Merzouk Karim’s Applica on for Technical

Manager’s role

Self-Introduction:
My name is Karim Merzouk, 18 years old, 2 CP student at ESI Algiers, currently
AI Intern at ZAD AI, working on an AI assistant Advisor for Industrial Pre-Sales &
Investment Planning using advanced Multi-Agentic Architecture. I’m also an intern at
Siine, where I’m currently building an AI educational Assistant for Students using RAG
and NLP techniques. My passion for AI began when I was just 13 years old. Eager to
turn my curiosity into skills, I transitioned into Python, in order to dive into the world
of Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Neural Networks. I applied my knowledge
by working on AI-driven projects using TensorFlow, Keras, OS, Pandas, and more in
Computer Vision and tabular data especially. Beyond programming, I have actively
sought opportunities to expand my knowledge and collaborate with others. Through
various experiences, I had the chance to work with individuals from different fields,
enhancing both my technical and interpersonal skills.

My Experience at SoAI:
Despite only being a member of SOAI for only One Year, it was the community I
collaborated in the most, the place I feel I belong to. Taking about my first
interaction with the club, I remember it really well, I previously heard about this “AI”
Community here at ESI, and it was the N°1 Club I wanted to join to share my passion
for AI with people who have the same passion as me! A total achieved goal through
all the Year Al Hamdoullilah.
During the welcome day of clubs organized by ESI, I remember seeing Oussama
Boussahla , presenting Kaggle and basic Data Science to us, Abdelaziz Akeb ,
presenting an object recognition project, Ouail Mohammed Oucherif (Our current
Lead ) presenting us the fields of RL, I debated and talked with each one of them
with so much enthusiasm (They can relate)! And it was so interesting and amazing to
finally find such an amazing community who share the same passion as me , beyond
the Age gap, and most of all, it motivated me to push into my field of passion, to
always deepen my knowledge day by day through my personal efforst and their
guidance and advises, And I want to thank them all here.

AI Camp 24/25:
I attended the Reinforcement Learning Workshop mentored by our unique Ex-lead
Kamel Brouthen, and our current Lead, where I dived deeper in that field which really
peaked my interest, it was a great and interesting workshop to attend in fact.

AI Real Camp (Mini datathon)

participant 24/25:
It was My first on-site datathon ! 24 hours with barely sleeping, I hardly worked on
the CV, and Tabular Data Challenges in particular, despite not getting best results, I
learned and applied a lot of techniques like Cross Validation, Data Augmentation,
HyperParameters Tuning ...etc. It offered a great opportunity to put those skills into
practice.

AI Summit 24/25:
I had the unique and amazing chance to animate and host a session of this last
edition of AI Summit 25 about Agentic AI!
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0CspIJ6-z8)
Thanks to our actual new lead who offered me this opportunity, it helped me practice
and enhance my public speaking skills.

HAICK25 (Technical Mentor and Team

Leader):
To finish the season in the best way Possible, I had the chance and opportunity to
be A technical mentor, and HR Team Leader for our Yearly and great datathon. With
the experience accumulated, I had the opportunity and ability to assist participants
on the challenges, especially the ones involving Computer Vision OCR, and Transfer-
based Architecture, offering them the best support I could. It was also a great
experience through where I learned a lot about those Fields, benefitting from some
participants as well!
I was also part of the core organizing Team of this edition, working on the smooth
running of this great event from the beginning until the End!

Motivation:
“Believe in it, as much as you give it as much as you’ll receive” Those Words that
Oussama keep repeating me all along the year, Shaked and motivated me more than I
already was, to be an active Member and a key parameter of this community among
its brains. I see becoming a Technical Manager as a huge step I have to take in my
Learning Journey, not only for me, but to benefit all the members of this community
as well, supporting the Team and the Lead in every situation.
Despite my young age, I feel myself objectively qualified and ready to enhance and
take this huge responsibility. As a hard-worker, and AI passionate since my early age,
I want to contribute on taking this community who helped me grow, all along the Year
to the Next level, in order to inspire future generations, as much as older ones
inspired me and continuously inspire me to give my best, keep growing and learning
no matter what on my AI journey.

Experience:
I am conscious and aware of the importance of this Role in the growing of the
community, and I have more than one string in my bow.
Ai is a vast field who includes many sub-fields, and after getting a strong knowledge
of Machine Learning and Deep Learning , both the theorical and pratical sides and
strong understanding of their algorithms through different online courses, from my
13 y.o to my 16 y.o . I can for example site the Andrew Ng Course about ML and DL,
and also the IBM Data Science Specialization on Coursera.
Talking about the practical side, I attended many workshops and conferences during
this period of time in the local University of Tizi Ouzou, done by many researchers
coming from all around the world in 2023. About AI applications in chemistry,
urbanism…etc . during that Same Year, I remember attending a particular one in july
13th, 2023, by a Dutch PhD student, Wilem Van der Spek (I still remember his name
lol) online when he presented a really interesting aspect of AI called Explainable AI, it
was A 1 hour conference when I had the chance to ask questions and exchange with
him about this new and amazing technology. I reviewed the record of this conference
recently, and I guess this is where my interest in AI research really began to grow
more than ever before.
At the beginning , exploring CNNs and Computer Vision Algorithms were my first
specialization interest, I worked on some Image classification project since early
2024, from binary to multiple Image Classification , it was so bad when I started lol ,
but I got a lot of help , especially from one of my fellow mentors of that period , called
Mr Adam Belloum , Technology Lead at Netherlands eScience Center, who gave me
access to some useful and really great resources to sharpen My AI knowledge and
basics , like the “Dive into Deep Learning ” by Aston Zhang, Zachary C. Lipton, Mu Li,
and Alexander J. Smola. Which I spent the whole 2024 summer Studying.
Then Actually, the second field who got my interest was the NLP, I completed the full
GenAI Engineering Specialization by IBM in Coursera, which included courses in
Transformer-based Architecture, LLM fine-tuning techniques…etc. It was a real
pleasure to understand how those technologies really worked, and it helped me a lot
while Mentoring the Haick25 event for example.
For the 3rd field I started exploring, I discovered it while I was searching for an
internship during the Year, it was my introduction to the AI agentic World. From RAG
systems to Complex Multi Agentic Architectures, I enjoyed to develop my skills, put
them into practice, through many real-world Applications with different startups and
companies.
I also got the chance to use my skills in different hackathons all along the year,
either at ESI like during gdgHack25, or outside like Devcamp where the regression
model I built use techniques like Model Stacking was the second better Model of the
competition. During this year I also, with my dear friend Amine Gharout, built an AI
educational assistant agent on ESI 1cp data to make studying easier and way more
efficient.
I’m currently also working on preparing my AWS Machine learning Engineer
Associate that I ‘ll need to pass by the end of September.
Of course, my learning journey wasn’t perfect, and I still have a looooott to learn, but it
was authentic and I gave my best during every step no matter how small it was, and
so I will continue to do in the future Inchaa Allah.

Vision for SoAI next season:

Just like School of AI felt like a home for me , and the perfect place to sharpen
my knowledge of AI even more, I want it to feel like the most benefitable environment
for Any AI Enthusiast no matter his level as long as he/she has the will to learn and is
ready to put the hard-work on it.
We already the best AI community of Algeria, but we could do so much more! I want
to help this community reach the summits, to be known and acknowledged for its
impact on Algerian fellow talents, for helping them grow their knowledge in AI, a
knowledge and flame that will carry them all along their career path, it has to be the
first step for the future talents all around the world, because only SOAI can do it, no
other club or community. I want to make it the best place possible to discover, re-
invent, and grow our own AI knowledge through a variety of workshops, talks and
events. I except that, by the end of the season, young and talented Minds will emerge
among our community, and we will be the ones who offer them the opportunities to
always go further and further in this endless journey.

Vision for managing the Technical

Department:
The field of AI is on a constant evolution and change, and leading this core
and principal part of SOAI requires to always be up-to-date with what’s going in the
research and applied world of AI. As a co-manager, but before of it as an AI
passionate, I engage to always keep an eye on the major changes and innovations of
the different fields of AI, to deliver workshops myself on any subfield I’m qualified to,
either for beginners or intermediate level wizards.
By organizing regular workshops and project-based learning opportunities, I will
guide them and assist them all through the season, sharing with them all my
knowledge, and benefitting from them as well. Because we are a community who is
here to share its science among us, we can learn from anyone else.
I also assure to deliver all the projects that will be asked, either Kaggle Challenges or
Applied AI deliverables, and ensure communication with all other departments as
well, leading the current members of the department and supporting them to truly
give their best.
Through effective project management and clear communication, I will ensure that
our technical initiatives directly support SoAI’s broader goals and empower our
community to solve meaningful problems with AI and ensure continuous learning.

Collaboration Plan:
To ensure smooth coordination, I plan to establish clear, open, and consistent
communication which is the real key to effective outcomes. I will actively participate
in regular team meetings to align our technical goals with SoAI’s overall vision.
I believe in a collaborative approach where each department’s strengths are
leveraged. For example, I will work closely with the HR, Comm and Dev Departments
to design technically enriching activities like internal workshops, hackathons or
datathons. I’ll coordinate with the Multimedia and Marketing teams to share our
department’s work and inspire the wider community through our social Media and by
contacting our sponsors.
I also plan to set up clear documentation practices and progres updates so that
information flows seamlessly between departments. Most importantly, I want to build
a culture of mutual support and feedback, where we celebrate wins together, address
challenges openly, and help each other grow as a team.

Availability statement :
I am fully committed to dedicating the necessary time and effort to fulfill my
responsibilities within the core team. I won’t deny my academic responsibilities, but
managing my time in the best way possible is something I continuously work on, and
I know that I will be able to do It all along this Season. So my academic duties won’t
be an obstacle to fulfill my obligations as a technical Co-Manager. I’d say
approximatively 20 hours a week outside of exams period.

Thank you for having taken the time to read my application, and know that no matter
what, my journey with SoAI is far from its end!