Zeynep Akkalyoncu
Technical Manager, Data Science
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolZeynep Akkalyoncu is a technical manager and data scientist with 11 years of experience building production ML systems and research-grade retrieval models. She progressed through hands-on roles at StackAdapt from Data Scientist to Technical Manager, leading teams that bridge applied machine learning, natural language processing and information retrieval. Her academic background includes an MMath in Computer Science from University of Waterloo, where she developed deep learning approaches for document retrieval and cross-lingual QA. An active open-source contributor, she has contributed core index- and term-level functionality to the widely used Anserini/Pyserini IR toolkits, surfacing Java Lucene features through Python for reproducible research. Comfortable moving between research and product, she combines rigorous evaluation with pragmatic engineering to deliver scalable search and NLP solutions. Unusually for a senior engineering lead, she also brings creative discipline from years as a violinist, reflecting strong collaboration and attention to detail.
11 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
High School, Turkish National Curriculum Mathematics & Science Track, International Baccalaureate (IB), High School, Turkish National Curriculum Mathematics & Science Track, International Baccalaureate (IB) at TED Ankara College Foundation High SchoolBachelor's Degree, Computer Engineering, 3.4 / 4.0, Bachelor's Degree, Computer Engineering, 3.4 / 4.0 at Middle East Technical UniversityHigh School, High School at International BaccalaureateMaster of Mathematics, Computer Science, 4.0 / 4.0, Master of Mathematics, Computer Science, 4.0 / 4.0 at University of Waterloo
English, Turkish, French, Russian, Chinese
Stackoverflow
865reputation
45kreached
7answers
5questions
Github Skills (14)
lucene10
javas10
information-retrieval10
api10
python10
apidoc10
java10
testing8
cd6
swift6
macos6
linux6
closures6
sublime-text6
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
castorini/pyserini
Nov 2019 - Jan 2020
Pyserini is a Python toolkit for reproducible information retrieval research with sparse and dense representations.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:6 commits, 9 PRs, 9 pushes in 1 month
Contributions summary:Zeynep primarily contributed to the development of the Python interface for the Anserini index reader utilities. They implemented methods to analyze terms, iterate over terms, fetch raw documents, and retrieve BM25 term weights. These changes involved modifications to Python files to expose Java methods and functionality, and added associated testing. The user also made improvements to the terms iterator and updated the analyze method to return a list of tokens.
information-retrievalpython
castorini/anserini
Nov 2019 - Jan 2020
Anserini is a Lucene toolkit for reproducible information retrieval research
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:5 commits, 7 PRs, 11 pushes in 1 month
Contributions summary:Zeynep primarily contributed to the `IndexReaderUtils` class within the Anserini project, a Lucene-based information retrieval toolkit. Their work involved enhancing existing functionalities and adding new features related to index manipulation, term analysis, and document retrieval. These additions expose functionalities such as iterating over terms and retrieving raw documents. Additionally, the user adapted existing methods to work with Pyserini, suggesting an effort to integrate the library.
information-retrievallucene
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