Hi, I am Alassane Diop, ML / AI Engineer based in Montreal, Quebec.
I build and ship AI systems — recommendation engines, computer vision applications, LLM pipelines, and scalable data infrastructure.
- Building two AI products end-to-end as a solo founder: Olima.ai & Vibecope.ai
- Engineering ML systems at Browns Shoes (recommendation engine, computer vision, NPS pipeline with LLMs)
- M.Sc. Data Science & Business Analytics at HEC Montreal (3.77 GPA)
and Computer Engineering from l'Ecole Polytechnique de Thiès, Senegal.
AI Startup Founder
Olima.ai & Vibecope.ai – (2025 - Present)
— Built and launched Olima.ai, a mobile self-discovery game with a celebrity similarity algorithm (React Native / Expo, V12.1 live)
— Built Vibecope.ai, a macOS tool that reads Claude sessions and injects coaching into context
— End-to-end product engineering: design, development, deployment, and growth
Data Scientist with ML/AI Focus
Browns Shoes, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – (July 2023 - Present)
— Built a product recommendation engine leveraging order history patterns for personalized communications
— Developed shoe recognition system using computer vision for visual search
— Engineered NPS analysis pipeline using LLMs for automated customer feedback processing
Analyst, CRM & Customer Analytics
ALDO GROUP, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – (March 2022 - July 2023)
— Built predictive models for customer scoring and churn prevention
— Prototyped an AI-powered QA tool for product data quality
— Designed audience segmentation pipelines and automated reporting
AI Engineer (Consultant)
Tastet.ca, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – (June 2021 - 2023)
— Built and deployed a hybrid recommender system on GCP (data collection → Docker container → real-time recommendation API)
Main accomplishment: Turned a Mitacs-funded research project into a production system — $15,000 sponsorship underscoring the project's innovation
— 6-month supervised research on state-of-the-art recommendation systems and ethical AI (HEC Montreal, Prof. Laurent Charlin)
BI consultant (Intern)
ADNcorp, Dakar, Senegal – (September 2018 - September 2020)
— Apprenticed with senior engineers on various projects, providing support and gaining hands-on experience as part of a selective program led by l'Ecole Polytechnique de Thiès
— First year mainly involved data modeling, quality assessment and prototyping for R&D purpose
— Second year with more responsibilities, handling projects from end-to-end, from collecting clients needs to delivery
— Experience gladly ended with a Master degree thesis on the "development of a production monitoring system with error tracking for a large-scale manufacturer". Graduated as top of the class and with scholarships to study abroad.
Master of Science (M.Sc.) - Data science and Business Analytics
HEC Montréal, Canada, 2020-2022
GPA: 3.77/4.3
Computer Engineering Degree (M.Sc. equivalent)
École Polytechnique de Thiès, Senegal, 2015-2020
Top of the class – Thesis defense: 18.8/20
— Top of the class in the computing engineering M.Sc at l'École Polytechnique de Thiès
- (Graduation 2020)
— 2x Mitacs sponsorship
(The Mitacs is an organization supporting canadian companies, especially the startups)
AI / ML:
LLMs (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini), RAG, Recommendation Systems, Computer Vision, NLP, Embeddings, Similarity Search, Finetuning
Languages & Frameworks:
Python, SQL, JavaScript/TypeScript, React Native (Expo), Next.js, macOS App Development
Data & Infrastructure:
Snowflake, dbt, Snowflake Cortex, GCP, REST APIs, Semantic Layer Design, Data Modeling, CI/CD
Engineering Practice:
End-to-end ML pipelines, production deployment, monitoring, rapid prototyping, automation
Languages
— English 🇺🇸 (Proficient)
— French 🇫🇷 (Native)
— Wolof 🇸🇳 (Native)
Fun facts
— Big on sports (soccer and basketball)
— Definitely a nerd currently learning about finance
— Guitar amateur and music enjoyer