jacob Finkelman
Planner With Data Analysis Group
Oak Park, Michigan, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJacob Finkelman is a data-driven planner and engineer with 11 years of experience turning complex regional datasets into actionable forecasts and interactive web tools at SEMCOG. He pairs a summa cum laude civil engineering background with hands-on programming—automating cumbersome data pipelines, optimizing numerical models, and improving backend performance in open-source projects like urbansim and the widely used Rust registry crates.io. Known for independent, results-oriented delivery, he’s solved practical scale and stability problems (e.g., refactoring hotspots and fixing numerical instability in modeling modules) that improved both developer workflows and production efficiency. Based in Oak Park, Michigan, Jacob blends domain expertise in demographic and transportation analysis with backend engineering chops to make large, messy data both reliable and useful.
11 years of coding experience
4 years of employment as a software developer
MIT OpenCourseWareBachelor of Science (B.S.), Civil and Environmental Engineering, summa cum laude, GPA 3.98, Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Civil and Environmental Engineering, summa cum laude, GPA 3.98 at Wayne State University College of EngineeringOakland Community College
Github Skills (16)
pandas10
rust10
postgresql10
sql10
python10
database-design10
optimization9
crate9
optimisation9
io9
numerical-optimization9
algorithm9
performance-tuning9
git9
code-optimization9
Programming languages (17)
Github contributions (5)
UDST/urbansim
Dec 2015 - May 2018
Platform for building statistical models of cities and regions
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:12 commits, 8 PRs, 39 comments in 2 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Jacob primarily focused on improving the performance and efficiency of the `urbansim` platform, particularly within the `sqftproforma` module. They refactored code to reduce looping, replacing it with generator expressions and other performance optimizations. Furthermore, the user addressed numerical stability issues within the `mnl` module and made updates to the developer pick logic for improved building selection.
regionsstatisticalstatistical-models
rust-lang/crates.io
Feb 2017 - Jan 2018
The Rust package registry
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:14 commits, 9 PRs, 103 comments in 11 months
Contributions summary:Jacob primarily contributed to the back-end functionality of the `crates.io` package registry, focusing on core features. Their work involved modifying code related to crate indexing, category management, and version handling, including changes to database queries. The user also implemented changes to the migration process, updating database schemas, and refactoring code. These contributions centered around improving the functionality and efficiency of the registry.
rustpackage-registrycargo
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