portrait of alice lourenco

hi, i'm

alice lourenco

cs student at unc-chapel hill, minor in education.

looking for summer 2027 internships and research lab positions · based in chapel hill, nc · open to relocation

experience

  1. jan 2026 – now

    research assistant, mathematics potential lab

    unc-chapel hill

    worked on coding full-text articles from 6 math and special education journals, analyzed 3 teacher interviews on research-backed resources, and presented at appalachian state university's inclusion summit (2026) and unc's research week (2026).

  2. jan 2022 – jul 2023

    tech intern

    fcamara consulting and training · são paulo, brazil

    built and optimized a java, spring boot and postgresql timekeeping system for 2,000+ employees: 30% more accurate timesheet data, 40% faster payroll processing.

    • tech leader and content creator for orange juice, fcamara's tech community of 12,500+ active members
    • managed 4 hackathons with 600+ participants
    • ran weekly study livestreams on discord
    • worked backstage on multiple episodes of the community podcast
    • wrote the weekly and monthly newsletters for the whole community
  3. jun 2020 – dec 2023

    research assistant

    federal institute of education, science, and technology · itaporanga, brazil

    built a low-cost campus access-tracking prototype with groovy, ruby on rails and arduino: 85% less manual logging, 60% lower hardware cost per unit. published in the research, society and development journal (vol. 12, 2023).

    read the paper ↗

projects

clear view

hackathon winner · oct 2026

a dashboard that brings deadlines, study materials and academic progress into one place, and flags at-risk students early. overall winner of the beginner competition at wolfhacks 2026 (mlh), nc state.

  • decision tree model with scikit-learn that catches 89% of at-risk students on held-out data
  • fastapi backend that turns each prediction into plain-language reasons and next steps with the gemini api
  • ai study aids: upload your notes and get a summary, key points and a practice quiz

python · scikit-learn · pandas · fastapi · gemini api · react · typescript · tailwind css

cupinudous

in progress · sep 2026 –

a web app that turns research-backed learning techniques into practical study steps for cs and math. pick what you're struggling with, get a short plan, each step linked to the research behind it.

  • rag pipeline with the claude api and pgvector, grounding study steps in cited open-access research
  • custom cuda kernels for gpu-accelerated similarity search, with a numpy fallback
  • spring boot + fastapi microservices, docker compose, github actions ci

java · spring boot · python · fastapi · cuda · postgresql · claude api

fever

in progress · aug 2026 –

a cross-platform dating app for unc students that matches on personality, not looks, with weekly match drops instead of infinite swiping.

  • signup restricted to verified @unc.edu emails via supabase auth
  • ai matchmaking pipeline with claude haiku 4.5, sentence-transformers and lightgbm
  • weekly match drops with supabase jobs and expo push notifications

typescript · react native · expo · python · supabase · lightgbm

skills

languages
java, python, typescript, sql, cuda c++, groovy, html/css, r
frameworks
spring boot, fastapi, next.js, react native, expo, ruby on rails
ai/ml
claude api, rag, sentence-transformers, lightgbm, pandas, numpy
databases
postgresql, pgvector, supabase, mysql
testing & devops
junit, pytest, playwright, git, github actions, docker
spoken
brazilian portuguese (native), english (fluent), spanish (b2)

global view

  1. brazilwhere i come from
  2. italy
  3. india
  4. germany
  5. norway
  6. united states of americawhere i study and live now

my path so far runs through six countries. each one showed me a different way of solving problems, with its own constraints and its own idea of what's normal. being the newcomer again and again taught me to listen before i build, to ask the questions others stopped asking, and to translate between people who don't share a language, a field or a way of working. on a team, that's what i bring: i connect perspectives that don't usually meet, and that's often where the most original ideas come from.

as a founding fellow of the flight school, i co-created the fellowship and was awarded $10,000 to immerse myself in other cultures and explore my driving questions in tech, education and social entrepreneurship. i was 1 of 4 young latin americans selected for the first cohort (2024–2025).

professional development opportunities

love = tech + education

23,000+students reached across brazil in 5 years

i'm proud to have reached more than 23,000 young brazilians through my work, bringing programming and robotics classes to public school students over the last 5 years. the leadership roles i held at the federal institute of education, science, and technology of paraíba, tocando em frente ngo, programar no sertão, code lab ngo and stem para as minas ngo didn't just make me a latin american leader: they turned me into a leader driven by purpose and commitment.

knowing the actual number of young brazilians whose journeys i've been part of made me reflect on my own background as a girl in tech, one i spent a long time wondering was even "valid". coming from a low-income family, raised in the countryside of paraíba by a mother who worked as a domestic worker: these gaps made me more resilient. my dream is to keep reaching countless girls throughout my journey, leaving the legacy that the more resilient we are, the more barriers we break, and the more bridges we build between these distant worlds that don't talk to each other.

see the projects behind this number (5)

programming & robotics, tocando em frente ngo

dec 2021 – nov 2024

democratizing educational opportunities for young brazilians. as leader and co-founder of the programming and robotics team, i led a 5-person core team and designed a playful, gamified curriculum.

  • taught programming to 10,300+ children across brazil
  • trained 60+ volunteers to serve as regional directors in public schools
  • built 4 partnerships with first lego league robotics teams across brazil
  • the project won the 2023 prêmio led – luz na educação (rede globo and fundação roberto marinho)

stem para as minas ngo

2022 – 2023

creating stem opportunities for brazilian girls.

  • director of the pesquisa para elas program (2023): organized workshops and brought 10+ women scientists to share their stories with 60+ participants
  • host of the ciênciapod podcast (2022): produced and recorded a full 6-episode season of interviews with young women researchers, reaching 1,000+ listeners with a 5-star average on spotify

youtube ↗podcast ↗

programar no sertão, ifpb

2022

an extension project teaching programming to low-income students in the countryside of paraíba.

  • as a scholarship teaching assistant, co-created the curriculum and trained 43 middle school students from public schools
  • wrote a scientific report on the barriers young people in paraíba face to access stem knowledge, which became my final course project (graded 100/100)

read the report ↗

code lab ngo

2021 – 2022

building bridges for programming education in brazil.

  • created 100+ python coding challenges and 30+ python lessons for 4 mentees
  • helped one mentee land their first tech internship

volunteer teaching assistant, algorithms and programming logic, ifpb

2020

co-founded the volunteer teaching assistant team for my own class.

  • built 20+ programming logic lessons in portugol and python for 42+ classmates
  • the class's grades in the course improved by up to 50%
  • invited by the professor to become a paid teaching assistant