Akram Zaytar, Developer in Tangier, Tangier-Tetouan, Morocco
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Akram Zaytar

Verified Expert  in Engineering

AI and ML Developer

Location
Tangier, Tangier-Tetouan, Morocco
Toptal Member Since
November 25, 2022

Akram is a machine learning engineer specializing in structured and Computer Vision data analysis. After finishing his Ph.D. in applied deep learning, he worked on prototyping and deploying anomaly detection systems. At IBM Research, he guided its intelligence services' climate modeling and ML tooling. Akram excels with end-to-end data-driven intelligence, business requirements analysis, data assembly, and the prototyping, onboarding, and monitoring of AI models.

Portfolio

IBM Research
Architecture, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Neural Networks...
IBM Research
Python, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Machine Learning, Data Science...
Tanger-Med
Python 3, Machine Learning, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Anomaly Detection...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

PyCharm, MacOS, iTerm2, Postman, Jupyter Notebook, Git, Conda, Python 3, Slack

The most amazing...

...projects I've delivered is a set of educational materials on data science and machine learning that received more than 400 stars on GitHub.

Work Experience

Research Staff Member

2021 - PRESENT
IBM Research
  • Co-led a research challenge focused on building IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite's CIMF and PAIRS++ toolkits for large-scale climate informatics.
  • Built ML-based probabilistic models for sub-seasonal climate forecast post-processing (NN, natural gradient boosting, bayesian methods) by combining different sources of predictability. (Meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-11063.html.).
  • Modeled S2S climate extremes using rule-based and learning methods. This work stream covers both extreme climate featurization and risk estimation.
Technologies: Architecture, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Data Science, Big Data, Software Engineering, System Design, Scientific Research, SciPy, AI Programming

Postdoctoral Researcher

2010 - 2021
IBM Research
  • Collaborated with KUMWE to provide seasonal maize presence maps in Rwanda. I fused period-based satellite imagery (Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2) and used ensemble learning methods to solve two machine learning tasks, crop presence and maize potential.
  • Investigated the role of extreme weather events on agricultural produce. Used a set of extreme weather indices that quantify extreme weather severity for floods and droughts coupled with XAI algorithms to explain maize yield variation in Iowa.
  • Researched ECMWF weather forecasting S5's skill in predicting extreme temperature and precipitation quantile categories ahead of the S2S competition.
Technologies: Python, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Machine Learning, Data Science, Deep Learning, Git, Linux, System Administration, Software Project Management, Scientific Research, SciPy, AI Programming

Machine Learning Engineer

2020 - 2020
Tanger-Med
  • Built fraud detection systems using weakly-supervised and unsupervised anomaly detection methods based on time-series data.
  • Used state-of-the-art deep neural network and machine learning methods in an applied setting using auto-encoders, isolation forests, and LSTMs.
  • Deployed the PoC fraud detection system and monitored performance metrics to report on the system's efficacy.
Technologies: Python 3, Machine Learning, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Anomaly Detection, Fraud Investigation, Data Science, Software Engineering, System Design, Neural Networks, Deep Learning, AI Programming, JavaScript

Research Intern

2019 - 2019
IBM Research
  • Presented the work at one of the top-tier machine learning conferences (ICLR). (Cv4gc.org/cv4a2020/.).
  • Collaborated with Hello Tractor to use satellite imagery for precision agriculture and small-scale digital farm twinning for IBM Research.
  • Deployed a machine learning system for small-scale farm monitoring using large-scale satellite imagery.
Technologies: Architecture, Deep Learning, Linux, Computer Vision, Software Engineering, AI Programming

IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite: Probabilistic Weather Forecasting

https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-11063.html
Built and deployed ML-based probabilistic time-series forecasting models for sub-seasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) climate prediction. Methods used include transformer neural networks, natural gradient boosting, and Bayesian tuning methods. The final model combines physics-based weather forecasts with external sources of predictability.

IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite: Climate Extremes Impact

https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-12461.html
The project used different featurization mechanisms to derive climate extreme indices from historical and forecasted weather measurements. Using explainable AI on a large number of indicators coupled with impactful extreme event metadata enabled us to automate the process of extreme event detection on a global scale.

IBM Intelligence Suite: A Toolkit for Large-scale Geospatial Informatics

https://research.ibm.com/blog/ai-for-climate-change-adaptation
Built the main toolkit API used for large-scale climate informatics at IBM Research. The main task was to bridge IBM Environmental Suite (EIS) CIMF (ML workflow orchestrator), and PAIRS++ to enable Spatio-temporal data exploration and modeling tasks.
2017 - 2020

Ph.D. Degree in Applied Artificial intelligence

Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Tanger - Tangier, Morocco

2013 - 2016

Master's Degree in Information Systems

Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Tanger - Tangier, Morocco

2009 - 2012

Bachelor's Degree in Applied Mathematics and Informatics

Abdelmalek Essaâdi University - Tangier, Morocco

JUNE 2020 - PRESENT

Image Processing in Python

Datacamp

NOVEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Machine Learning with Tree-based Models

Datacamp

NOVEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Statistical Thinking in Python

Datacamp

NOVEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Supervised Learning with Scikit-learn

Datacamp

NOVEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Unsupervised Learning in Python

Datacamp

OCTOBER 2019 - PRESENT

SQL for Data Science

Datacamp

SEPTEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Cleaning Data in Python

Datacamp

SEPTEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Python Data Science Toolbox

Datacamp

JULY 2019 - PRESENT

Working with Geospatial Data in Python

Datacamp

JULY 2017 - PRESENT

Greedy Algorithms, Minimum Spanning Trees, and Dynamic Programming

Coursera

MAY 2017 - PRESENT

Graph Search, Shortest Paths, and Data Structures

Coursera

APRIL 2017 - PRESENT

Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms

Coursera

Libraries/APIs

PyTorch, Scikit-learn, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, SciPy, PyTorch Lightning, OpenCV, Keras, TensorFlow, Shapely

Tools

Jupyter, PyCharm, Sublime Text 3, Postman, Git, Slack

Languages

Python 3, Python, SQL, JavaScript, TypeScript

Paradigms

Data Science, Anomaly Detection

Platforms

Jupyter Notebook, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, MacOS

Storage

Databases

Other

Deep Learning, Learning, Remote Sensing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Geospatial Analytics, Neural Networks, AI Programming, iTerm2, Conda, Scientific Research, Data Engineering, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), Computer Vision, Xarray, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), Data Visualization, Ensemble Methods, Image Processing, Software Project Management, Big Data, Architecture, Rasterio, Unsupervised Learning, Algorithms, Data Structures, Statistics, Feature Engineering, APIs, Big Data Architecture, Probability Theory, Partial Differential Equations, Measure Theory, Numerical Analysis, Algebra, Software Engineering, Computer Science, System Design, System Administration, Cloud Computing, Research, Satellite Images, Fraud Investigation

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