Hello World!
My name is Braxton Lazar and I am a Senior Software Engineer looking to build, and explore cool things and ideas!
Currently, I am an engineer at Rivian, helping to keep the world adventurous forever. My current team manages packages and releases to internal teams and manages much of the development infrastructure from the Pull Request to the in-vehicle testing.
I have lead several projects including building Pull Request Tooling, large database storage management, and multiple vehicle variant support. I have contributed to several important systems including APIs, Nightly Selection, and some Frontend Dashboard work.
Professional Experience
Senior Software Engineer
December 2022 - Present
Rivian Automotive
Palo Alto, CA
Software Engineer
March 2021 - DEcember 2022
Rivian Automotive
Palo Alto, CA
Software Engineer
July 2019 - March 2021
HRL Laboratories
Malibu, CA
Led project to support multiple vehicle variants for in-vehicle test teams: created milestones, planning estimates, tickets, follow-up requests, and weekly project updates and demos
Worked with 4 other teams to create differential packages for smaller OTA downloads, saving the organization millions of dollars for the upcoming 2023 fiscal year and beyond
Created versioned Python package to access artifacts from cloud storage systems to reduce replicated code across several applications
Championed project around the collection, and reporting of static analysis violations within vehicle codebase, worked cross-functionally to drive violations down by 50%
Encapsulated application components to be flexible in their data consumption while teams were transitioning build systems from Jenkins to GitLab across the organization
Maintained Nightly Section System which manages selected builds to be used each day by several development and test teams across the company
Developed and modified several APIs and AWS Lambdas using Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL for build, release, testing, and development use cases
Created some dashboards using Javascript and React to display possible releases for testing vehicles and production software, and embedded other charts using AWS Quicksight
Mentored and onboarded new engineers into their role, setting them up them for successful project advocacy, feature deployments, and quality improvements
Developed a robust architecture using cutting edge research to make an autonomous vehicle platform.
Created state of the art autonomous vehicle simulation platform and scenarios for cognitive architectures and joint decision making.
Automated AI/ML software and methods for training autonomous systems.
Junior Software Developer
March 2019 - July 2019
MEDPOINT Management
Woodland Hills, CA
Made internal applications to streamline and improve processes and frameworks to a key pillar in the Healthcare Industry. Worked with Angular, TypeScript. .Net, C#, and SQL on a daily basis.
Maintained legacy software written in mainly in .NET Core and C#. Learned the intricacies of .NET, LINQ, and Microsoft SQL Server.
Developed new Front-End Web Pages with TypeScript and AngularJS with a .NET RESTful API to read and write data.
Designed User Interfaces to help standardize the company look to all software and help increase user productivity and ease of use.
Research and Design Intern
June 2017 - August 2017
Rapiscan Systems
Torrance, CA
Developed new software and tools to increase the efficiency of future Rapiscan products
Worked with the senior software developers and managers to develop a first prototype Touchscreen Application using a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino Micro developed in Python and C
My project will go on to be further developed and an iteration will be used in future image processing systems.
Education
Bachelor’s of Science in Information Science and Technology
Minor in Computational Sciences and Arts
At the University of Arizona, I have been able to take classes that have broadened my horizons and have allowed me to pursue many of my passions.
Classes:
Algorithms, Algorithms for Games, Computer Organization, Databases, Data Structures, Object-Oriented Programming, Systems Programming, Virtual Reality
Recent Projects
The Composing Computer
Team Leader
September 2018 - December 2018
Senior Capstone Project
ArchVr
Team Member
September 2018 - December 2018
Athlima
Co-Founder and Lead Engineer
Febuary 2017 - Febuary 2018
This project sought to address the shortcomings of general neural network structures by utilizing the GAN technique and evaluating its effectiveness when compared to more traditional methods.
We used a Recurrent Neural Network to read the MIDI data note by note, forming its layers, dependencies, and weights based on note occurrences and patterns. From this, the Network produces an output in MIDI format that is converted into sheet music for the performers to read and interpret.
Generative Adversarial Networks are a class of artificial intelligence algorithms used in unsupervised machine learning. GAN is used in many different areas of the machine learning community; however, for our project, we used a GAN to monitor the outputs of a neural network trained to create “human-esque” music.
Designed using Python 3.6 utilizing TensorFlow and Keras
This project is to develop a Virtual Reality (VR) game where users can experience the practice of executing and storing archeological artifacts.
This experience is meant to provide the user with the experience of being in the archeological world and teach them to proper methods and tools used on an archeological dig site.
Designed in Unity 5 in C#
Athlima is a mobile application which helps connect people in a sports/outdoors setting where I was lead designer and programmer.
This project was conceived at InnovateUA's STARTUP WEEKEND and won best in show of 10 showcases and continued to win 3rd Place at Thryve Weekend 2017 of 29 projects presented.
Deigned in Swift
“As engineers, we were going to be in a position to change the world – not just study it.”
—Henry Petroski, American engineer
Outside the Classroom
Director of Entrepreneurship
InnovateUA
Jult 2017 - May 2018
Manage events centered around entrepreneurship and business development at the University of Arizona through InnovateUA, a program dedicated to create opportunities for students to build innovative products. I hosted the 2017 Fall UAStartUp Weekend and am preparing for the fourth annual IdeaLaunch Event, the Universities Accelerator Program. I have also launched the IdeaHack this year at the School Annual Hackathon, HackArizona and played a role in its organization.
UA Cello Studio
AuGust 2014 - May 2018
I have played the Cello for about 10 years now and I have seen the most growth in my performance while studying under Dr. Theodore Buchholz in my 4 years of at the University of Arizona. I have had countless opportunities to play in small ensembles, preform in front of live audiences and learn what it means to be a musician and a performer and is something that I wish to pursue as I move from college into the professional world.
UA Philharmonic Orchestra
August 2014 - May 2018
Every Semester at the University of Arizona, I have taken the latest class offered in the whole university to play some of the most iconic and influential pieces of music that the world has ever seen. From Beethoven's 1st Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture to opera scenes performed by the UA Opera, I have played from every major era of music and have loved performing in a large group to make something truly spectacular.
Thryve ScaleUp Cohort 2017
June 2017 - August 2017
The entrepreneur training and mentorship program 'Thryve ScaleUp', is one of the top accelerator programs in the US, and is a venture development program providing local entrepreneurs with the necessary resources to grow their companies. This 11-week intensive course is 165 hours of training, connecting entrepreneurs with key mentors, critical business experts, and executives in our community, as well as a robust alumni group to support their business growth.
Athlima was one of the lucky teams which has been awarded a scholarship of $2000 from the "Stay in Tucson" fund provided in partnership with the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, to be trained at the prestigious U.S accelerator program.
Innovate UA Accelerator
MaRch 2017 - May 2017
Worked on a project for a potential Start Up, Athlima. I was the main teach lead of a group of 4 members and I learned a lot about entrepreneurship and business development through this process.
UA Game Developer Club
January 2015 - May 2017
Member of the UA Game Development Club, a club dedicated to discussing game design, industry trends, and most importantly making video games.
