FionaHoang

fee-OH-nuh hwahngnoun

Hoàng Hạnh Phương

Colours
  1. A software engineer who likes building the parts of a system that everyone else gets to lean on. "She's done AI infrastructure at Huawei and research tools at the University of Toronto, and she's open to backend, infrastructure, ML, or something she hasn't tried yet."
  2. (volleyball) A setter: one who makes other people look good and receives none of the credit.
  3. (informal) A baker, chiefly of matcha cookies.
  4. A speaker of five languages, or six, depending on whether Python counts.

ORIGINFrom Vietnamese Hoàng Hạnh Phương. Published as Phuong Hanh Hoang.

SEE ALSOexperience, research, languages, off the clock, contact

Fiona Hoang smiling, in a denim jacket
Photographed in a rare formal moment.

back·ground

noun

The circumstances that explain how someone came to be where they are.

Most recently, I spent a year as a software engineer co-op at Huawei Canada's Noah's Ark Lab, working on mobile AI infrastructure: serving models on our own GPUs, and keeping a fleet of devices running smoothly even when they'd rather not. Before and alongside that, I spent two years as a research engineer at the University of Toronto's Lee Language Lab, where I worked on URIEL+, a database of how the world's languages relate to one another, and co-authored five papers along the way.

I graduated from the University of Toronto in 2026 with an Honours Bachelor of Science, with High Distinction, in Computer Science and Psychology.

Healthcare has always been close to home for me, since my mother and brother both work in the industry, and mental health in particular is something I care about deeply. That's what first drew me to psychology. Then a few cognitive science courses got me hooked on how people think, and especially on how we sort the world into categories. Half of software engineering is arguing about which box something belongs in, so it's turned out more useful than I expected!

ex·pe·ri·ence

noun

Practical knowledge gained by doing the thing, repeatedly, until it works.

  1. Research Engineer, Lee Language Lab, University of Toronto

    with Prof. En-Shiun Annie Lee. 2024 – Aug 2026

    Extended the URIEL+ typological knowledge base and co-authored four papers built on it, plus a SIGCSE paper on gender disparity in STEM education. Reviewed code for the URIEL+ papers.

    • Knowledge bases
    • Research engineering
    • Code review
    • 5 papers

  2. Software Engineer Co-op, Huawei Canada, Noah's Ark Lab

    Mobile AI Infrastructure. May 2025 – May 2026

    Self-hosted model inference on NVIDIA GPUs, including serving Qwen2-VL locally instead of through an API. Worked on a device framework that handles device failures, timeouts and retries, with automated tests, and reviewed teammates' code.

    • Model serving
    • NVIDIA GPUs
    • Fault tolerance
    • Automated testing

re·search

noun

Systematic investigation, followed by a deadline.

Published as Phuong Hanh Hoang. The NLP papers are also listed on the ACL Anthology.

PROJECT, IN PROGRESS

PluralTree ↗

A work-in-progress research pipeline for improving how culturally accurate a language model's answers are, built in the University of Toronto's LLM systems research course.

lan·guag·es

plural noun

Systems of communication. Count disputed; see sense 4.

TRANSLATIONS OF "HELLO" level
  • EnglishHellofluent
  • VietnameseXin chàofluent, mother tongue
  • FrenchBonjouradvanced
  • SpanishHolalearning
  • Mandarin你好learning
  • Pythonprint("hello")counts, apparently

When I was younger, I promised myself I'd be fluent in ten languages by the time I turned thirty. Polyglots seemed like the coolest people alive, and I fully intended to become one.

So far, I'm at five. Two of those are fluent, although I'll admit that's cheating a little: Vietnamese is my mother tongue, so I should be good at it regardless, and English was never really optional for someone living in Canada. French is getting there, slowly but stubbornly, while Spanish and Mandarin are still very much works in progress.

Somewhere along the way, I also picked up Python, and then a handful of other programming languages after it. I'm counting them toward the ten. Nobody has told me they don't count!

That childhood goal is also how my research ended up in multilingual NLP. I care about the languages technology tends to leave behind, from endangered languages to dead ones, although the dead ones do have one advantage: they never complain about the output.

off the clock

idiom

Not working. Observed below in several habitats.

Fiona in her graduation gown holding her diploma in front of University College, Toronto, in autumn
Graduation day at University College. Four years, one large piece of paper.
Fiona laughing with an orange and white cat perched on her shoulders
The cat chose my shoulders. I was not consulted.
Fiona in a plaid scarf under red maple leaves
Autumn in Ontario, dressed accordingly.
Fiona at a dog café with two small dogs on her lap and an Akita beside her
Outnumbered at a dog café, and not complaining.
Fiona smiling with a single red rose after a choir performance
After a choir performance, holding the obligatory rose.
Fiona flexing and frowning with a sleeping cat on her lap
Flexing. The cat was unimpressed.

setverb

I play in several leagues as a setter, which means my job is to make other people look good and receive none of the credit. It was excellent preparation for infrastructure work.

Fiona, in a purple jersey, setting the ball at an outdoor tournament
Setting at an outdoor tournament.

bakeverb

Cookies are my default, although muffins have been gaining ground fast lately. When I'm feeling ambitious, I'll take on brownies, banana bread, pies, scones, cheesecake or cream puffs. My most requested recipe is matcha cookies, made with white chocolate and either marshmallow or roasted macadamia nuts.

Recently, I made my first ever birthday cake! It tasted better than it looked, which I maintain is the correct order of priorities. Recipes are small experiments with fast feedback, and luckily my friends are always happy to be the evaluation set.

A friend, face covered by a cookie sticker, cutting Fiona's first birthday cake
My first birthday cake. Tastes better than it looks.
  • Apple tart with slices arranged in a roseApple rose tart
  • Japanese cotton cheesecake dusted with icing sugar and topped with a strawberryJapanese cotton cheesecake
  • Chocolate chunk cookies topped with toasted marshmallowsMarshmallow chocolate cookies
  • Stacked crepe cakeCrepe cake
  • Chocolate muffins in paper casesChocolate muffins
  • Brownies swirled with cheesecake and raspberryRaspberry cheesecake brownies

con·tact

verb

To get in touch. Usage: highly encouraged.

I'm looking for entry-level software roles, whether that's backend, infrastructure, ML or research engineering, in Toronto, remote in Canada, or further afield. If anything here caught your eye, I'd love to hear from you.

Email hhpfiona@gmail.comGitHub ↗