Md Hishaam Akhtar 🌈 Bisexual pride heart

Engineering @ Groww
I build with intent — caring deeply about how it works, but even more about whom it serves

Profile photo

About

I’m an engineer driven by the urge to build — not just scalable systems, but ideas that question norms and tools that quietly empower. My work spans fast-moving teams and complex architectures, but what I care about most is building at the intersection of code and compassion. I’m especially drawn to how technology shapes human behavior — and how AI might one day support addiction recovery, mental health, and equitable education. Above all, I believe engineering should be inclusive by design: thoughtful, humane, and built to serve those most often left out.

Education

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore

B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering · Graduated 2023

CGPA: 9.01 / 10.0

Selected Coursework: Artificial Intelligence · Natural Language Processing · Theory of Computation and Compiler Design · Operating Systems · Parallel & Distributed Computing · Computer Architecture · Discrete Mathematics · Cybersecurity · Web Mining · Data Visualization · Human-Computer Interaction

Work Experience

Groww [Website]

Software Development Engineer 2 · Apr 2025 – Present
Software Development Engineer 1 · Jun 2023 – Apr 2025
Software Development Intern · Jan 2022 – Jun 2023

At Groww, I have been shaping the Customer Engagement Platform, which drives user communication across Push Notifications, Email, WhatsApp, Feed, and Story. I architected and built the Generic Triggered Service for Feed and Story, powering News on Feed, News on Story, and real-time stock and technical signal alerts. I led the migration of segmentation and analytics from batch pipelines to real-time streaming, integrating interaction events seamlessly into the Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Journeys. Within Journeys — the workflow engine for personalised, multi-step campaigns — I introduced Wait-for-Action across Email, WhatsApp, and Push Notifications, extended it with multi-trigger entry points, and added support for multi-CTA Push Notifications to improve engagement design. I also strengthened reliability end-to-end through eligibility alerts, query failover mechanisms, and observability practices with Prometheus metrics and Airflow–PagerDuty alerting, alongside targeted fixes that improved accuracy and stability. Beyond features, I optimised Apache Pinot configurations to cut resource usage by 90% and significantly reduced query latencies.

Trademarkia [Website]

Software Consultant · Feb 2021 – May 2021

At Trademarkia, I designed a legal data pipeline and trademark search API for efficient indexing and retrieval. I also built an asynchronous scraper for geolocation data and implemented a multi-channel alert system (email, SMS, push) for notifying users of legal events in real time.

Research

Real-Time Captioning of Sign Language Gestures in Video Meetings

Sharanya Mukherjee · Md Hishaam Akhtar · Dr. R. Kannadasan

arXiv:2507.14543  |  Presented at ICCMDE 2021

Developed a real-time sign language recognition system that translates American Sign Language (ASL) gestures into live captions during video meetings — enhancing communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The system leverages transfer learning with MobileNetV2 and CNN classifiers trained on the large-scale WLASL dataset. A novel browser extension architecture streams model predictions from a local app via WebSocket to overlay subtitles for all participants. Achieved up to 63% word-level accuracy without requiring gloves or 3D sensors, making it scalable, affordable, and inclusive.

Side Projects

Iris – Wikipedia Pathfinding Engine [GitHub] [Website]

A high-performance graph traversal service that finds efficient paths between any two Wikipedia articles. Leveraging Redis-backed BFS, Celery task queues, and Flask APIs, Iris traces hidden knowledge trails with production-grade architecture and session-isolated path computation.

Nexia – A Personal Digital Slambook [GitHub] [Website]

A memory-first digital slambook for your people, where you can store rich profiles (songs, quotes, quirks, stories) and ask natural questions through an AI chat interface. Nexia uses a Go backend and Next.js frontend with PostgreSQL + pgvector RAG and Gemini to retrieve context from your own data and turn it into useful, conversational answers.

java2go – Go Reference for Java Developers [GitHub] [Website]

A learning resource for Java developers picking up Go — teaching the language through direct comparisons with Java concepts they already know. Covers syntax, idioms, concurrency, and ecosystem differences, so developers can get productive quickly without starting from zero.

Jury Duty – A Scalable Multi-Contributor Data Labeling Platform [GitHub] [Website]

A Supabase-powered annotation system enabling rapid, conflict-free dataset labeling by multiple contributors. It features intelligent work distribution, real-time progress tracking, and research-ready structured outputs for IRR, bias detection, and statistical analysis.

Hermes – A Real-Time Polling and Quiz Platform [GitHub]

A scalable WebSocket-based system for conducting live polls and quizzes with instant audience feedback. Built with Node.js, Redis, and MongoDB, Hermes powers interactive events through real-time vote tracking, dynamic question flows, and secure event management.

Sociocredz – Reward Point Donation Platform [GitHub]

A hackathon-born platform that lets users donate unused loyalty points to NGOs. Designed to make micro-philanthropy effortless, it connects everyday consumers with social causes through a lightweight Node.js backend and a simple, impactful interface.

Keats – A Collaborative Book Reading App [GitHub]

An Android app that transforms reading into a shared social experience. With Firebase-powered clubs, real-time annotations, and page-synced discussions, Keats fosters deeper engagement, inclusive learning, and literary community-building among readers.

Community & Leadership

Backend Developer – GDSC VIT [Website]

Apr 2020 – Dec 2022 · 2 yrs 9 mos

Served as an inner core member of the Google Developer Students Club at VIT, contributing to backend development across several projects including Hermes, Iris, Akina, and Keats — some of which were featured at DSC OMG. I co-organized major technical events like WomenTechies and DevJams, co-hosted DevTalks 2021, and helped build a custom recruitment platform during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Technologies used: Node.js · Go · Django · Flask · FastAPI · MongoDB · PostgreSQL · Kotlin · Android

Hackathons & Achievements

Hackcraft – People's Choice Award

Built an AI-powered live translation tool for Groww Help & Support, enabling multilingual chat support in real time.

Access Denied 2.0 – Winner

Co-created Sociocredz, a platform for donating unused loyalty points to NGOs — born during a 24-hour hackathon sprint.

VIT Hack – Finalist (Healthcare Track)

Developed a healthcare assistant app built for Flippr’s sponsored challenge at VIT Hacks — selected as a finalist in the track.

Udemy Instructor – 15,000+ learners

Created a hands-on Node.js course to help developers master backend fundamentals through practical, real-world examples.

Writing

What Revisiting a College Project Taught Me About Growth as an Engineer

A journey through a project that taught me engineers evolve not only in what they can build, but in how they think.

Building a Data Lake on Google Cloud Platform

An in-depth breakdown of how we set up a scalable GCP-based data lake at Groww.

Which Backend Stack Should You Learn?

A beginner-friendly guide on choosing a backend tech stack, published with GDG VIT.

Certifications

Machine Learning Specialization

DeepLearning.AI · Issued Jul 2025 · View Credential

Architecting with Google Compute Engine Specialization

Google Cloud · Issued Jun 2020 · View Credential

Graph Search, Shortest Paths & Data Structures

Stanford Online · Issued Apr 2020 · View Credential

Divide & Conquer, Sorting & Randomized Algorithms

Stanford Online · Issued Mar 2020 · View Credential

Test Scores

IELTS Academic [Certificate]

Overall Band: 8.5 · Listening: 9.0 · Reading: 9.0 · Writing: 7.5 · Speaking: 8.0

Issued Sep 2025

Resume

You can view or download my resume here:

View Resume

Contact

All opinions that may be listed here are my own and are not necessarily representative of my employers — past, present, or future.