Mohammad Awad

Machine Learning Scientist

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Amsterdam, Netherlands [email protected]github.com/mawadiodin/mohammad-awad-profile

Machine Learning Scientist with a decade of experience across applied ML, generative AI, and large-scale personalization, spanning big tech (Booking.com, PayPal), a co-founded startup, and ML research. MSc in Computer Science (4.0 GPA).

Experience

  1. Machine Learning Scientist Sep 2022 to Present
    Booking.com · Amsterdam, Netherlands
    • Use generative AI and large language models to enhance large-scale personalization and recommendations across Booking.com.
    • Work across recommender systems, ranking, and experimentation (A/B testing).
  2. Co-Founder & CTO Sep 2021 to Sep 2022
    Savy · Boston, MA, USA
    • Co-founded Savy, a cloud-based instant-messaging system designed to organise information and boost productivity by reducing unnecessary noise.
    • Led technology and engineering as CTO, from concept through build.
  3. Fellow, DesignX Jun 2021 to Sep 2021
    MIT designX · Boston, MA, USA
    • Selected for the DesignX fellowship in the MIT School of Architecture & Planning, focused on design innovation and entrepreneurship.
  4. Data Scientist Jan 2018 to May 2021
    PayPal · Israel
    • Built classifier models across a range of datasets and business problems.
    • Developed anomaly-detection algorithms for time-series data.
    • Clustered and classified data from multiple channels.
    • Owned datasets end-to-end, from requirements gathering to deployment.
    • Visualised machine-learning graphs and results for stakeholders.
  5. Machine Learning Engineer (Research) Sep 2015 to Oct 2017
    Bahçeşehir University · Istanbul, Türkiye
    • “Learning Shape from Focus”: estimated image depth from focus cues using MLPs, SVMs, and Random Forests.
    • Worked on light-field imaging, Shape-from-Focus / Shape-from-Defocus, depth estimation, and occlusion detection.
    • Built Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for facial-expression recognition.
  6. Software Engineer May 2012 to Sep 2015
    Mellanox Technologies · Israel
    • Built enterprise mobile apps (native Android; ported apps from iOS): web-service integration, JSON, SQLite, multithreading, responsive UI.
    • Tested regression systems for InfiniBand technologies (OpenSM simulator, Ibutils2, UFM); acted as team focal point with the client.

Education

  • MSc, Computer Science 2015 to 2017
    Bahçeşehir University · GPA 4.0
  • BSc, Computer Systems Engineering 2007 to 2012
    Birzeit University

Certifications

  • Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) Specialization, DeepLearning.AI / Coursera (2022)
  • Build Basic / Build Better / Apply GANs, DeepLearning.AI / Coursera (2022)

Skills

  • Python
  • SQL
  • PySpark
  • LLMs
  • Generative AI
  • Agents
  • Evaluation
  • PyTorch
  • TensorFlow
  • Deep Learning
  • Recommender Systems
  • Ranking
  • A/B Testing
  • Causal Inference
  • ML in Production