Hi, I am Nafisa!
Hi, I’m a software engineer with a strong passion for building and optimizing backend systems, working with data systems, and designing efficient databases. I genuinely enjoy solving challenging problems—whether it’s optimizing existing systems, analyzing data to create new solutions, or debugging critical production issues under tight deadlines. Problem-solving gives me a sense of purpose, and I find joy in bringing structure and efficiency to complex systems.
When I’m not coding, I love spending time with my cat babies—they never fail to brighten my day with their antics. I also enjoy sketching as a creative outlet and volunteering to give back to the community, which keeps me grounded and inspired.
Regarding my background, I earned my Master of Mathematics (MMath) in Computer Science degree from the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at University of Waterloo, where I had the privilege of working under the supervision of Prof. Semih Salihoglu. Before that, I completed my Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2016.
Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to explore my site to learn more about my work, projects, and what drives me.
Work Experience
Senior Software Engineer (Full-time), Presto Automation Inc. May 2022 to PRESENT
Designed and implemented restful backend systems which now handle millions of daily hits from live restaurants.
Revamped backend structure, optimizing database design to reduce task duration by 90% from hours to seconds, resulting in a 50% increase in system productivity.
Boosted front-end response rate by 57% through effective team leadership and flawless end-to-end deployment
Coordinated efforts across multiple teams to identify root causes for two major architecture redesigns and 100+ production issues.
Working on an LLM based project to improve AI accuracy and overall system accuracy with better user experience
Platform Engineer (Part-time), Presto Automation Inc, March 2022 to April 2022 (20hr/week)
Developed serverless lambda applications and improved performance of existing applications
Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Waterloo, September 2018 to April 2022
Helped with the course materials/marking/conducting exams and guided students directly for advanced to beginner level database courses.
Courses:
CS 638: Principles of Data Management and Use (Fall’21),
CS 348: Introduction to Database Systems (Winter’21, Spring’20, Winter’20, Fall’19, Spring’19),
CS 338: Computer Applications in Business: Databases (Spring’21, Winter'22),
CS 240 (Fall’20), CS136 (Winter’19), CS115 (Fall’18)
Software Engineer, iPay Systems Limited, February 24, 2016 to March 8, 2018
Engaged as a full-stack Software Engineer, adept at developing REST API-based back-end applications, designing customer-facing portals, and architecting a fully functional CRM system.
Worked collaboratively within a team to engineer the backend infrastructure of a monitoring system, overseeing daily financial transactions and ensuring the security of the entire system.
Cooperatively engineered a data warehousing system to record all user transactions and front-end interactions utilizing Java, Cassandra, and Kafka, which facilitated AI-driven monitoring and comprehensive data analytics. Additionally, contributed as a member of the data analytics team.
Selected Publications
“R2GSync and Edge Views: Practical RDBMS to GDBMS Synchronization”
Nafisa Anzum, Semih Salihoglu
4th Joint International Workshop on Graph Data Management Experiences & Systems (GRADES) and Network Data Analytics (NDA) GRADES-NDA'21, June 2021
“KTabulator: Interactive Ad hoc Table Creation using Knowledge Graphs”
Steven Xia, Nafisa Anzum, Semih Salihoglu, Jian Zhao
Proc. of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (SIGCHI), May 2021
“GraphWrangler: An Interactive Graph View on Relational Data”
Nafisa Anzum, Semih Salihoglu, Daniel Vogel.
Proc. ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD) (Demonstration Track), June 2019
Selected Projects
KTabulator, Research project, University of Waterloo, 2020
An interaction system to gather data in a tabular format from Wikipedia and DBpedia.
Technologies: React
R2GSync, MMath Thesis project, University of Waterloo, 2020
An automatic system to synchronize a GDBMS with the source RDBMS
Technologies: Java, GraphflowDB
GraphWrangler, MMath Thesis project, University of Waterloo, 2019
A system that allows users to connect to an RDBMS and within a few clicks extract graphs out of their tabular data, visualize and explore these graphs, and automatically generate scripts for their ETL pipelines. GraphWrangler adopts the predictive interaction framework and internally uses a data transformation language that is a limited subset of SQL. A demonstration video can be found here.
Technologies: Node.js, AngularJS, MySQL
Volunteering Activities
Volunteer, Grand River Hospital, Kitchener (2023 - present)
Volunteer tutor, House of Friendship, Waterloo (2023 - present)
Volunteer, Pet Petrol (cat shelter), Wallenstein (2023 - present)
Graduate Student Representative, Women in Computer Science, University of Waterloo (2020 - 2022)
Founder and coordinator, Inspiring Female Buetian Book Club (2020-2022)
Invited Reviewer, Fourteenth International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies (UBICOMM 2020)
Academic Excellence and Awards
University of Waterloo Entrance Scholarship, 2020 - 2021.
Selected to attend CRA-WP Grad Cohort for Women, April 2020.
University of Waterloo Entrance Scholarship, 2018 - 2019.
ICCIT 2016 Conference Award.
Travel grant scholarship of Grace Hopper Celebration India, 2014.
Inter-Department Database Project Show, Honourable Mention, 2014.
Dean’s List Award in four out of four levels of undergraduate study.
University Merit List Scholarships for excellent results in seven out of eight terms.
Bangladesh Government Scholarship–S.S.C. (General, 2008) and Junior (General, 2005).
Recent Activities
December 14, 2023: Officially started working as a volunteer at Grand River Hospital, Kitchener
October 2023: Started working as a volunteer tutor at Sunnydale Community, Waterloo (on behalf of House of Friendship)
May 02, 2022: Started working full time as software engineer at Presto Automation Inc.!
March 07, 2022: Started working part time as platform engineer at Presto Automation Inc.
October 23, 2021: Our demo paper "Demonstration of GRainDB: A Relational-core Graph-Relational DBMS" got accepted on CIDR 2021!
June 20, 2021: Presented our paper "R2GSync and Edge Views: Practical RDBMS to GDBMS Synchronization" on GRADES-NDA 2021 @SIGMOD. Slides
Me These Days ...
Currently Reading: Awareness (Author: Anthony de Mello),
Currently Watching: Squid Game, MAID, House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
Recently Finished:
Books: The Art of Letting Go, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (Author: Sherry Turkle)
Talks and Documentaries: David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, Tiger King, Street Food, Rotten
Web Series: Sex Education, Anne with an E
And of course, I am sketching and painting! Check out my latest artwork on my Instagram (nafisa.anzum)