Education

  • PhD (2021–)
    • École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    • Computational and Quantitative Biology
  • MSc (2018–2019)
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
    • Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
  • BSc (2017–2018)
    • With Highest Distinction
    • Computer Science and Astronomy
    • I was in the Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto (2015–2016) but transferred to UIUC after three semesters.

Work Experience

  • EPFL — Doctoral Assistant (2021–present)
    • Lausanne, Switzerland.
    • I am a PhD candidate at the Neuroengineering Laboratory, Brain Mind Institute & Institute of Bioengineering, supervised by Prof. Pavan Ramdya. In my research, I aim to discover efficient biological neural network architectures that can be borrowed by artificial neural networks to improve robotic motor control and AI.
    • Specifically, I identify neural circuits in the motor system of the fly Drosophila melanogaster using its connectomes — the wiring diagrams of its neural connections. Based on how real neurons are connected, I then build artificial neural networks that can be trained using gradient-based optimization methods. Finally, I train these networks using Reinforcement Learning and Imitation Learning. I also develop closed-loop experimental hardware and software to collect training data that are unavailable so far.
  • HabiTerre Inc. — Chief Research Officer (2019–2021)
    • Champaign, Illinois, USA.
    • I led research activities at HabiTerre, a startup that uses satellite images and machine learning to model and monitor the ecosystem. In particular, we aim to quantify the environmental impact of farming by conducting data-driven carbon lifecycle assessment using datasets (e.g. satellite data) that scale globally.
    • I led several federally funded projects at HabiTerre (see Funding–Grants).
  • National Center for Supercomputing Applications — Research Assistant (2017–2019)
    • Urbana, Illinois, USA.
    • Observational astronomy: I worked on (1) scaling up numerical simulation of blackhole mergers on supercomputers, (2) training deep learning models to estimate parameters of observed blackhole mergers, and (3) developing deep learning models to classify galaxies based on observation data. These works were part of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory (LIGO) scientific collaboration and the Dark Energy Survey (DES). See Publications.
    • Satellite remote sensing: I worked on (1) generating unified satellite datasets by fusing multiple data sources and (2) developing crop yield forecast models.

Funding

Project Grants

  • U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) — ~$256,000 (2021)
    • Project: Developing a generative framework to assess farmland resilience based on artificial intelligence, satellite data, and stochastic weather modeling.
    • Role: Principal Investigator (PI).
    • The project aimed to evaluate the long-term resilience of farmland by simulating ensembles of possible farming scenarios with generative machine learning models. In particular, we simulated counterfactual data “sensed” by satellites to use as inputs to our models.
    • This grant was awarded under the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — ~$106,000 (2021)
    • Project: Developing a scalable and economic solution for real-time irrigation decision making system for center pivots.
    • Role: Principal Investigator (PI).
    • The project aimed to precisely optimize irrigation schedules for farms based on real-time satellite and weather forecast data.
    • This grant was awarded under the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
    • I did not execute this project, as I left HabiTerre to start my PhD in neuroengineering.
  • U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) — ~$50,000 (2020)
    • Intelligent risk management for the US crop insurance industry
    • Entrepreneur Lead (EL).
    • Federally sponsored technology transfer and market research project.
    • This grant was awarded under the NSF’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program.

Fellowships

  • Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship — ~€117,000 (2022–2024)
    • Reverse-engineering Drosophila locomotor control through data-driven modeling.
    • Awarded stipend and travel funding.
  • O’Dell Fellowship — ~$78,0001,2 (2018–2019)
    • Funding for MSc studies at UIUC.
    • 1 The amount includes a tuition waiver in addition to the stipend.
    • 2 Only ½ of the awarded amount was used as I finished the studies early.

Awards and Honors

  • Fiddler Innovation Fellowship (2019)
    • Awarded by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
  • BSc in Computer Science and Astronomy with Highest Distinction (2018)
    • Awarded by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • First Place in Original Undergraduate Research (2018)
    • Awarded by the Grainger College of Engineering, Engineering Open House.

Teaching

  • BIOENG-456: Controlling Behavior in Animals and Robots (EPFL, 2022–2023)
    • Teaching Assistant / Lead Teaching Assistant.
    • Master course in Life Sciences and Robotics. Students acquire an integrative view on biological and artificial algorithms for controlling autonomous behaviors. I led the designed the course projects in two of its offerings, one of which led to the NeuroMechFly v2 project (see Publications).
  • BIO-311: Neuroscience (EPFL, 2022)
    • Teaching Assistant.
    • Bachelor/master course in Life Sciences introducing the fundamentals of neuroscience.
  • CS-241/341: System Programming (UIUC, 2018)
    • Course Assistant.
    • Bachelor course in Computer Science on the basics of system programming, including POSIX processes, inter-process communication, parallelism/synchronization, memory management, socket network, RPC programming in distributed systems, basic security mechanisms, etc.