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Hey, I'm Shiyan

I'm an engineer based in Vancouver who loves building scalable products that combine machine learning and design engineering. I'm currently running Sapient Studio, a venture lab and digital agency, where we build and invest in startups and partner with companies to create impactful brands, websites, and apps. I studied computer engineering and business at Queen's University. I'm also a Cansbridge Fellow.

Projects

Work

Sapient Studio
2019 - Present

Founded and grew a venture lab and digital agency, building and investing in startups and partnering with companies to create impactful brands, websites, and apps. Built full-stack applications that help generate $1M+ in ARR. Expanded the team to three engineers and designers, worked with a wide variety of clients, secured funding, and completed two accelerator programs.

TELUS
TELUS AIMachine Learning Engineer
2023 - Present

Led the development of core infrastructure, a reusable codebase, and shared utilities for 20+ enterprise LLM RAG and agentic AI use cases. Built GenAI use cases and an alerting platform to enhance LLM observability and system responsiveness.

Wealthsimple
WealthsimpleSoftware Engineer
2022

Shipped features that helped users trade and invest in crypto, including auto-buy and staking features. Implemented automated mobile testing frameworks and built alerting systems to prevent unexpected API costs.

Shopify
ShopifySoftware Engineer
2021-2022

Optimized BFCM performance and resiliency by improving queries, refactoring, and implementing load tests. Developed AccessScope and Metafield prototypes to enforce data access limits and improve developer experience.

RBCx Ventures
RBCx VenturesSoftware Engineer
2021

Increased data collection at an RBCx-backed carbon footprint startup by building OCR receipt scanning, grocery list, and onboarding features. Conducted user interviews and A/B tests to refine features and boost engagement.

ecobee
ecobeeSoftware Engineer
2021

Improved energy cost efficiency by broadcasting surges to 1M+ thermostats using Pub/Sub. Mitigated data exposure risks by optimizing queries on the public-facing Demand Response API.

CRA
CRAMachine Learning Engineer
2020 - 2023

Automated complex tax document translations with GPT-3. Built a sentiment analysis web app to identify user trends from 1K+ government benefit reviews. Explored various models as part of the machine learning research team.

Canada Post
Canada PostData Analyst
2019

Automated Excel analysis for 3K+ real estate properties by writing Python scripts. Researched and implemented a 3D imaging and VR facility scanning pilot with a team of six engineering students.