I’m Max.

I build software.From research tools to complete systems.

Software developer, Ottawa
Computer science · Western University

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A little
about me.

I’m a software developer with a background in computer science, hands-on research experience, and production experience.

How I approach a project

AI has made custom software practical for more problems. You can build around the way that you want to work, with the features that you need, instead of changing how you work to fit an existing product.

AI can write code and help make technical decisions. There’s still a difference between generating software and taking responsibility for how it works. I work with you to understand what you need, check that we’ve built the right thing, and make sure you understand the choices along the way.

Things I’ve built.

HiFiRunner

A reproducible genomics pipeline with an interface to configure runs and review their outputs.

What’s that?

My computer science thesis at Western, supervised by Dr. Kathleen A. Hill. HiFiRunner brings PacBio HiFi variant calling, phasing, and comparisons across mouse pedigrees and tissues into one workflow.

Each run keeps its configuration, execution state, summary, and performance records together.

View my GitHub profile ↗

Hill Lab portal

A browser-based research application built with React and FastAPI.

What’s that?

I worked on the portal’s frontend and backend, adding web application development to my research pipeline experience.

Let’s talk.

Need a better way to run your business, support your research, or work with your customers? I build software around those needs, from tools that automate a single task to complete systems that connect your team, data, and day-to-day work.

Tell me what you have in mind, or what’s getting in your way.

Maximilian Cope’s resume, page 1

Maximilian Cope Ottawa, Ontario | maxcope683@gmail.com | (613) 863-9963 | GitHub: https://github.com/maxxcope

Summary

Computer Science graduate and research software developer with experience building reproducible genomics workflows, backend/platform systems, and distributed data pipelines. Built PacBio HiFi whole-genome analysis software using Python, TypeScript/React, FastAPI, Docker, Linux, and REST APIs, with additional commercial experience with Java and event-driven systems.

Experience

Western University, Hill Lab – Research Software Developer May 2026 - Aug 2026 ■​ Developed and tested HiFi-Runner, a reproducible genomics workflow platform for configuring, launching, monitoring, and reviewing long-read DNA analysis runs. ■​ Developed a React/FastAPI web platform for delivering HiFi-Runner to research users, including authenticated access, role-based application controls, API integration, and deployment on Linux research-compute infrastructure.

Incognito Software – Software Engineering Intern | Service Activation Center (SAC) Platform May 2025 - Aug 2025 ■​ Replaced vendor-hardcoded SNMP trap handlers with a config-driven framework (JSON + validation: required fields, acceptance patterns), shifting new-vendor onboarding from multi-day code edits to ~20-40 min of config + tests across several device manufacturers. ■​ Extracted a protocol-agnostic pattern-matching parser into a reusable module; integrated with SNMP + Kafka consumers and documented the interface for additional handlers, reducing duplicate parsing and standardizing normalization across the event pipeline. ■​ Built JSON schemas, key-presence checks, and filters for analytics logs; debugged malformed payloads; prepared staging docs/fixtures and smoke tests (Docker, k6).

Projects

HiFi-Runner — Reproducible Genomics Pipeline and Web GUI ■​ Built a React/FastAPI platform for configuring, launching, monitoring, and reviewing PacBio HiFi WGS workflows from BAM inputs. ■​ Replaced ad hoc manual orchestration with one validated run configuration, reducing estimated workflow burden from ~66 CLI invocations, 40+ file/path handoffs, and 20+ stage interventions. ■​ Implemented manifest-driven reproducibility, deterministic DAG execution, Dockerized module execution, persistent run state, logs, reports, and standardized per-sample/cohort outputs. ■​ Added within-mouse and pedigree-aware comparison workflows; validated on a reduced cohort run covering 3 mice, 4 samples, 9 modules, and 61 executed tasks.

Juris Engine – AI-powered Canadian legal research platform (web app + RAG backend) ■​ Scraped and normalized ~3M legal documents from CanLII using 20+ Dockerized Selenium workers coordinated via a Redis job queue. ■​ Implemented a Pinecone RAG pipeline with semantic retrieval, fuzzy scoring, and citation-grounded LLM summaries. ■​ Built the web app and backend pipeline connecting document ingestion, vector retrieval, and LLM-generated legal research outputs.

Skills

■​ Languages: Python, Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, C++, C, SQL, Bash, HTML/CSS ■​ Backend/Systems: FastAPI, Node.js, Express, REST APIs, MySQL, AWS RDS, Kafka, SNMP, Redis ■​ Frontend/Mobile: React, React Native, Vite ■​ Cloud/DevOps: Docker, AWS EC2/S3/Route 53/SNS, Git, GitHub, Linux, Jira ■​ Testing/Automation: Unit, integration, and system testing; Selenium; k6 ■​ AI/LLM Workflows: RAG, vector search, prompt engineering, structured JSON outputs, LLM-assisted debugging/testing

Education

Western University — Bachelor of Science, Honours Specialization in Computer Science | 2026 ■​ Relevant Coursework: Algorithms, Databases, Operating Systems, Machine Learning & AI

Awards

Marie Smibert Writing Prize – Distinguished award for top final grade in Persuasive Writing, Western University | 2026 National ACE Competition – 1st Place Winner (Advertising Marketing Campaign) Software Engineering Project – Leadership role with near-perfect peer evaluations