About Myself
Hi, I'm Karena. I build with AI and share what I learn along the way.
I'm currently a Developer Advocate at DeepLearning.AI, creating AI engineering content and build challenges. Previously, I worked at Cruise (Behaviors team) and founded joinCurioCity.
Self-starter Teacher at heart Collaborator
Off the clock: running, hiking, or elbow-deep in a good book.
Skills
Agentic Engineering
Claude Agent SDK AS Agent skills
MA Multi-agent orchestration
CE Context engineering
Hk Hooks
Ev Evals
MCP Languages & Frameworks
Python 
PyTorch C++ C/C++
Java 
SQL AI/LLM Tooling
Claude Code 
Claude Cowork 
Codex Developer Tools
GitHub 
ROS 
Docker 
Supabase 
Vercel Documentation & Design
Figma 
Obsidian Md Markdown
Ai Adobe Illustrator
Notion Career
Developer Advocate
DeepLearning.AI
March 2026-Present
- 7-Day Build Challenges. Designed and led 7-day build challenges, co-designing interactive coding activities and evaluation frameworks to help developers ship production-ready AI applications.
- Claude Cowork Upskilling. Led upskilling for technical and non-technical teams on Claude Cowork, including building chief-of-staff training content.
- AI Engineering Content. Created AI engineering content for developers building with modern AI coding tools.
Technologies:
AI Education Claude Developer Enablement
Founder & Creator
joinCurioCity
Nov 2024-Present
- YouTube & X & Course Platform. Built an AI education platform teaching developers to use Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI coding assistants to create production-ready apps.
- Reach & Impact. Reached 2K+ learners across YouTube and X; taught 20+ students through project-based courses with exceptional reviews.
- Speaking & Teaching. Invited speaker and guest lecturer on AI coding tools for industry and university partners.
Technologies:
AI Education Content Creation Course Development
Tech Onboarding Consulting
KXC Consulting LLC
June 2025-Aug 2025
- Onboarding Hub Development. Developed a centralized, scalable, maintainable onboarding hub with high-impact tutorials, standardized templates, technical bootcamps, and clear documentation ownership.
- Impact & Results. Accelerated ramp-up for 80+ engineers, reducing reliance on SMEs, and achieving 30× higher documentation engagement across engineering teams.
Technologies:
Technical Documentation Onboarding Engineering Enablement
Senior Applied Scientist II
Cruise LLC
Oct 2021-Nov 2024
- Core AV Decision-Making Model. Re-architecture of the ml-model led to >40% impact for safety critical performance on the road; Developed and scaled core workflows for feature development, and testing and eval.
- Behavior Testing and Evaluation. Led team in designing and implementing a pre-merge behavioral testing protocol that has caught >5x behavioral regressions in simulation with >3x time improvement in eval workflows.
- Behaviors 101/201. Spearheaded the development of two courses on the end-to-end architectural design of the AV stack and standard engineering workflows. Organized and led 19 sessions with ~100 avg attendees per session.
- Autonomy Docs Website. Championed and led the creation of Cruise's Autonomy Org website, centralizing and making critical documentation accessible for the Perception, Behaviors, and Motion teams.
Technologies:
Python ML ROS C++
Education
Control and Dynamical Systems PhD
Caltech
2015-2021
- PhD Research. Created the notion of behavioral contracts to formally guarantee safety and progress of self-driving cars.
- CMS TAs Lead. Hosted workshop to mentor TAs and teach best practices. Created and designed CMS TAs website for source of best TA practices.
- Healthy Collaboration Workshop. Organized and hosted a workshop to encourage healthier collaborations at Caltech.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Bachelors
Princeton University
2011-2015
- Library regular, E-Quad inhabitant, made friends, built and broke stuff, and investigated how nature could inspire robotics.
- Minors. Applications of Computing, Robotics and Intelligent Systems.