João Mendonça Email & Phone Number

Zurich, Switzerland

Researched technologies used to improve movie production capabilities at Disney (VFX, directing).Developing a novel method for pose estimation of objects and people. The method combines Gaussian splatting pre-renders and point trackers.Comparable to state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance, while more robust to full occlusion, and with up to 10x faster inference speed due to sparse nature of point trackers.Supervised by Dr. Jakob Buhmann* and Prof. Robert Summer.Tools: Python, PyTorch, CUDA, Blender, Weights & Biases

Developed AI solutions for customer support and analytics used by over 100,000 students and staff across several academic institutions.- The startup acquired their first clients and raised their valuation from 0.5 million to 7.5 million during tenure.- Created evaluation pipelines for Large Language Model (LLM) agents equipped with RAG and API-calling capabilities. Led optimizations resulting in 10x cost reduction, 50% recall improvement, and 2x latency reduction.- Developed backend API for various services including the embedding of user content for RAG pipelines, streaming of LLM outputs to the frontend.Tools: Python, Docker, FastAPI, MongoDB, Pinecone

Netherlands

- Developed mobile applications in Flutter for Android and iOS for three different client platforms. - Connected platforms to REST API backend with JWT-Based Authentication.- Managed app deployment and updates to the Android Play Store and iOS App Store.

Delft, South Holland, Netherlands

Promoted to Head Teaching Assistant for the course Algorithms and Data Structures in my 3rd year of university.- Managed a team of 15+ TAs composed of bachelor and master students.- Instructed TA team on student interaction and grading practices.- Responsible for creating exam and assignment questions.- Assisted in lectures attended by over 500 students.

Netherlands

Served as a teaching assistant for 6 courses: Object Oriented Programming, Reasoning & Logic, Algorithms & Data Structure, OOP Project, Algorithm Design, Machine Learning.- Assisted over a 1000 unique students with their questions during lab hours.- Guided project groups of up to 7 members.- Taught tutorials to class sizes of up to 50 students.- Reviewed and graded exams, ensuring high evaluation standards.

Netherlands

I developed a traffic light data analysis tool to optimize traffic flow across hundreds of intersections in the Netherlands. This included building a real-time data streaming interface that processed gigabytes of traffic data and creating a unified logging standard that combined five different formats.I integrated key traffic flow KPIs into the platform, providing actionable insights for engineers. Collaborating closely with traffic engineers, I led requirements engineering to ensure the software met their needs.The frontend was built with React (JavaScript), while the backend used Spring Boot (Java) and MongoDB for scalability and performance.

Hydron Tech was a project I co-founded in middle school, which I led through to completion in high school. My role involved requirements engineering—working closely with customers to understand their needs, translating these into detailed product designs, and ultimately implementing the solutions.Throughout the project, I developed websites for various small businesses, including local bands, Minecraft servers, and Minecraft building teams. The backend systems were powered by PHP and MySQL, while the frontend was crafted using HTML, CSS, and JQuery.

Master Of Science - Ms, Computer Science, 5.33/6.00 (Current)

Major in Machine Intelligence and minor in Data Management. Courses include Probabilistic Artificial Intelligence, Machine Perception.

Computer Science And Engineering, Computer Science, 9.15/10.0 (Top <0.7%, Cum Laude)

Graduated in the Top 0.7% of my class (cum laude) with a major in Data and a minor in Companies & Innovation. Completed a 20 ECTS Advanced.

19.1/20.0