Senior Software Engineer @ Confluent

Akram
Ansari

Software engineer with 4 years of systems engineering experience (in C++, Python & Rust) and 2 years of systems research experience. Proven record of large-scale distributed systems development and a knack for low-level network systems design.

6+Years Exp
24Hackathons
6Papers
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Experience

Senior Software Engineer

Confluent · Remote, Canada
Dec 2024 — Present

Developing enterprise Kafka for Confluent cloud. Working on high-throughput low-latency distributed storage for kafka.

KafkaDistributed SystemsJavaStorage

Software Engineer

Huawei · Toronto, Canada
Apr 2024 — Dec 2024

Designed high throughput (~ 600 Mbps/node) change data capture in a cloud-native database (GaussDB) in C++. Extended PostgreSQL database to support columnar storage in GaussDB optimized for analytical query processing.

C++Distributed DatabasePostgreSQLCDC
(Masters education + part time experience)

Software Engineer

Schlumberger · Pune, India
Jun 2019 — Aug 2021

Led the development of ProSource, a kubernetes based Oil & Gas data processing system using C++, Java (Spring), Angular, PostgreSQL. Developed 99.8% available data ingestion services in Python (Flask) and Java on GCP and Azure.

PythonJavaKubernetesGCPAzure

Skills

Languages

C++RustJavaPython

Database Internals

Distributed StorageKafkaLSM TreesColumnar StorageCDC

Systems & Networking

MultithreadingLinux KernelTCP/IPQUIC / HTTP/3Memory Management

Education & Publications

Master of Science — Computer Science

University of Calgary, Canada
2021 — 2023

Bachelor of Technology — Information Technology

Vellore Institute of Technology, India
2015 — 2019

Research Publications

Advancing Temporal and Quality Adaptation in Video Streaming with AV1

Master's Thesis, University of Calgary (2024) — Explores TASQ, SABR, and IFF techniques for smoothed playback.

TASQ: Temporal Adaptive Streaming over QUIC

ACM MMSys/NOSSDAV (2023) — Research with AT&T Labs on leveraging AV1 GOP structure for adaptive streaming.

IStream Player: A Versatile Video Player Framework

ACM NOSSDAV (2023) — A plugin-based player supporting 360° video, DASH, HLS, and QUIC TRANSPORT.

iStream: A Flexible Container-Based Testbed for Multimedia Streaming

ACM MMSys (2023) — A Docker-based testbed for reproducible multimedia streaming experiments.

CRACS: Cross-Cloud Access Control Service for Multi-Cloud SaaS Applications

IEEE Cloud (2023) — Research on security and access control in multi-cloud environments.

Bheem OS: Reasonably Secure OS Using Rust MicroVMs

Presented at NullCon Berlin (2022) — Secure operating system design using Rust-based micro virtual machines and OpenVMM.

Blog Posts

Python - Full Course for beginners

December 28, 2022

I teach Python to university students. This article is meant to teach the basics to programming using python to an absolute beginner with no programming experience. After following this article you will be able to understand and write your own intermediate level python code.

Read More Code

ARM Assembly - Zero to Hero in 22 Days

December 27, 2022

I have been teaching ARM assembly to university students. This article is adapted from the tutorial material for a Computer Science Course - CPSC355 that I taught in 2022 and is meant to teach the basics of assembly, c and the inner working of a computer application. The article will focus on understanding how a computer program is written and how that program is understood and executed by the processor. We will write assemble for the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture CPU. We will also understand what the binary code of a program written in C looks like. We will run the program in a Linux OS.

Read More Code

Projects

OpenVMM

Cloud-native VMM in Rust
RustVirtualizationCloud-NativeSystems

A cloud-native Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) written in Rust. Features a modular architecture for managing virtualized resources and ensures memory safety and high performance.

Gallery · More

RoverX

Mars Rover Simulation
C++SimulationRoboticsSystems

A comprehensive simulation of a Mars rover mission. Implemented various subsystems including navigation, communication, and scientific instrumentation control.

Gallery · More

SyncLib

C++ Synchronization Library
C++MultithreadingLibraryConcurrency

A high-performance C++ library providing advanced synchronization primitives. Designed to facilitate efficient multithreaded programming with minimal overhead.

Gallery · More

Video Lab

Automated Video Analysis
PythonVideo ProcessingAutomationFFmpeg

An automated video analysis tool for evaluating streaming quality. capable of processing large datasets of video files to extract metrics like bitrate, resolution, and encoding efficiency.

Gallery · More

Media Parsers GUI

Web-based Media Analyzer
TypeScriptAngularWeb AssemblyMedia

A web-based graphical user interface for parsing and analyzing various media container formats. Provides structural visualization of ISO BMFF (MP4) and other formats.

Gallery · More

Hackathons

Agora hack2021
Siemens MakeIT Real2019
WeHack 2.0 (Winner)2018
Dover Smart India Hackathon (Winner)2018
Hack Harvard2017