Kylie Marcisz — Engineer & Explorer

✈ expedition log

Professional journey

🔊

Engineering Intern & Product Marketing Manager

Jun 2023 → Present

BACCH Laboratories · San Clemente, CA

Prototyped an 8-speaker Personal Sound Zone array for CES 2026, managing development and testing across 3 iterations
Tuned driver tolerances to optimize EQ performance across configurations; currently building the reference architecture
Collaborated with CEO & CTO to pioneer Affiliate Marketing Program — 10+ influencers, 27k following
Represented the company at CES 2023–26 through demonstrations of an 8-speaker with cross-talk cancellation algorithm

📊

VP of Partnerships

Mar 2026 → Present

Berkeley Strategy Group · Berkeley, CA

MicrosoftTechnical Lead · Shipped ✓

Designed and shipped Fourier — an AI-adoption platform for Microsoft execs; built a three-tier framework (Assistants → Coworkers → Agents) mapping workflow to a custom 90-day plan. View live →

Amazon Prime VideoProduct Manager

Led young-adult (16–24) audience research engagement; designed a mixed-method program (500-person survey, depth interviews, UX teardown) with a weighted scoring rubric.

Heineken USAProduct Manager

Led S&OP redesign engagement — translated executive brief into a scoped, costed research plan; coordinated 3–4 person team through scoping and proposal.

🔬

Summer Research Assistant

Jun – Jul 2024

Princeton University 3D3A Lab · Princeton, NJ

Selected 1 of 4 from 400+ applicants for Princeton Laboratory Learning Program
Supported Prof. Edgar Choueiri on AI-integrated head-tracking in anechoic chamber environments
Integrated research findings into BACCH's Optimal Room Correction Prototype demonstration housed at 3D3A Lab

⚡

Logistics Director

Jan 2026 → Present

Hackathons @ Berkeley · Berkeley, CA

Managing operations for the world's largest collegiate hackathon — 1,500+ attendees
Coordinating judges, sponsors, and entertainment partners for AI Hackathon — June 20–21, 2026 & Cal Hacks 13.0
Coordinating food for 1,500+ attendees, liaising with vendors to align delivery timelines

🥋

Black Belt Instructor · Kempo

Jan 2012 → Present

USSD San Clemente · San Clemente, CA

Kempo black belt with 14+ years competing in sparring, grappling, and katas
Instructing children ages 5–12 in group classes and belt tests

🌍

Club President

Jan 2022 – Jun 2025

Small Steps for Compassion · SCHS

Raised $1,500+ through fundraising; coordinated international Pen Pal program for 50+ members

🔊 the science

Spatial Audio Engineering

3D spatial audio tricks your brain into hearing sound from anywhere in space — above, behind, across the room — through just two speakers or headphones. I've spent the last three years building systems that do exactly this.

🔊

BACCH Laboratories

Cross-talk Cancellation · Personal Sound Zone

Working with Dr. Edgar Choueiri's technology, I prototype and tune 8-speaker Personal Sound Zone arrays that create truly immersive 3D audio without headphones — using a proprietary cross-talk cancellation algorithm to deliver different sound to each ear.

8-speaker array I built in my dorm room, Fall 2025 — presented at CES 2026

Array Beamforming EQ Optimization CES 2023–2026

🔬

Princeton 3D3A Lab

AI Head-Tracking · Anechoic Research

Selected as 1 of 4 students from 400+ applicants for the Princeton Laboratory Learning Program. I worked alongside Prof. Edgar Choueiri evaluating AI-integrated head-tracking algorithms inside an anechoic chamber — and integrated those findings directly into BACCH's Optimal Room Correction prototype.

Key insight: Real-time head-tracking dramatically improves the perceived stability of a virtual sound source — the brain expects audio to stay fixed in space even as you move.

Head-Tracking Anechoic Testing 1 of 4 Selected

sound travels as waves — and I build systems that control exactly where those waves land

⚡ hackathons @ berkeley

Building the future — one hackathon at a time

As Logistics Director for Hackathons @ Berkeley, I help run the world's largest collegiate hackathon. We bring together thousands of students, industry mentors, and sponsors to build, learn, and push boundaries for 36 hours straight.

🤖

AI Hackathon — June 20–21, 2026

UC Berkeley · Completed ✓

Our focused AI-themed event bringing together Berkeley's brightest engineers, designers, and researchers to tackle the frontiers of machine learning, language models, and intelligent systems. A proving ground for next-generation ideas.

✓ Completed

🏆

Cal Hacks 13.0

UC Berkeley · Fall 2026

The flagship event. Cal Hacks 13.0 — the 13th edition of the world's largest collegiate hackathon. 1,500+ hackers, 36 hours, and hundreds of projects that push the limits of what students can build in a weekend.

Fall 2026

🤖 made at the hackathon

My Favorite Claude Code Verbs

I made this reel at the AI Hackathon — Claude Code narrates its steps with the most unexpectedly cinematic verbs. These three are my favorites.

View on Instagram

Moonwalking

When Claude slides back through context it already read — smooth, deliberate, and just a little theatrical.

Brewing

Quietly preparing something in the background before it arrives fully formed. Patience with purpose.

Shimming

Wedging a tiny fix into a tight gap — the engineering equivalent of a perfectly placed doorstop.

⚙ code & research

AI projects

Machine Learning · Compression

MNIST Quantization

Float64 → Float32 → Float16 → Int8

A deep dive into model compression — taking a hand-trained MLP classifier on MNIST and systematically compressing its weights through every precision level. Shipped as a Flask web app so anyone can upload a digit and see the model's confidence shift across precisions in real time.

# compression results on MNIST test set float64 → 97.8% acc baseline float32 → 97.8% acc lossless float16 → 97.6% acc -0.2% int8 → 84.2% acc range saturation

4×

size reduction (int8)

97.8%

peak accuracy

−13.6%

int8 accuracy drop

float64

97.8%

float32

97.8%

float16

97.6%

int8

84.2%

Python scikit-learn NumPy Flask MLP Classifier

⬡ GitHub ↗ Live Demo

NLP · Transformer Compression

BERT Quantization

DistilBERT Float32 → Int8 · Sentiment Analysis

Dynamic post-training quantization of DistilBERT for movie review sentiment classification. Used PyTorch's quantization toolkit to convert all linear layers to int8 — benchmarked against the float32 baseline on accuracy, model size, and inference latency. 4× smaller, near-identical performance.

# distilbert quantization benchmark model : distilbert-base-uncased task : sentiment (pos/neg) float32 : 92.4% acc · 255 MB int8 : 91.8% acc · 64 MB ✓ 4× compression

4×

model size reduction

91.8%

int8 accuracy

64 MB

compressed size

Accuracy

92.4%

Int8 acc

91.8%

Size (f32)

255 MB

Size (i8)

64 MB

PyTorch Hugging Face DistilBERT Transformers Dynamic Quantization

⬡ GitHub

📄 full credentials

My resume

⬇ Download PDF

Kylie Marcisz

Berkeley, CA·(949) 226-2847· kyliemarcisz@berkeley.edu· LinkedIn·GitHub

Education

University of California, BerkeleyExpected Spring 2028

B.S. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science · GPA: 3.76/4.0

San Clemente High SchoolJune 2025

International Baccalaureate Diploma · GPA: 4.0/4.0

Rank: 26/724 (Top 4%) · City Humanitarian Award (2024) · CA Seal of Biliteracy in French

Professional Experience

BACCH LaboratoriesSan Clemente, CA

Engineering Intern / Product Marketing ManagerJune 2023 – Present

Prototyped an 8-speaker Personal Sound Zone array for CES 2026, managing development and testing across 3 iterations
Tuned driver tolerances to optimize EQ performance across configurations; currently building the reference architecture
Collaborated with CEO & CTO to pioneer Affiliate Marketing Program; recruited 10+ influencers with 27k following
Represented the company at CES 2023–26 through demonstrations of an 8-speaker with cross-talk cancellation algorithm

Princeton University 3D3A LabPrinceton, NJ

Summer Research AssistantJune – July 2024

Selected as 1 of 4 from 400+ applicants for Princeton Laboratory Learning Program
Supported Prof. Edgar Choueiri on AI-integrated head-tracking in anechoic chamber environments
Integrated findings into BACCH's Optimal Room Correction Prototype at 3D3A Lab

The Cellar RestaurantSan Clemente, CA

Cheesemonger / Barista / BusserNovember 2024 – Present

Mastered 50+ artisan cheese varieties and nuanced flavor pairings to curate personalized tasting experiences for customers
Balanced 25 hours/week employment with full-time coursework, developing time management and customer service skills

Leadership & Involvement

Hackathons @ BerkeleyBerkeley, CA

Logistics DirectorJanuary 2026 – Present

Managing communication across judges, sponsors, and entertainment partners for the world's largest collegiate hackathon
Coordinating food for 1,500+ attendees, liaising with vendors to align delivery timelines for AI Hackathon 2026 at UCB

Berkeley Strategy GroupBerkeley, CA

VP of PartnershipsMarch 2026 – Present

Microsoft · Technical Lead — Designed and shipped Fourier, an AI-adoption platform for Microsoft execs; built a three-tier framework (Assistants → Coworkers → Agents) mapping workflow to a custom 90-day plan
Amazon Prime Video · Product Manager — Led young-adult (16–24) audience research; designed a mixed-method program (500-person survey, depth interviews, UX teardown) with a weighted scoring rubric
Heineken USA · Product Manager — Led S&OP redesign engagement, translating executive brief into a scoped, costed research plan; coordinated 3–4 person team through proposal

McKinsey ForwardRemote

Program ParticipantSummer 2026

Selected for McKinsey's competitive leadership development program focused on strategy frameworks, structured problem-solving, and executive communication

USSD San Clemente — Kempo Martial ArtsSan Clemente, CA

Black Belt / InstructorJanuary 2012 – Present

Kempo black belt with 14+ years competing in sparring, grappling, and katas; instructing children ages 5–12

Small Steps for Compassion — Tanzania ConnectionSCHS

Club PresidentJan 2022 – Jun 2025

Raised $1,500+; coordinated international Pen Pal program for 50+ members

Kappa Kappa GammaUC Berkeley

Philanthropy Committee Member2025 – Present

Projects

KaraokeSpatialWeb Audio API · ASAF · 2026

Karaoke web app with real-time head-tracked 3D spatial audio; designed for forward compatibility with Apple ASAF

Ants Vs. SomeBees — Tower Defense GamePython · OOP · CS61A 2026

Tower defense game using OOP; 10+ distinct subclasses via inheritance and polymorphism; complex game mechanics including reflected damage and cooldown tracking

MNIST QuantizationPython · scikit-learn · Flask · 2025

Compressed MLP classifier float64→float32→float16→int8; benchmarked accuracy across precision levels; Flask web app for live digit classification

BERT QuantizationPyTorch · Hugging Face · 2025

Dynamic post-training quantization of DistilBERT; 4× size reduction 255MB→64MB with <1% accuracy loss on movie review sentiment benchmark

Skills

Languages & Skills: Python, SQL, Scheme, French (Intermediate), 3D Spatial Audio, AI Quantization, Digital Signal Processing, Cloudflare, Git, Claude Code, Competitive Analysis, Scope Development, Market Research, Survey Design
Interests: Music (Piano & Vocals), Poetry Writing, Backpacking (Inca Trail & Uganda Jungle), TED Talks (100+ hours), Cheesemonger (50+ cheeses), Travelling (20+ countries), Skiing (Black Diamonds), Coffee Enthusiast (Honey Cortados)

🌟 vision board

Goals & bucket list

📌

⭐

✨

🌟

📍

✈

🧭

✈ 2026 & Beyond — My Vision Board

🎵

Join CNMAT

Electronic & Computer Music research at Berkeley — where audio engineering meets art. Mus 158A is the start.

Fall 2026

🚀

YC Startup School

Summer 2026 — learning to think like a founder. Startups, product thinking, and building from zero.

Summer 2026

🥋

Next Kempo Rank

Testing for next rank this summer at USSD San Clemente. 14+ years of sparring, grappling & katas — earned, not given.

Summer 2026

🌍

Country #17

Portugal? Italy? Germany? New Zealand? The list rotates weekly. The list grows faster than the stamps.

Wanderlust

🧠

Greater Good Science

Research or volunteer at Berkeley's GGSC — applying science to well-being and becoming more intentional.

Community

🔍

Explore Cog Sci

How minds process sound, perception, experience — niche podcasts, upper-div psych, and a lot of curiosity.

Curiosity

🏔️

Epic Treks

Next goal: the Camino trail through Portugal. After the Inca Trail and gorilla trekking in Bwindi jungle, the bar for adventure is high.

Adventure

☕

Berkeley & SF Coffee Tour

Current top: Evergreen (Berkeley) & The Mill (SF). The hunt for the perfect cortado never stops.

Ongoing

✍️

Share My Poetry

Always written privately. This year: actually share some. Creative output keeps the engineering brain balanced.

Creative

Building the future
of sound & adventure

Places that shaped me

Professional journey

Campus involvement

Spatial Audio Engineering

Building the future — one hackathon at a time

My Favorite Claude Code Verbs

AI projects

Life in snapshots

My resume

Academic adventure

Skills & superpowers

What I'm into right now

Goals & bucket list

Let's connect

Building the futureof sound & adventure

Places that shaped me

Professional journey

Campus involvement

Spatial Audio Engineering

Building the future — one hackathon at a time

My Favorite Claude Code Verbs

AI projects

Life in snapshots

My resume

Academic adventure

Skills & superpowers

What I'm into right now

Goals & bucket list

Let's connect

Building the future
of sound & adventure