# Lena Abdalla

> Software Engineer

Location: Clifton, New Jersey, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/lenaabdalla

I like to work on interesting projects that offer tangible value to individuals, companies and society. Throughout the past few years, I’ve explored different areas and environments, having worked at both big companies, and smaller startups, in research settings for my Masters’ as well as industry settings. I’ve explored theoretical and applied machine learning, as well as software development.

I tend to be thorough and detail-oriented as well as thoughtful and inquisitive – people tell me I ask good questions. I really love collaborating with and supporting others, and having a team-first mindset. I love learning (doing it, working on it, teaching computers how to do it), and am seeking to explore new and exciting areas.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer @ Wise Systems, Inc.
Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
• Implemented several new features and fixed bugs related to the Plan Experience domain of the product. Also contributed to the frontend and the backend optimization engine, and helped elsewhere as needed.
• Led optimization of a mission-critical API process making it ~ 77% faster at scale. Won the quarterly Impact Award for said improvements, as well as other contributions.
• Authored technical design proposals and conducted technical design reviews for various API projects.
• Mentored junior engineers and interns on API intricacies and engineering best practices, assisted with onboarding and resolving issues, and conducted technical and behavioral interviews for prospective candidates.
• Served as the key backend resource and lead for the Plan Experience API within my team, and for external stakeholders (other engineers, product, customer success, etc). Was a default code reviewer for API changes.

### Graduate Research Assistant at Lifelong Kindergarten Group @ MIT Media Lab
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
In summary, I applied machine learning techniques towards the classification of computer programs in the Scratch online community. In particular, I applied NLP techniques to a new context, and demonstrated that they can be used in accomplishing this task to a reasonable level of accuracy.

My work included:
- Applying unsupervised learning methods (k-means clustering) to better understand the structure of Scratch projects, and to motivate use of supervised learning methods for type classification.
- Leading the efforts to construct a labeled dataset of Scratch projects and their types (i.e. “animation”, “game”, “slideshow”, “other”), via a collective process of consensus-based annotation by experts.
- Applying unsupervised NLP techniques to find optimal representation methods for Scratch blocks and projects, by training word embeddings on a 500,000-large Scratch projects dataset (using fastText library).
- Applying supervised NLP techniques to train a classifier model for categorizing Scratch projects by type, by training a (high quality) 873-large labeled projects dataset and using the unsupervised word embeddings as the foundation (using fastText library).
- Tuning hyperparameters to find a set of hyperparameters yielding reasonable classifier model performance.
- Developing and conducting an in-depth analysis of the (trained) unsupervised and supervised models, and an exploration of the elements learned during training.

(This work culminated in a thesis for my Master's degree)

### Software Engineer (SPARC Systems Quality Engineering Team) @ Oracle
Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | Burlington, Massachusetts, United States
- Automating some (manual) tests that verify correct functionality of ILOM (firmware) in SPARC servers, to expedite, streamline and enhance the testing process (code written in Python).
- Executing existing automated tests from a test suite (written in Perl) and debugging results to determine the existence of bugs, verify the correctness of ILOM functionality, and assess the long-term performance of servers.
- Filing and tracking bug reports on bugs found.
- Setting up out-of-the-box servers, configured hardware, and installing operating systems and firmware.
- Defining test requirements for a new server platform.

### Lab Assistant @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Lab Assistant for MIT 6.0001/6.0002 Intro to Computer Science and Programming class.

- Grading and providing feedback to students on problem sets on an (approximately) weekly basis.
- Holding weekly office hours for students to ask questions about the subject material and problem sets.
- Attending weekly staff meetings to discuss upcoming assignments and subject material.
- Proofreading, debugging, and writing sample solutions for 2 problem sets throughout the semester.

### Undergraduate Student Researcher at Theory of Computation Group @ MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Overall, I briefly explored the problem of the “hardness of approximation of constraint satisfaction problems”.

This included:
- Briefly studying parts of a published paper (Håstad’s Some Optimal Inapproximability Results) on hardness of approximating exact answers to k-CSPs, focusing on the problem of finding the maximum fraction of linear constraints satisfiable.
- Learning Fourier analysis techniques and proof constructions for hardness of approximation results.

### Undergraduate Student Researcher at MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) Lab @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Worked on improving the StarLogo Nova Programming Environment for Education deployed by the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) Lab.

My work included:
- Worked as a developer in a team of seven to enhance features and functionality of the StarLogo in-browser programming environment that helps people create 3D games and simulations.
- Implemented improvements and bug fixes that enhance the experience of beginner programmers.

### Undergraduate Student Researcher at Computer Assisted Programming Group @ MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Jan 2014 – Jan 2014
The aim of my work was to port the Open Medical Records System (OpenMRS) web interface (originally written in JAVA) into Python, so that it can be used to test privacy policies of a new programming language, Jeeves.

My work included:
- Understanding the OpenMRS’s features, sections and source code, written in JAVA, and documenting the backend code’s methods/behavior.
- Implementing part of the OpenMRS source code in Python.

### Tech Caller @ MIT Tech Callers
Jan 2013 – Jan 2013
Reached out to MIT alumni, friends, and parents as part of a fundraising drive for MIT Alumni Association to support grants, scholarships and academic departments. I also negotiated with working professionals and convinced them to give back to MIT.


## Education
### Master of Engineering - MEng in Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020

### Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Computer Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jan 2012 – Jan 2016

### International Baccalaureate Diploma
Abu Dhabi International (Pvt.) School
Jan 2004 – Jan 2012


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lena-abdalla-b2266289

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Source: https://flows.cv/lenaabdalla
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/lenaabdalla/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-20