I'm Zaina Abushaban, a Computer Engineering master's student at Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) and a Software Engineer at aiXplain, with a background in Artificial Intelligence Engineering from Hacettepe University.

My interests lie at the intersection of machine learning, computer vision, efficient deep learning, signal processing, and agentic AI systems. I enjoy building practical AI systems, experimenting with new architectures, and finding ways to make machine learning models more efficient, reliable, and deployable.

• 🎓 MSc Computer Engineering — Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ)
• 🎓 BSc Artificial Intelligence Engineering — Hacettepe University, Salutatorian
• 💻 Software Engineer at aiXplain
• 🔬 Interested in Computer Vision, Efficient AI, TinyML, Signal Processing, Bioacoustics & AI Agents
• 📄 Published research with IEEE
• 🌍 Former Erasmus+ exchange student at the University of Milan
• 📫 Email: zainaschaban@gmail.com
• 🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zaina-abushaban

I'm particularly interested in:

• Computer Vision & Deep Learning
• Efficient Neural Networks
• Model Compression, Quantization & Pruning
• TinyML & Edge AI
• Signal Processing
• Bioacoustics & Biological Data
• Agentic & Multi-Agent AI Systems
• Machine Learning for Scientific Applications

Currently working as a Software Engineer at aiXplain, an agentic AI company headquartered in San Jose, California.

I work on AI agent infrastructure, backend systems, and SDK development, contributing to systems for building, orchestrating, and managing AI agents and their interactions with models, tools, and other components.

I previously joined aiXplain as a Software Engineering Intern before transitioning into my current engineering role.

Conducting faculty-mentored research on deploying computer vision models on resource-constrained hardware.

Areas of work include:

• Neural network quantization
• Pruning
• Model compression
• Efficient inference
• TinyML deployment

Worked on machine learning and signal-processing projects involving biological and environmental signals, including:

• Ocean soundscape classification using NOAA SanctSound passive acoustic data
• Audio feature extraction using Mel spectrograms and MFCCs
• Biomedical signal processing and entropy-based analysis
• Time-series modelling and detection

Worked with biological sequence data and RNA representations using transformer-based embeddings such as RNA-FM, exploring machine learning approaches for RNA–RNA interaction prediction.

Built and evaluated agent-based systems for arithmetic reasoning using LLMs, Python tools, and multi-agent architectures, studying how tool use and verification affect reasoning performance.

Optimizing Deep Learning Models for Ophthalmic Disease Detection on Resource-Constrained Devices

Z. Abushaban, S. E. Yüzbaşıoğlu, S. Dilek, and S. Tosun 7th International Congress on Human-Computer Interaction, Optimization and Robotic Applications (ICHORA), IEEE, 2025

DOI: 10.1109/ICHORA65333.2025.11017237

aiXplain — San Jose, California Software Engineer Present

Previously: Software Engineering Intern (2024–2026)

Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) MSc in Computer Engineering 2026 – Present

Hacettepe University BSc in Artificial Intelligence Engineering 2021 – 2026 🏅 Graduated 2nd in the department (Salutatorian)

Università degli Studi di Milano 🇮🇹 Erasmus+ Exchange — Artificial Intelligence / Computer Science 2025 – 2026

Hacettepe DREAM Committee Student Researcher — TinyML & Efficient Computer Vision

Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) 🇶🇦 MenaML Scholar

• 🥈 Graduated 2nd in Artificial Intelligence Engineering at Hacettepe University
• 🎓 Recipient of a full Türkiye Scholarships undergraduate scholarship
• 📄 Published peer-reviewed research with IEEE
• 🔬 Selected for faculty-mentored TinyML research
• 🇮🇹 Erasmus+ exchange student at the University of Milan
• 🇶🇦 Selected as a MenaML Scholar at Qatar Computing Research Institute
• 💻 HUPROG National Programming Competition Finalist
• 👩‍🏫 Former Data Science Teaching Assistant at Hacettepe University

• 🇺🇸 English — Fluent
• 🇵🇸 Arabic — Native
• 🇹🇷 Turkish — Advanced
• 🇫🇷 French — Beginner

I'm always interested in opportunities and collaborations involving AI research, machine learning, computer vision, efficient AI systems, agentic AI, and interdisciplinary applications of ML.