About — the person behind the log
The schooling, the agency, the people who vouch for the work, and the two campuses that got me here.
I'm Syed Zulqarnain Hassan, a data scientist and ML engineer. I finished my MS in Data Science at NYIT in May 2026, where I received the Data Science Graduate Achievement Award at the CoECS Commencement Awards Ceremony and worked as a Graduate Research Assistant on LLM and semantic-search research and a course-scheduling study covering 3,300+ undergraduates.
Alongside school I shipped 40+ AI/ML and full-stack products for clients, and I hold Top Rated status on Upwork across 38+ contracts. I also run the data and operations analytics for NSK, a petroleum wholesale business in Brooklyn, part-time.
Away from the keyboard: football (Manchester United, for better or worse), and family. Every milestone on this page belongs to my parents first — they stood up for my education when it wasn't easy.
If a full-time Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Machine Learning Engineer, or AI Engineer role is why you're here: I'm a U.S. citizen, no sponsorship needed, open to any U.S. location — on-site, hybrid, or remote.
Experience
Two threads run in parallel — research and analysis and founding and shipping.
38+ contracts and $40K+ delivered as a Top Rated freelancer with a 90%+ Job Success Score — LLM chatbots, computer-vision systems, transcription pipelines, and reporting tools for startup and enterprise clients.
Upwork profile ↗Shipped 40+ AI/ML and full-stack products — SaaS platforms, fintech apps, and AI integrations — leading discovery, architecture, and delivery end to end.
Case study →LLM and semantic-search research, plus the course-scheduling study covering 3,300+ undergraduates across two campuses.
Case study →Part-time, Brooklyn. Pricing and sales analysis that contributed to a 15% revenue increase, with automated reporting that cut manual processing by 30%.
Case study →Kind words
Syed was exceptional to work with on a highly complex and technically demanding project. This was not a simple build.Jeff P. · 5.0 · Upwork client review, Apr 2026
Syed was a great addition to our team during a critical phase of our product launch.Daria B. · 5.0 · Upwork client review, Apr 2026
Quotes from my LinkedIn recommendations · client reviews from my Upwork profile · badges from Upwork client feedback.
Education
Aug 2024–May 2026 · New York
New York Institute of Technology · College of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Graduate Achievement Award · conferred by the Dean, 2026
Sep 2020–Jun 2024 · Lahore
FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Final-year project 100% funded by the national engineering councilMoments
Contact
A role, a collaboration, or a question about anything on this page — my inbox is open, and email is the fastest way in. No deck required.
zulqarnainhsyed@gmail.com