Research Experiences

Wake Forest WFU Parallel Machine Learning Group Winston-Salem, NC

Undergraduate Research Assistant Spring 2022 – Present

  • Conducted extensive research on scalable and communication-avoiding kernel machine learning algorithms (Ridge Regression, SVM, ElasticNets)
  • Developed novel kernel methods and optimization algorithms and experimented with S-step optimization algorithms to improve kernel function computation and optimization.
  • Utilized C programming and high-performance computer clusters for parallel computing with OpenMPI.
  • Performed sparsity analysis and compressed sparse row matrix operations using sparseblas and mkl packages.
  • Employed libsvm (version 3.31) for dataset selection and model training.
  • Mentored by Dr. Aditya Devarakonda (devaraa@wfu.edu)

Wake Forest IRSC Laboratory Winston-Salem, NC

Undergraduate Research Assistant Spring 2022 – Present

  • Conducted computer vision research projects utilizing Histogram of Gradients, SIFT filters, and Support Vector Machine for palm tree detection in orthomosaic plots collected from Peruvian Rain Forest
  • Applied deep learning methods such as RestNet and Faster-R-CNN for semantic segmentation and classification of objects
  • Utilized quantitative methods in Python, including OpenCV, Scikit-image, and Scikit-learn, for image data processing
  • Evaluated model performance with visualization tools such as Seaborn and OpenCV, and metrics including ROC, AUC curve, confusion matrix, sensitivity, specificity, and hyperparameter tuning
  • Mentored by Victor Pauca (paucavp@wfu.edu)




Publications

  1. Communication-Avoiding Dual Coordinate Descent Methods for Kernelized Machine Learning

    • 1st author, preprint on arXiv here.

  2. PalmHeatNet: A Probabilistic Approach to Understanding Palm Distributions in Ecuadorian Tropical Forest via Transfer Learning

    • 2nd author, Accepted to 2024 ACM-SouthernEast (ACM-SE’ 24) here.




Poster & Presentation




Honors

  • 2022 COMAP’s Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM)
    Meritorious Winner

  • 2023 Wake Forest Research Fellowship (WFRF)
    $4,000

  • Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society
    Member

  • George Washington Greene Scholarship
    $350, one of seven recipients with either a 4.0 average or an average extremely close to a 4.0.

  • Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honorary Society
    Member

  • Upsilon Pi Epsilon Scholarship Nomination
    $1,000