David Rivard
Software Engineer
Builds full-stack systems, high-throughput data pipelines, and machine learning infrastructure with Python, TypeScript, C++, and Linux clusters.
7+ Yrs
Software Development
Full Stack
Web & Cloud Systems
High Throughput
ETL & Data Pipelines
3.9
GPA (B.S. CS)
Professional Experience
Engineering roles in machine learning, distributed clusters, and software systems.
Software Engineer →Apr 2025 - Present
DTE Energy, Grant-Funded (Remote)
94% Forecast Accuracy400+ Sensors98% Uptime
- Built a streaming telemetry pipeline across 400+ sensors and meters with 98% uptime and 90-second lower latency.
- Trained custom PyTorch time-series models for steam demand, increasing next-day forecast accuracy from 81% to 94%.
- Built live plant dashboards and automated anomaly alerts requiring operator approval before boiler adjustments.
PyTorchKafkaRedisPostgreSQLOpenCVLangGraphDocker
View project details →AI Research Engineer (Summer Appointment) →May 2025 - Aug 2025
University of Central Florida, Center for Research in Computer Vision (Orlando, FL)
30M+ Images Curated50 Concurrent GPU Jobs100+ Hours Saved
- Ran distributed training sweeps on multi-node H100 and V100 GPU clusters with up to 50 concurrent SLURM jobs.
- Built multiprocessing data loaders to clean and curate 30M+ images, cutting preparation time by 100+ hours.
- Fine-tuned vision-language models (Qwen2.5-VL, Kimi-VL) using distance-based preference optimization (DPO) for photo geolocalization.
PyTorchQwen2.5-VLSLURMH100 / V100vLLMDeepSpeedDPO
View project details →AI Research Engineer (Contract) →Aug 2024 - May 2025
Lake Superior State University (Sault Ste. Marie, MI)
PyTorch From ScratchDense Vector RAGResearch Presentation
- Built autoregressive Transformer language models in PyTorch with multi-head self-attention and token-packing data loaders.
- Implemented a vector embedding retrieval pipeline (RAG) to ground model answers in verified technical manuals.
- Analyzed attention weight distributions and presented research findings to university faculty and leadership.
PyTorchTransformersRAGPEFT / LoRACUDAPython
View project details →Software Engineer (Contract) →Aug 2024 - May 2025
Lake Superior State University (Sault Ste. Marie, MI)
120 FPS Computer VisionSGP4 Orbital MathRS-232 Control
- Built a computer vision tracking pipeline in C++ and OpenCV that detects Low Earth Orbit satellites at 120 FPS.
- Coupled SGP4 orbital propagation algorithms with closed-loop motor control over RS-232 to track targets during passes.
- Built web scheduling tools and live telemetry feeds to log pointing accuracy and pass verification.
C++PythonOpenCVSGP4RS-232ReactASP.NET
View project details →Software Engineer (Contract) →Jan 2024 - May 2024
Chippewa County Information Systems (Sault Ste. Marie, MI)
Zero Downtime Cutover3NF Relational SchemaIn-App RBAC
- Replaced a shared Microsoft Access database with a centralized web application and PHP REST backend.
- Migrated county inventory and equipment records to normalized MySQL and MariaDB databases with zero downtime.
- Implemented role-based access control, audit logs, and compliance export utilities for county staff.
PHPMySQLMariaDBREST APIsApacheLinux
View project details →Freelance Software Developer →Jan 2019 - Dec 2022
Independent Client Engagements
Dozens of DeploymentsPySpark & Python ETLHardware & OCR
- Built and deployed custom web platforms, native desktop utilities, and mobile tools for business clients.
- Built automated ETL pipelines in Python and PySpark to clean, process, and visualize high-volume datasets.
- Modernized legacy codebases and integrated live hardware sensors, computer vision, and document OCR.
PythonC# (.NET)ReactPySparkPostgreSQLDocker
View project details →Technical Skills
Click cards to expand subcategories
Languages
26
PythonC++CC#JavaGo+20 more
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Systems & General
PythonC++CC#JavaGoLisp
Web & Scripting
TypeScriptJavaScriptPHPLuaPerl
Shell & Automation
BashPowerShellBatchMakefilesCMake
Data & Query
SQLRMATLAB
Markup & Config
HTML5CSS3XAMLLaTeXMarkdownJSON / YAML / TOML
AI & Machine Learning
60
PyTorchTensorFlowKerasHugging Face TransformersAccelerateSafetensors+54 more
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Deep Learning
PyTorchTensorFlowKerasHugging Face TransformersAccelerateSafetensorsTRLPEFTLoRA / QLoRADPOSimPOSupervised Fine-TuningCurriculum LearningGradient CheckpointingMixed-Precision Training
Classical ML
scikit-learnXGBoostLightGBMML.NETRandom ForestsTime-Series ForecastingFeature EngineeringHyperparameter TuningCross-Validation
Vision-Language Models
Qwen2.5-VLKimi-VLCLIPImage GeolocationMulti-Modal Training
Computer Vision
OpenCVTorchVisionYOLOTesseract OCRDeepFaceAlbumentationsPillow (PIL)Frame DifferencingBackground SubtractionImage AugmentationObject TrackingVideo Processing
Inference & Acceleration
vLLMDeepSpeedFlashAttention-2PyTorch AMPCUDAbitsandbytesFP8 / INT8 QuantizationONNX RuntimeTensorRTBatched Inference
Agents & RAG
LangGraphLangChainModel Context Protocol (MCP)Claude CodeRAG PipelinesSemantic RerankingPrompt EngineeringTool-Use AgentsAgentic Workflows
Full Stack & Web
42
ReactNext.jsVue.jsAngularWebpackTailwind CSS+36 more
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Frontend
ReactNext.jsVue.jsAngularWebpackTailwind CSSBootstrapSass / SCSSjQueryAJAX / FetchResponsive DesignBlazorRazor Pages
Backend
Node.jsExpressFastAPIDjangoFlaskASP.NET CoreASP.NET MVC.NET CoreSpring BootRESTful APIsWebSocketsGraphQLgRPCOAuth / JWTSession ManagementRate LimitingMiddleware
Mobile
React NativeFlutter.NET MAUIExpoResponsive PWA
Desktop
WPFWinUI 3WinFormsElectronGTKTkinterPyQt
Data & Pipelines
41
Apache KafkaApache Spark (PySpark)PolarsRedis Queue (RQ)ETL PipelinesData Streaming+35 more
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Processing & Streaming
Apache KafkaApache Spark (PySpark)PolarsRedis Queue (RQ)ETL PipelinesData StreamingBatch ProcessingMultiprocessingCustom Data LoadersGRIB / NetCDFCSV / Parquet / Avro
Analysis & Visualization
PandasNumPySciPyMatplotlibPlotlySeabornJupyter NotebooksHaversine / Geodesic Math
Databases
PostgreSQLMySQLMariaDBMicrosoft SQL ServerRedisSQLiteMongoDBFirebasepgvector
ORM & Access
Entity FrameworkSQLAlchemyPrismaSequelizeDapperPDO
Database Design
Normalization (3NF)B-Tree / Composite IndexingQuery OptimizationACID TransactionsStored ProceduresMigrationsReferential Integrity
Cloud & DevOps
35
AWSAzureGoogle Cloud (GCP)CloudflareVercelSLURM+29 more
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Cloud Platforms
AWSAzureGoogle Cloud (GCP)CloudflareVercel
HPC & GPU Clusters
SLURMMulti-Node GPU TrainingNVIDIA H100 / V100CUDA EnvironmentsParallel Experiment SweepsCheckpoint Management
Containers & CI/CD
DockerDocker ComposeKubernetesHelmGitHub ActionsGitLab CIJenkinsTerraformGitOps
Systems & Networking
Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL, Debian)PrometheusNginxApacheSSH / SCPDNS / SSL / TLSReverse ProxiesLoad BalancingFirewalls / iptables
Tooling
GitConda / Mambapip / Poetrynpm / pnpm / yarntmux / screensystemd / cron
Systems & Architecture
30
Object-Oriented DesignDesign PatternsMicroservicesEvent-Driven ArchitectureMVC / MVVMClean Architecture+24 more
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Design
Object-Oriented DesignDesign PatternsMicroservicesEvent-Driven ArchitectureMVC / MVVMClean ArchitectureDomain-Driven Design
Algorithms & Performance
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMultithreadingAsynchronous I/OProcess PoolsMemory ProfilingLock-Free QueuesCaching Strategies
Testing & Quality
pytestJestxUnitUnit TestingIntegration TestingCode ReviewLinting / FormattingStatic Analysis
Hardware & Protocols
Serial (RS-232)I2C / SPIOPC UAEmbedded LinuxSensor IntegrationMotor ControlIndustrial TelemetrySCADA
Education
Lake Superior State University
B.S. in Computer Science
Status: Graduated
Relevant Coursework
Software System DesignData Structures & AlgorithmsOperating SystemsMulti-Platform AppsComputer ArchitectureDiscrete StructuresCalculus I & IIMathematical Proofs
Awards & Organizations
- First place in C# Programming, Business Professionals of America (Michigan, 2023)
- First place in Python Programming, Business Professionals of America (Michigan, 2023)
- Dean’s List, all semesters (2021 - 2025)
- Volunteer: Business Professionals of America, Escanaba River Association, Bay College, and LSSU