Charlene Rocha

About

Hi, I’m Charlene!

I got into programming through volunteering and quickly discovered I loved building things that make a real impact in the world. I’m especially drawn to projects that sit at the intersection of creativity, problem-solving, and helping people in small but meaningful ways.

I’m a recent Software Engineering grad of the University of Waterloo and am excited for my next adventures!

Outside of tech, I’ve written a book, given a TEDx talk, and I tend to collect side quests wherever I go. I love artistic hobbies like painting, scrapbooking, and decorating cakes!

Projects

Take a look at some of the cool projects I’ve done throughout the years!

Agentic Version Control Protocol (AVCP)

My capstone group built AVCP, giving AI developers a way to experiment safely, benchmark performance, and roll back to stable agents without rebuilding from scratch. Rather than file-based versioning like Git, AVCP lets users modularize, track, and compare agent compositions with ease.

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3D Printed Prosthetics

Through 3D printing and my knowledge of technology, I led and trained a chapter of 30 members to research, develop, and assemble free prosthetic upper limb devices.

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You Can Be an Activist: How to Use Your Strengths and Passions to Make a Difference

Written alongside Mary Beth Leatherdale and published by KidsCanPress, this book encourages students to use their strengths and passions to make a difference in the world. It includes stories of young activists, tips for getting involved, and advice for overcoming obstacles!

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Machine Learning Trash Sorter

Architected a Raspberry Pi device with image processing for a dataset of 3000+ photos. This machine efficiently sorted, transported, and disposed metal, garbage, and recycling to their proper wastebins with a elegant system of two motors with a 94.5% accuracy.

Volunteer Work

As a student leader, I've been involved in a range of projects including presenting my own TEDx Talk, starring in a YTV docuseries, and leading STEM workshops in elementary schools.

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Resume

Please connect with me to view my full resume

Experience

Google

Software Engineer Intern

May 2025-Aug 2025

Engineered a REST API with tag-based filtering for a Google Cloud service handling 10K+ QPS, refactoring the execution pipeline to decouple and parallelize tag-fetching logic for improved performance.

Java

TypeScript

Angular

Guice

Google Cloud

Producer Modules

Promise Graph

Protocol Buffers

Spanner

Datadog

Software Engineer Intern

Jan 2025-Apr 2025

Led end-to-end development of a scalable Go-based dependency tracker for Datadog GitHub repos, automating visibility into 14K+ package records per run.

Go

SQL

Bazel

Protocol Buffers

Temporal

gRPC APIs

Audible

Software Developer Engineer Intern

May 2024-Aug 2024

Developed a concurrency-safe lock mechanism for shopping carts, decreasing transaction conflicts and ensuring that only one order is processed at a time in a high-traffic e-commerce environment

Java

Ruby

Datapath

Spring

Hibernate

Amazon Web Services

AWS Cloud Development Kit

Electronic Arts

Software Engineer Intern

Sept 2023-Dec 2023

Built an internal CLI tool to replicate game compilation bugs through dynamic Azure virtual machine provisioning, reducing developer debugging time.

Python

Bash

Powershell

Git

Microsoft Azure

Terraform

Artifactory

Perforce

1Password

Full Stack Developer Intern

Jan 2023-Apr 2023

Worked on a secure admin reports page with robust user authentication protocols and aided in the successful launch of popular new features, such as a main admin dashboard.

Go

TypeScript

JavaScript

SQL

Rust

React

Git

AWS

Docker

Apache Kafka

DataDog

ADP

Software Engineer Intern

May 2022-Aug 2022

Revamped JavaScript API endpoints to help migrate from a monolithic system to a scalable and parallel microservices architecture.

Java

JavaScript

SQL

MongoDB

Spring

React

Git

AWS

Jenkins

Jira

Postman

Maven

Education

University of Waterloo

Honours Bachelor of Software Engineering

Sept 2021-Apr 2026

GPA: 91.3% (Dean's Honours)
Coursework
- Algorithms & Foundations
  - Data Structures and Algorithms
  - Foundations of Sequential Programs
  - Software Engineering Principles
  - Data Abstraction and Implementation
- Systems and Architecture
  - Operating Systems
  - Programming for Performance
  - Computer Networks
  - Concurrent & Parallel Programs
  - Software Design & Architectures
- Artificial Intelligence
  - Intro to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  - Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
- Development Lifecycle
  - Database Management
  - User Interfaces
  - Software Project Management, Requirements, and Analysis
  - Software Testing and Quality Assurance
Participated as the Internal Affairs Officer of UW BluePrint.