Vanshika Shyam · Software Engineer

01 — About

I'm Vanshika Shyam.

Software Engineer

I'm a fourth-year Computer Science student at Trinity Western University who loves building software that solves real problems, from full-stack web apps to AI-powered tools.

Recently I co-founded CanServe AI, where I built an AI phone receptionist for local trades businesses. I also built RentScout AI to help newcomers spot rental scams, and a Redis-style server from scratch to learn how databases work under the hood.

I enjoy the whole process: designing the backend, writing clean, tested code, and getting it live. I'm looking for software and AI engineering roles where I can keep learning and build things people actually use.

Based in: Vancouver, BC
Studying: 4th-year BSc Computer Science, Minor in Mathematics · Trinity Western University
Focus: Software engineering and AI engineering: backend systems, APIs, LLM apps and voice agents
Currently: Co-founding CanServe AI and building RentScout's Tenancy Act assistant

02 — Experience

Where I've worked

Jul 2026 – PresentVancouver, BC
Co-Founder & Technical Lead

CanServe AI · AI automation consultancy for home-service businesses
- Architected a multi-tenant AI voice receptionist with Retell AI, n8n, Supabase and Twilio, with per-tenant configuration driving call routing, appointment booking and human escalation.
- Designed 5 function-calling schemas so the agent can book appointments, capture lead details and hand off mid-call without losing context.
- Ran direct outreach to 8 trades businesses across Langley, Surrey and Abbotsford, delivering live demos and iterating agent behaviour from real call transcripts.
Retell AIn8nSupabaseTwilioFunction calling
View project ↗
Jul 2025 – Aug 2026Vancouver, BC
Freelance Software Developer

Voice-Interactive Adventure Game · Contract, independent client
- Rescued an abandoned Java/Swing codebase by reverse-engineering the previous developer's compiled build to restore the full source, then extended it into a complete offline voice-driven interactive fiction engine.
- Built a phrase-matching engine that routes spoken and typed input across 880 scripted interactions using weighted token similarity, stemming and story-position heuristics, verified at 100% routing accuracy in automated tests.
- Developed an offline speech pipeline: Java microphone capture, grammar-constrained recognition with PocketSphinx and a custom phonetic dictionary, and synchronised playback of 830+ voice-actor clips.
JavaSwingPocketSphinxSpeech recognition
View project ↗
Jun 2024 – Aug 2024Vancouver, BC
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Trinity Western University
- Investigated RNA secondary-structure prediction algorithms in Java, including simulated annealing, and identified a temperature-scheduling defect causing premature convergence.
- Ran experiments on high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, working in a Linux environment.
- Rebuilt the RNA secondary-structure visualisation in Java, making folding output easier for faculty to review.
JavaLinuxHPCDigital Research Alliance of CanadaSimulated annealing
View project ↗
Sep 2023 – Apr 2024Vancouver, BC
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Programming (Python)

Trinity Western University
- Supported 40+ students per semester in Python programming, helping with debugging and object-oriented programming through weekly office hours and one-on-one sessions.
PythonOOPDebuggingMentoring

03 — Selected work

Things I've built

Featured project · May 2026 – Present

RentScout AI

Before you send that deposit, check the listing.

GitHub ↗

Vancouver's rental market runs on scams that target people who don't know what rent should cost, don't know their tenant rights, and need housing urgently. I was one of those people. Every rental site shows you listings; none help you judge one.

The decision I'm proudest of

The first version ranked generated sample listings. It looked richer in a demo and helped no one find housing, and the scam check was quietly pricing listings against that same invented data. I cut rental search and rebuilt the price check on real CMHC rents.

Full-stack platform (~3,500 LOC) with 16 REST endpoints and a 7-table PostgreSQL schema.
Scam screen weighing payment red flags, manufactured urgency, and prices benchmarked against CMHC rents for that zone and bedroom count.
CMHC rent and vacancy data for 29 Metro Vancouver zones powering market comparison and affordability checks.
OpenAI API for neighbourhood insights and plain-English explanations of scam risk.
Dockerised, JWT + bcrypt auth, CI running lint, typecheck, build and API smoke tests.

FastAPIPythonPostgreSQLOpenAI APINext.jsTypeScriptDocker

Sep 2025 – Present

GiveSync

Donation-tracking app for Food Link Society. Project owner and backend developer on a live client engagement, recognised as the top project in the class. Tracks donations and volunteers with offline storage and automatic Firebase sync, plus automated email summaries and CSV reports.

FlutterDartFirebaseREST APIs

Aug 2026

Mini-Redis

Redis is the in-memory database apps reach for when they need an answer in under a millisecond: caching, sessions, rate limits and queues.

A Redis-compatible server built from scratch in Python over raw TCP sockets, with no Redis libraries. It speaks the real RESP protocol, so the official redis-cli works against it.

PING, SET (with EX expiry), GET, DEL, EXISTS and EXPIRE, routed through a command dispatch table.
One thread per client and a lock-protected in-memory store, so concurrent connections stay safe; expired keys are cleared lazily on access.
Unit-tested, containerised with Docker, deployed on Railway, and paired with a Flask web UI that turns button clicks into RESP commands.

PythonTCP socketsRESPThreadingFlaskDockerRailway

GitHub ↗

04 — Tech stack

What I work with

Highlighted: what I've used most in shipped projects

Languages

What I write code in

PythonJavaTypeScriptJavaScriptC++DartSQL

Frontend & mobile

Interfaces for web and phone

ReactNext.jsFlutterHTMLCSS

Backend & APIs

Services, auth and integrations

FastAPISpring BootFlaskREST APIsJWT authTwilion8n

Databases

Relational, document and realtime

PostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBSupabaseFirebase / Firestore

Cloud & DevOps

Shipping and running it

AWSDockerGitHub Actions CILinuxHPC clustersVercelRailwayRender

AI & ML

LLM apps, agents and models

OpenAI APIFunction callingStructured outputsRAGLLM evaluationVoice agents (Retell AI)TensorFlowscikit-learnSpeech recognition

Tools & workflow

How I work with a team

GitGitHubGitLabBitbucketJiraAgile

05 — Education

Jan 2023 – May 2027

Trinity Western University

BSc Computer Science, Minor in Mathematics

Dean's List

Vancouver, BC

Achievements & leadership

32nd place, ICPC 2023 Regional Programming ContestAlgorithmic problem-solving under time pressure.
President, TWUMET Club (Math, Engineering & Technology)Led a 30+ member club; organised 5 technical workshops and 3 industry speaker events.

Scholarships & awards

Presidential Scholarship$6,000
Norman & Arlene Low Scholarship$3,000
Steven Barre STEM Award for Women in STEM$2,000
TWU Award$2,000
COPAC Ministries Scholarship$2,000

Certifications

Google · Coursera

Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User

View certificate ↗

06 — Get in touch

Let's build something people can rely on.

I'm looking for software engineering and AI engineering roles where I can ship real products alongside people who are better at this than I am. If that sounds like your team, I'd love to hear from you.

vanshikashyam9@gmail.com ↗ LinkedIn ↗ GitHub ↗

Résumé

One page: experience, projects, skills and education.

Download résumé (PDF) ↓