Zakkarija Micallef
Software Engineer |
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Experience
My professional journey and educational background
Software Engineer
Worked as a full-time Java engineer at this bare metal cloud provider, developing automation systems and internal tools. Led projects including automated RAID configuration, custom OS image creation, and internal provisioning tools built with Spring Boot.
M.Sc Computer Science
Graduated with a Master's degree focusing on advanced topics in distributed systems, cloud computing, and software architecture. Dissertation: Developed real-world industrial anomaly detection pipeline for CNC machines using MLflow/Kubeflow, automating model training through deployment.
Software Engineer Intern
Developed and maintained an internal employee management tool as part of a small intern team, handling the full stack including frontend, backend, database, deployment, and support. Collaborated with Product Owners to prioritise sprint tasks and gained practical experience with Java, Spring, Maven, SQL, and JavaScript.
B.Sc Artificial Intelligence
Studied core AI concepts including machine learning, computer vision, and knowledge representation.
Technical Skills
A comprehensive overview of my technical expertise across various domains
Backend & Languages
Primary backend technologies and programming languages
DevOps & Cloud
Infrastructure, deployment, and cloud services
Databases & Other
Database systems and additional technologies
Projects
Selected projects showcasing my technical skills and problem-solving abilities
Saliency-Directed Product Placement
I developed a computer vision system that predicts which products in a scene will attract customer attention first. The system uses visual saliency (how certain objects naturally stand out due to contrast, color, or orientation) to objectively rank products based on their attention-grabbing potential. The tool combines state-of-the-art object detection with a novel saliency segment ranking algorithm, achieving a 0.66 correlation coefficient when compared with human attention patterns. This modular system allows marketers to optimize product placement for maximum visual impact before expensive physical implementations.
Unity Game Development
Throughout my university courses and hackathons, I developed several games with Unity. The highlight was a 2-player platformer created during a 48-hour hackathon that won 2nd place and resulted in an internship offer. Other projects include a roguelike with procedurally generated maps (shown on the right) and an idle game. Each project helped me explore different aspects of game development, from path finding to procedural content generation.
Personal Portfolio Website
This very website you're browsing! I built this portfolio as a project to learn modern web development, particularly React and Next.js. The site is deployed using Vercel for seamless continuous deployment from GitHub.