# Ezequiel Valencia > Software Developer at the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, leveraging my expertise in cybersecurity, DevOps, full-stack development, and image analysis. Location: United States, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/ezequiel I started in a biotech company writing java applications to control the microscopes and process the data. My love for computer science and experience has only grown since then, having worked upon machine learning, cryptography, cybersecurity, database management, web development, and IT. Now I am looking for an organization that aligns with my personal interests of helping a large portion of people with my skills. ## Work Experience ### Software Developer - Academic Research Enviroment @ The University of Connecticut Health Center Jan 2023 – Present | United States Modernized a legacy 20+ year-old scientific Java server/client that serves +300,000/yr simulations. Overhauled antiquated architecture which placed client applications in control of the DB, optimized service algorithms, replace the custom authentication flow with PKCE OIDC, and re-implemented the public API with Quarkus. In addition a new export format was added which allows for streaming results to the image analysis software ImageJ with a custom application developed. Transition the team away from docker swarm to Kubernetes, and manage several different grants applications with K8. Installed a monitoring system within the K8 cluster for metrics and logging to ensure visibility with over 4 million logs being processed every day. Interview, onboard, and mentor two interns joining the organization. Teaching them AI, database, security, and general CS concepts to ensure code quality is maintained. Take theoretical co-simulation execution and materialize it with FastAPI and HPC. It incorporates dynamic singularity container building for secure arbitrary code execution, alongside a simulator registry for the bio-informatics community, and tied it into SLURM for executing experiments. Exposed over 300,000 lines of Java code to Python by removing JVM dependent features, performing native compilation using GraalVM, and create DLLs used by CTypes. ### Teaching Assistant @ University of Connecticut Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | Storrs Mansfield, Connecticut, United States As a teacher assistant, I help teach the students, develop the labs, and create administrative tools. Every TA is responsible for teaching students the topics of ransomware, cryptography, web security, phishing, network-level attacks, and malware. In addition to teaching these topics, I developed two labs for the course, phishing, and general web security. The first lab's purpose was to teach students about the dangers of phishing sites, automated password testing scripts, and how to develop websites using Javascript, HTML, CSS, and Flask. I developed a fake banking website vulnerable to scripts that test users' credentials. Students point out the site's vulnerabilities and build a phishing website that imitates the banking site. The second lab teaches students about cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and cross-site scripting (XSS). A similar banking site is used, except now it is vulnerable to CSRF and XSS. Students try to send money transfers from sites they develop, typically using image tags and altering their accounts page. The banking website is hosted within an internal network so port forwarding with a VPN connection was taught to the students which allows access to the website from external networks. Currently, I am developing an automated grading system and its associated website. Students will log into the website and submit their solutions, which scripts will automatically grade their submissions and give feedback. Their submissions and grades are stored with a digital signature and distributed to assure that no tampering occurs. ### Research Assistant @ MITRE Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 At the non-profit organization MITRE, I was put on the project for post-quantum identity-based encryption, proving functional equivalence, and embedded systems CTF. For PQ IBE papers “How to Use a Short Basis: Trapdoors for Hard Lattices and New Cryptographic Constructions”, “Making NTRU as Secure as Worst-Case Problems over Ideal Lattices”, and “Efficient Identity-Based Encryption over NTRU Lattices" were read. These readings lead to understanding PQ IBE, used in integrating it within open-source email encryption services such as GnuPG. Most of these open-source applications use the library libgcrypt for their cryptographic functionality. Integration of IBE required a new public key functionality in libgcrypt and GnuPG because of its unique key distribution properties. Unfortunately, there was not enough time within my internship to fully implement IBE, although a road map was created on how to do it. Another project had me proving equivalence between functions written within C and Cryptol utilizing the tools COQ, Heapster, and SAW. For fixed-sized input, SAW is used, and N-sized input Heapster is used to convert C and Cryptol into COQ, then within COQ equivalence can be proven. Finally, the CTF lasted five weeks and centralized upon key FOBs and their receiver. A public key protocol had to be created so that FOBs can be initiated with the receiver, and then have a symmetric key used for general communication involving unlocking and locking the hypothetical car. There were difficulties due to the limitation of the hardware having to manage memory and processing power. Overall my team got second place. ### Resident Assistant @ University of Connecticut Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 As a residential assistant, I was responsible for the building my residents lived in, spending most of my time with the residents on my floor. While being an RA strenuous situations were encountered frequently. Some situations were potential fire, physical altercations, potential harm to other residents and themselves, property damage, and general college stress-induced problems. All of these problems required both emotional and general intelligence to resolve. In addition to resolving problems, I took time to help inspire residents that were stuck emotionally or intellectually to continue growing. ### Lead Software Developer @ QCDx Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Farmington, Connecticut, United States I worked for a biotech startup called QCDx that required their microscope to interface with computers. Utilizing Java and the public tools ImageJ and Micro-Manager, I developed an application that can interact with the microscope and an algorithm that scans specimens sequentially. In addition to that application, due to having the extra time I developed an application to analyze the resulting images the microscope produced and modify them so that analysts could save time. ## Education ### Bachelor's degree in Computer Science UConn College of Engineering ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ezequielvalencia - Portfolio: https://ezequielvalencia.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/ezequiel JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ezequiel/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13