Hi, I'm Clarissa!

Data Engineer | Software Engineer | AI Engineer

let's talk

About Clarissa Sobota

I'm an engineer who has never been content wearing just one hat. My path runs from civil engineering through IT and software into data — and today I work right where data engineering, cloud architecture, and AI/ML meet.

I'm a relentless learner; there's almost always a new degree or certification open on my desk. What ties it all together is a love of turning messy, real-world problems into clean systems, useful tools, and decisions people can actually act on.

Clarissa Sobota
Selected Work

Professional Projects

AI Surveillance

LLMEvaluationMetricsPython

Keeps a close watch on LLM output quality — catching hallucinations before they ever reach users.

  • Pulls sample terms at random from a product's raw production logs.
  • Terminologists score them against a curated "Golden Term Set" to measure accuracy and flag hallucinations.
  • Accuracy and latency metrics roll up so decision-makers can see exactly how the model is performing.
  • A feedback-loop pipeline streamlines the hand-off with terminologists, slashing turnaround time and errors.

AI Agent

LLMRAGVector DBSQLDatabricks

Ask a question in plain English, get a real answer back from live data.

  • An LLM breaks each question down into its key components.
  • RAG surfaces relevant synonyms from embedded docs to power genuine semantic search.
  • Documentation and data are embedded into a vector database for fast, meaningful retrieval.
  • The LLM writes the SQL, runs it against Databricks, and hands back a clean, human-readable answer.

PDF Text Extraction Pipeline

AWSLambdaTextractS3SQS / SNSEC2

A hands-off AWS pipeline that turns PHI-sensitive PDFs into clean, searchable text.

  • Lambda scans the client S3 bucket daily and queues any new files in SQS.
  • A second Lambda pulls from the queue and ships each file off to Textract.
  • When Textract finishes, SNS fires with the Job ID, triggering extraction of the results back into S3 as text.
  • An EC2 cron job collects the finished files for processing — and the whole flow can flip from scheduled to event-driven with minimal changes.

Data Transformation Pipeline

EMRAthenaGlueMWAA / AirflowSpark

An orchestrated ETL engine that moves data from Postgres into analytics-ready Athena tables.

  • A scheduled Airflow job extracts Postgres tables nightly and lands them in S3 as Parquet.
  • On-demand Airflow DAGs reshape the raw data to match business rules.
  • Clean data is loaded into Athena and republished to S3 as Parquet for downstream use.
  • DAGs build themselves dynamically — user input at trigger time generates exactly the right tasks in Python.

Traffic Data Reporting

TableauBIRSTCrystal ReportsGrafanaSAP BIPython

Turning raw traffic-sensor data into dashboards and forecasts a city can act on.

  • Compared speed data across sources with peak-hour graphs for every day.
  • Mined speed-camera data to connect morning patterns to afternoon traffic forecasts.
  • Reconciled bus data across Oracle and MongoDB to measure write latency and catch mismatches.
  • Built live dashboards tracking traffic events, device inventory, speed / volume, and device health.

E-Learning Site

MoodleEC2S3CloudFrontRDSRoute 53

Full-stack ownership of a Moodle training platform for nurses, end to end on AWS.

  • Architected on EC2, S3, CloudFront, RDS (PostgreSQL), Elastic Load Balancer, EBS, and Route 53.
  • When the HTTPS migration slowed SCORM courses to a crawl, engineered a CloudFront-based delivery method in the spirit of SCORM Cloud.
  • Served SCORM files from S3 through CloudFront with expiring, PHP-signed URLs — load times back to instant.

Process Improvement via VBA

VBAExcelAutomation

Excel automation that turned multi-day grind work into ten-minute jobs.

  • Math model manager: auto-generated C++ headers from spreadsheet values — days down to ~10 minutes.
  • Test-comparison tool: merged hundreds of simulation results into one calculated, formatted workbook — hours down to ~10 minutes.
  • Comments parser: consolidated scattered worksheets into a single master, sorted by engineering discipline and source.

Automated Slot Game Testing

C++XMLTesting

A test harness that validated slot-game math models with no human in the loop.

  • Generated game inputs and expected outcomes straight from the math model into XML.
  • Loaded that XML on the game server and compared every simulated result against its expected value.
  • Emitted pass / fail reports that companion Excel tools picked up and summarized automatically.
Nights & Weekends

Personal Projects

A whole flock of kid-friendly games and apps I've built over the years — many dreamed up for my own son when he was little.

Macro Master screenshot

Macro Master

Amazon PartyRock · 2024

A Generative-AI app that builds personalized nutrition macros in seconds.

Kiddie Counting screenshot

Kiddie Counting

Amazon Store · 2015

A playful counting game that helps toddlers master their numbers 1–10.

View
Ducky Counter screenshot

Ducky Counter

Windows Store · 2013

A counting game that makes learning to count feel like play for the littlest learners.

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Ducky Block Blaster screenshot

Ducky Block Blaster

Windows Store · 2013

Addition and subtraction practice disguised as a block-blasting good time.

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Ducky Number Matcher screenshot

Ducky Number Matcher

Windows Store · 2013

A matching game that builds number sense through play.

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Prime Number Learner screenshot

Prime Number Learner

Windows Store · 2013

A quick-fire game that makes spotting prime numbers finally click.

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Duck Juggler screenshot

Duck Juggler

Windows Store · 2013

Step into the flippers of a circus seal earning its keep by juggling ducks!

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Ducky Multiplication screenshot

Ducky Multiplication

Windows Store · 2013

Times-tables practice up to 9×9, powered by a pond full of rubber ducks.

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Ducky Color Counter screenshot

Ducky Color Counter

Windows Store · 2013

Color recognition meets counting in one cheerful little game.

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Duck Dodger screenshot

Duck Dodger

Windows Store · 2013

Guide a rubber duck downriver and dodge everything in its path.

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Ducky Math screenshot

Ducky Math

Windows Store · 2013

Addition and subtraction practice with a whole flock of ducks to help.

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GitHub
Always Learning

Education

University of Nevada, Reno

Bachelor of Science
Civil Engineering
2006

Norwich University

Master of Civil Engineering
Structural Engineering
2011

DePaul University

Master of Science
Software Engineering
2016

University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign

Master of Business Administration
 
2021

Colorado State University

Master of Science
Machine Learning and AI
2026
Badges & Credentials

Certifications

Udacity Nanodegree
Data Engineering
Issued 2023
AWS Associate
SysOps Administrator
Issued 2017
ID: WN3KDETCHE4112WR
AWS Associate
Developer
Issued 2019
JN9S2EJ2BJFQ1Y32
AWS Associate
Solutions Architect
Issued 2019
39LTXVD2H1Q4QW96
Astronomer Certification
Apache Airflow Fundamentals
Issued 2021
Credential Link
Databricks Associate Dev
Apache Spark 3.0
Issued 2021
ID: 37123361
MIT
Big Data and Social Analytics
Issued 2016
ID: 10358862
AWS Certified
AI Practitioner
Issued 2026
UIUC Specialization
Value Chain Management
Issued 2021
ID: 38561610
UIUC Specialization
Business Analytics
Issued 2022
ID: 46277207
UIUC Specialization
Digital Marketing
Issued 2022
ID: 27541599
NASM
Personal Trainer Certification
Issued 2022
ID: 1220944119
From Colleagues

In Their Words

“

Clarissa is one of, if not THE most talented developer I have ever worked alongside.

— Blake Miner
“

She is very good at recommending solutions to complex business problems and communicates well with the business.

— Dianna Lord

Let's build something together.
I'm always up for a good conversation about data.

LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/csobota
Email
clarissa.sobota@gmail.com
GitHub
github.com/clarissasobota
Location
Greater Chicago Area