Ayana Mussabayeva

Languages

English (Professional, IELTS: 8.0)

Russian (First language)

Kazakh (Second language)

Skills

Machine Learning
Deep Learning
Signal Processing
Numerical Methods
Python
ML/DL Frameworks

Awards

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), 2023

CodeJam to I/O for Women coding competition winner, 2019

Community Service

Founder of IT Jobs KZ

Job board for IT specialists in Kazakhstan

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Co-founder of DSML KZ

Co-founder of DSML KZ logo

Community of data scientists in Kazakhstan with over 7,000 members

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Experience

Head of Engineering (Dec 2024 - Present) | Head of AI/ML (Oct 2024 - Dec 2024)

Green Eye Ltd | October 2024 - Present

Remote

Promoted to Head of Engineering after successfully establishing the company's ML function.

Current responsibilities:

• Leading and tracking progress across multiple teams, including backend, frontend, mobile, UX/UI, DevOps, and machine learning

• Collaborating with ML team to design and implement core machine learning technologies for real-time video analysis

• Overseeing technical architecture and ensuring alignment with business objectives

Previous role as Head of AI/ML:

• Led a team of 3 senior ML engineers

• Developed and designed project's ML architecture

• Implemented deep learning models for action detection, face detection and recognition

Head of AI/ML

INUI GAMING | October 2023 - October 2024

Dubai, UAE

Established company's ML/AI function, leading a team on innovative projects for the gaming industry:

• Anticheat system for Counter Strike 2 and CS:GO (computer vision based solutions for WallHack cheats and sophisticated deep learning and mathematical algorithms for AimBot, Spinbot type of cheats)

• Recommendation systems for content suggestions and gaming marketplace

• Match-making and ranking system for normal and custom modes of team playing in Counter Strike

Scaled the team from 2 to 5 senior ML engineers, overseeing the entire hiring process

Managed cross-team communication and stakeholder collaboration to ensure alignment, optimizing project delivery

Gaming platform that prevents cheating in multiplayer games, total raise of $17.8 million

Senior Lecturer

Kazakh-British Technical University | January 2023 - June 2023

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Designed and taught Electronics & Digital Design course for second year undergraduate students of Faculty of Information Technologies

Teaching Assistant

University of Manchester | February 2022 - December 2022

Manchester, UK

Taught Calculus (1st year students), Introduction to Python (2nd year students), Statistical Inference (3rd year students)

Education

PhD in Machine Learning

Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence | August 2024 - Present

Abu-Dhabi, UAE

Global top 20 across ML, CV, NLP (CSRankings), world's first AI university

Relevant coursework: Advanced Continuous Optimization · Parallel and Distributed ML · Advanced Topics in Causality & ML

Member of BioMedIA and Causality research groups

MPhil. in Mathematical Sciences

University of Manchester | August 2021 - August 2023

Manchester, UK

Ranked 34th in the world and 6th in the UK (QSRankings)

Developed mathematical approaches to infer kinetics as a system of ODEs from catalytic reactions time-series data under the supervision of Prof. Stefan Güttel and Prof. Igor Larrosa

Numerical linear algebra group member

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) scholarship holder (full coverage of tuition fees and £17.667 of yearly stipend)

Presenting research poster at NLH60 conference

Poster session at NJH60: Advances in Numerical Linear Algebra, celebrating the 60th Birthday of Nick Higham

Numerical Linear Algebra Group at the University of Manchester

Member of the Numerical Linear Algebra (NLA) Group at the University of Manchester

MSc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Nazarbayev University | August 2019 - June 2021

Astana, Kazakhstan

Top-1 research university in Kazakhstan

CGPA: 3.30 (out of 4.00)

Activities and societies: Member of "Stand Up! Night" stand up comedy club

Worked as a Research Assistant (RA) at Advanced Signal Processing Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Muhammad Tahir Akhtar and Prof. Prashant Kumar Jamwal.

The research output was presented and published at four conferences across the globe (APSIPA ASC 2020, EMBC 2021, APSIPA ASC 2021, DSP 2023) and in Applied Sciences journal

Thesis: "Meta-Classification of Brain Signals in P300 Speller". Implementation of EEG features classification using deep learning models

NU SEDS Hall of Fame poster

Featured in Nazarbayev University's Hall of Fame

Performing at Stand Up! Night concert

Performing at Stand Up! Night concert with an audience of 600 people

BEng. in Automation and Control

Kazakh-British Technical University | August 2015 - June 2019

Almaty, Kazakhstan

ABET accredited university

CGPA: 3.68 (out of 4.00)

Activities and societies: President of FunLife student stand up comedy club

Coursework: Modeling and Identification of Control Object, Theory of Control, Sensors and Actuators, Microcontrollers, Microprocessors, Electronics, Algorithms and Data Structures, Object Oriented Programming, Low Level Programming, Computer Networks

Achievements: • Google I/O 2019 participant (Code Jam to I/O for Women top competitor) • KBTU Success 2019 award holder • Winner of Hackathon 4.0: Data for future (by Unicef and Microsoft) • Winner of "Digitalization of the ecosystem of health and social protection. Blockchain" hackathon by Unicef

KBTU Success 2019 award recipient

Receiving the KBTU Success 2019 award and trophy

Winner team at Hackathon 4.0: Data for Future

Winner team at Hackathon 4.0: Data for Future, organized by UNICEF and Microsoft

Winners of Digitalization of Ecosystem hackathon

Winner team at the Digitalization of Ecosystem hackathon by UNICEF