Rao Abdul
ML engineer, graphic designer, and A Level Computer Science student at GEMS Cambridge International, Sharjah. Full AI-readable copies: llms.txt and llms-full.txt.
GitHub: github.com/regional-specter · LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rao-abdul · Email: raoabdulhadi952@gmail.com · Resume: CV.pdf
About
A Level student at GEMS Cambridge International, Sharjah — building things, competing, and figuring out how technology and business intersect in the real world.
On the competition side, winner of multiple robotics, engineering, and business challenges including the Abu Dhabi GEMS Inter-school Business Competition and the FLL Australia 2024 Innovation Best Award. Represented a team at the NASA Space Apps Hackathon and met astronaut Sunita Williams.
Builds with Python and JavaScript, and specializes in graphic design and web development with HTML, CSS, and Next.js. Projects on GitHub range from AI agents with intent-based memory architectures to full end-to-end RAG systems.
Experience
CramEd Tech — Software Developer (Jul 2026 – Present)
Full-stack student-teacher portal: architecture, UI/UX, automated attendance, past paper analytics, Next.js dashboard. Skills: Database Management, Next.js, Backend, Data Migration.
Eduvance.au — Lead UX Developer (Mar 2025 – Sep 2025)
Branding, UI/UX, and Next.js website for a community of 18,000+ international students. Skills: UI/UX Design, Next.js, Branding.
NASA International Space Apps Challenge — Game Developer (Sep 2023 – Oct 2023)
Python game logic and interactive storytelling. Awarded Galactic Problem Solver by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams.
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE CHALLENGE — Lead Software Engineer (Mar 2023 – Jul 2023)
Best Innovation Project Award (regionals) and Rising All-Stars Award at FLL Open Internationals in Australia.
VEX Robotics — Robotics Engineer (Oct 2022 – Jan 2023)
Best Design Award at the VEX Robotics UAE Championship.
Education / Certificates
- DataCamp — Machine Learning Fundamentals (Jul 2026)
- GEMS Cambridge International Private School Sharjah — Computer Science A-Levels (Sep 2022 – Jul 2026)
- Ajman Sewerage — NextGen Innovators First Place, AED 20,000 (Nov 2025)
- DataCamp — Data Analyst Professional Certificate (Apr 2026)
- University of Leeds — Evidence and Data Collection for Problem Solving (Nov 2024)
- IBM — Information Technology Fundamentals (Oct 2024)
- UAE Ministry of Education — Award of Appreciation for representing the UAE at FLL Open Internationals (Oct 2023)
Research papers
The Cost of Complexity: Linear Models vs. Tree Ensembles on Structured Data
SSRN preprint. Benchmarks Ridge, Lasso, and Logistic Regression against Random Forest and XGBoost on Ames Housing and German Credit Risk. Read on SSRN.
Portfolio Theory for Formula 1 Pit Strategy
Manuscript. Reframes F1 compound choice and stint length as a Markowitz portfolio problem. Searched plans beat an equal-stint Soft→Medium→Hard default by 4.3–10.3 seconds (mean 7.8 s) on five holdout races.
Projects
Harvey AI Agent
CLI financial-research agent using the STITCH memory framework. GitHub
R-Federer
Tennis RAG system with ChromaDB, dense passage retrieval, and Gemini. GitHub
HalalQuant
Shariah-compliant quant data engine using AAOIFI/DJIM screens and DuckDB. GitHub
mini-learn
From-scratch ML library for linear models, trees, and dimensionality reduction. GitHub
Trading Algorithm
Four-layer decision engine: market context, signals, policy, and risk controls. GitHub