Jessica Plotkin

Computer Science Student

  • Email : jplotkin@berkeley.edu
  • GitHub : JessicaPlotkin

About me

Hello! My name is Jessica Plotkin and I am currently a junior at UC Berkeley studying Computer Science as a Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar. I have a passion for tackling challenging problems with the help of mathematics and computer science, algorithm design and optimization, CS community inclusivity, and getting kids excited about all things STEM!

Education

ACADEMIC CAREER

Bachelor of Arts, Computer Science (Class of 2022)

University of California, Berkeley: College of Letters and Sciences
Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar (Top <1% of applicants), GPA: 3.7/4.0
Senior standing by units

COMPSCI 162: Operating Systems and System Programming (Fall 2020)

COMPSCI 161: Computer Security (Fall 2020)

COMPSCI 170: Efficient Algorithms and Intractable Problems (Spring 2020)

COMPSCI 61C: Great Ideas of Computer Architecture -Machine Structures (Spring 2020)

DATASCI 100: Principles & Techniques of Data Science (Fall 2019)

COMPSCI 70: Discrete Mathematics and Probability Theory (Fall 2019)

ELENG 16A & 16B: Designing Information Devices and Systems I & II (Spring & Fall 2019)

COMPSCI 61B: Data Structures (Spring 2019)

COMPSCI 61A: The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (Fall 2018)

High School Diploma (Class of 2018)

Ulysses S. Grant High School
Valedictorian (ranked 1/455), Weighted GPA: 4.6/4.0, Unweighted GPA: 4.0/4.0
Los Angeles Valley College
Dual enrollment during High School

MATH 267: Calculus with Analytic Geometry III (Fall 2017)

MATH 270: Linear Algebra (Spring 2017)

Experience

Amazon Prime Video

Software Development Engineer Internship
Summer 2020

  • Worked on the team responsible for Video Central’s Communication Manager and Support Website
  • Created a chatbot for the Support Website using Amazon Lex to address partner questions about the status of their title uploads (incudes video, audio, cover art, etc.) as the first step in the website’s complete redesign
  • Modified an established codebase to add API access to Elasticsearch data and pushed code into production
  • Created an AWS Lambada function which interprets chatbot input data and queries various services to return the customer data necessary for addressing user questions in a readable format
  • Wrote unit and integration tests using dependency injection to ensure the validity of each part of my code

Great Minds Robotics

Teaching Internship
Summer 2019

  • Taught and designed curriculum for a camp on Processing (a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts)
  • Worked with kids ages 8-16 of various skill levels

Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholars Association

Web Development Committee
Fall 2018 - PRESENT

  • Developing and improving the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholars Association website
  • Created stable marriage engine for matching committees and applying members
  • Worked on developing a system for scholars to easily view their event points, previously manually reported upon request

FIRST Robotics Competition

Team 980 “Thunderbots”
Summer 2016 - Spring 2018

  • Implemented computer vision component which assisted in precisely approaching objects with reflective tape in areas where drivers could not easily manually drive the robot into necessary positions
  • Designed the programming portion of the curriculum for a free robotics summer camp. Taught 5th and 6th graders how to build and program Lego Mindstorms robots. Helped other instructors with teaching programming portions of the curriculum.
  • Awards: Chairman’s Award at 2018 Los Angeles Regional, Finalists at 2018 Los Angeles Regional, Entrepreneurship Award at 2017 Los Angeles Regional.

Skills

Programming Languages (Proficient):

  • C#, Python, Java, SQL

Programming Languages (Working Knowledge):

  • JavaScript, Typescript, Processing, C++, RISC-V, Scheme, C

Technologies (Working Knowledge):

  • Git, HTML/CSS, LaTeX

Natural Languages (Native):

  • English, Russian