Samuel Fisher — Resume

B.A. in Applied Mathematics (Computer Science)

A.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics

Software Engineer Intern at Salesforce

June 2026 – August 2026 • San Francisco, CA

• Slack Team: Infrastructure

Software Engineer (Contract) at National Geographic Society

February 2026 – May 2026 • Berkeley, CA

• I worked on backend infrastructure for a platform designed to organize and preserve thousands of marine biodiversity images collected during over 15 years of Pristine Seas expeditions. A big part of the challenge was figuring out how to structure scientific data in a way that stayed scalable, searchable, and actually usable long term.
• I designed metadata systems that connected things like species classification, habitats, expedition history, and geographic location into a consistent relational structure. Most of the work revolved around making messy real world research data feel organized and reliable without slowing down the people using it.
• I also built out a relational SQL prototype and backend API architecture that connected cloud storage, database services, and frontend applications together. The goal was making it easy for researchers to retrieve and work with information quickly across massive collections of expedition media.
• What I liked most about the project was that it sat at the intersection of software engineering, science, and conservation. It felt less like building another generic backend system and more like creating infrastructure that helped preserve and make sense of decades of exploration data.

Data Science Researcher (Contract) at Microsoft

August 2025 – February 2026 • Berkeley, CA

• I worked on a 6 person consulting team helping Microsoft explore how AI tools could realistically be adopted across nonprofit organizations in different parts of Africa. We analyzed operational data, infrastructure limitations, and technology access across more than 100 organizations to understand where AI could actually provide value versus where it was still impractical.
• One of the main things I built was a Digital Readiness Index that combined factors like internet reliability, staff technical experience, data infrastructure, and software adoption into a single scoring system. The idea was to create a clearer picture of which organizations were prepared for AI integration and which still faced foundational barriers.
• I also created geospatial dashboards and visualizations that mapped nonprofit clusters, technology gaps, and regional infrastructure differences. A lot of the work involved turning large messy datasets into something decision makers could immediately understand without needing to dig through spreadsheets.
• The project gave me a much broader perspective on AI deployment. It stopped feeling like just a technical problem and started feeling deeply tied to infrastructure, education, accessibility, and the realities of how organizations operate in different parts of the world.

Teaching Assistant (Calculus I, II, & III) at Santa Monica College

August 2024 – May 2025 • Santa Monica, CA

• As a Teaching Assistant for three levels of Calculus, I worked directly with three different professors to support over a hundred students each semester in mastering one of the most challenging sequences in mathematics. I wasn’t just grading or answering questions, I was building a bridge between complex material and student understanding.
• I led weekly problem solving sessions where I broke down difficult concepts like multivariable derivatives, integration techniques, and series convergence into clear components. During office hours and study workshops, I tailored explanations to each student’s learning style, helping them move from confusion to confidence. Many students told me my sessions were the first time the material “clicked.”
• I also created fulllength mock exams modeled after the professor’s style, giving students a realistic way to test their knowledge under exam-like conditions. These weren’t just recycled homework problems, they were carefully designed to highlight common pitfalls and integrate multiple concepts into single problems. After each mock exam, I held review sessions where we walked through the solutions together, focusing on why certain approaches worked and where students often tripped up. This gave them both the technical practice and the exam day confidence to perform at their best.
• Here are some of the exams I made: Calculus 1 Calculus 2