---
title: ""
date: 2022-10-04T23:35:54-04:00
---

Alex Selimov
==================

**alex@alexselimov.com · [https://alexselimov.com](https://alexselimov.com)**

## Skills

- Programming Languages: Python, C++, Rust, Java, Fortran, Bash
- Algorithm design, data structure design, runtime complexity analysis
- High Performance Computing: Message Passing Interface (MPI), OpenMP, C++17 parallelism, Rayon, Python multithreading
- Proficient in Linux environments on desktop, personal server, and computing cluster architectures. 
- Knowledge of product development tools such as git, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, JIRA, and Agile workflow.
- Expertise with development and profiling tools: Valgrind, gdb, gprof, Intel VTune profiler, tau profiler.
- Technical writing abilities which resulted in 8 published journal articles and creation of software specifications/documentation.


## Experience

**UKG**, Atlanta\
*Software Engineer (May 2025 -- Present)*

- Worked as backend engineer on notifications as a service using a microservice architecture built on top Java, SpringBoot, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MongoDB, Splunk, and Grafana technologies.
- Implemented improved observability for services to reduce service downtime. 
- Acted as a Security Champion and addressed security vulnerabilities in existing code based on SAST and SCA scans performed using CXOne Checkmarx.
- Led implementation of testing services for web push notification services.
- Assisted in development of MCP server and LLM chatbot proof-of-concept to act as an internal assistant for providing support to other UKG teams.

**SpaceWorks Enterprises**, Atlanta\
*Senior Software Developer (January 2024 -- April 2025)*

- Lead development and maintainer role for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products as well as NASA and NAVAIR programs in Rust and Python.
- Led development of modular and extensible simulation libraries for modeling applications including multi-body six-degree-of-freedom simulations, state-space linear simulations for control system design, differential evolution optimization, among others.
- Improved mesh based calculations from **~1 hour to ~1 minute** per analysis through improved data structure and algorithm design.
- Implemented multi-threading for accelerating simulation analysis and for asynchronous execution.
- Developed equilibrium gas composition solver for different stages of a rocket engine cycle with **order-of-magnitude improved speed compared to legacy approach**.
- Product owner for COTS product including final approval of merge requests, interfacing with customers for sales and technical support, and helping to develop software roadmaps.
- Developed and maintained CI/CD pipelines for COTS products using Gitlab runners and docker containers.
- Mentored junior developers in idiomatic Rust and software architecture.

**Third Wave Systems**, Minnesota\
*Computational Mechanics Engineer (December 2022 -- January 2024)*

- Worked in an Agile team on a variety of projects requiring fast context switching to implement cutting edge functionality in C++, Fortran, and Python.
- Worked on large legacy C++ FEA code bases to add new functionality as well as address subtle legacy bugs resulting from race conditions, invalid memory access, and incorrect usage of programming language built-ins.
- Refactored core solvers utilizing an Octree data structure for adaptive mesh refinement, utilizing OpenMP and C++17 built in multi-threading, resulting in **90% reduction in simulation time**.
- Implemented improved force models for drilling through addition of analytical equations for elastic indentation, **which reduced error by 10% relative to experiments**.
- Led team members in implementation of machine learning analysis in Python requiring accurate effort estimation and selection of functionality based on effort/risk to reward.
- Mentored junior developers in idiomatic Python and machine learning concepts.
- Automated manual simulation creation and analysis workflows using Python, leveraging active learning based adaptive sampling, to reduce manual effort by engineers and **reduce usage of compute resources by ~80%**.

**McDowell Research Group**, Dr. David McDowell, Georgia Tech\
*Graduate Research Assistant (August 2017 -- December 2022)*

- Developed and extended Concurrent Atomistic-Continuum (CAC) simulation toolkit involving the development of a coupled finite element method and classical many-body molecular dynamics simulation tool in C++ and Fortran.
- Developed a series of Python pipelines for analyzing simulations and visualization of simulation results.
- Refactored significant portions of the code to **reduce simulation run times by 60%** through design of new algorithms and improved implementation of communication subroutines utilizing MPI. 
- Profiled and tuned software performance for high performance computing clusters including implementing code structure changes enabling improved compiler optimizations and addressing MPI communication bottlenecks.
- Worked independently on self-guided research topics while also collaborating with external sources such as Sandia National Lab and University of Florida.
- **Authored three published journal articles and four conference presentations**.
 
**Mechanics of Materials Organization**, Dr. Xiaowang Zhou., Sandia National Lab\
*Intern - Engineering Sciences Summer institute (May 2021 -- August 2021)*
 
- Restructured simulation toolkit codebase to abide by an object-oriented programming paradigm to ease addition of functionality.
- Worked on the development of finite temperature CAC simulations through design of novel finite elements.
- Developed methods for pressure controlled CAC simulations.

## Education

- **Georgia Institute of Technology** (North Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30332)\
  PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (August 2017 - December 2022)
- **University of Central Florida** (4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816)\
  B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (August 2013 - December 2016)\
  Bachelor's Thesis: Characterization of Dispersion and Residual Stress in Nanoparticle Reinforced Hybrid Carbon Fiber Composites

## Publications:

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## Presentations

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## Grants 

- Role: Co-PI (PI. David McDowell), Amount: 1,997,041 Service Units \
Funding Source: Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE)\
Project Title: Concurrent atomistic-continuum simulations of extended scale defect interactions in heterogeneous microstructures (TG-MSS150010)\
Funding Period: Jan 1, 2019 - June 30, 2022
