Hi, I'm Kayla :)
I'm a third year software engineer at the University of Waterloo. I enjoy creating cool things, whether I'm working on an interesting side project, crocheting an adorable plushie, or baking some treats!
I'm looking for summer 2026 internships, so feel free to contact me! Also if you're interested in any of the things I've been working on, feel free to reach out! I enjoy making new friends and talking about my hobbies!
Projects
Toot
Find your perfect toot-er! (tutor)
RAIINet
A fun 2 person strategy game
SongSnap
Create the best playlists to compliment your photos
Joever Rover
No need to fear, Joever Rover's here!
Map App
Helping students navigate classes
Papple Princess
Combine offence and defence with the power of papple!
Experience
Backend Developer - Scrawlr
September 2025 - present
- Engineered image upload system with AWS S3 and Fastify to eliminate user reliance on competitor platforms for property photos, strengthening platform independence and improving user retention
- Architecting LLM orchestrator to automate technical documentation generation and validation, designed to speed up documenting and ensure consistent code-to-documentation synchronization
Automation and AI/ML Developer - Nokia
January 2025 - April 2025
- Built and integrated lightweight CD pipeline with Gittea and ChartMuseum, automating Helm chart
- ployments to Kubernetes and boosting release traceability and rollback reliability by 40%
- Added schema validation and status reporting in Go K8s controller, decreasing troubleshooting time by 25%
- Streamlined installation of 5G components on K8s cluster with Crossplane, reducing deployment time by 30%
- Created PyTest suite to identify integration issues across microservices, covering 90% of the deployment workflow
Software Developer - PinkByte (Mazzzing)
May 2024 - August 2024
- Developed an ASP.NET website to support secure RDP sessions over the web for 200+ users
- Dynamically updated server location by programming SQL script, reducing API calls by 80%
- Developed PowerShell scripts to automate RDP tool setup on web servers, cutting installation time by 40%
- Wrote C# code to automatically sort servers by location for users, boosting performance over 10%
Hobbies
Linux
I enjoy using Fedora on my PC :) currently I am trying to rice my setup to make it look nicer (using Hyprland), so I'll show the dotfiles once I finish! I also use NeoVim, and I think everyone should try using NeoVim at least once cause it's the GOAT 🐐 If you disagree, give me one good reason cause once you learn the controls, it's so hard to switch back
Crochet
I started crocheting at the start of this year, and I'm proud of how much I've learned! My favourite type of crochet is amigurumi (making plushies), and I'm aiming to make a plush for each programming language I use! If you have any suggestions on what I can crochet next, reach out to me!
Sewing/Embroidery
I rekindled my passion for sewing when I wanted to gift my friend a Tux plush (Linux penguin mascot). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Tux plushies I wanted to buy online, so I decided to make my own. Using a pattern for Tux (licensed under GPL) I sewed my first plush! This was the main reason I wanted to make a plush for each language/tool I use.
Baking
Here's some foods I made! I like baking in my free time and some of my favourite items are egg tarts and milk bread! I also got into making sourdough bread, but I couldn't maintain my starter because I kept on moving :( Currently Crusty (my sourdough starter) is dehydrated until I have more time
