Experience

Searchme

July 2008 - present
Research Engineer

I do research at a search engine startup, primarily in the areas of relevance and spam detection.

Some projects I have done to improve relevance include:

The design, development, and implementation of a system for automatically assessing the general quality of a web document. Tasks included training data gathering, feature selection, and evaluation. Led to 5.7% improvement in DCG.

Experiments in feature selection, in order to maximize DCG at lowest cost. Led to 2% improvement in DCG.

Data mining in various logs for new feature generation. These features were added to our production ranking system.

Work in webspam detection:

Coordination with editorial team to get a thorough understanding of webspam and how it impacts users. Collaborate for training data collection.

Design, development, and implementation of a webspam detection system that is production live. I worked on all aspects of this project from feature development, training data generation, feature and dataset analysis, and model evaluation.

Multimedia blending in results:

Design and development of a machine learned model that serves relevant mixed media content in the search results when the query is appropriate for media results

Built automated system for collecting media content from various sources so it could be added to our index and served as a result in our UI.

Feature selection and generation to ensure relevant media results rank correctly.

Feature generation for proper blending of media and non-media results.

Set up a production-like environment for evalulation of the model before launching live

Other projects include:

Development of an internal tool (query logs processing with a UI for easy analysis) used by the Research and Search Quality teams. Backend in perl and frontend in php.

Design and development of a machine learned model that identifies adult web pages. Tasks included training data collection, feature selection, and evaluation.

Development of a machine learned model to serve timely news results when appropriate. Coordinated with editorial team for training data collection and involved with feature selection.

Planisware

January 2008 - June 2008
Project Manager

Worked on a cross functional team to develop new modules for OPX2, Planisware's enterprise-scale project management software package, at a top 10 Big Pharma company. Responsible for the project through the entire software lifecycle. I designed and developed scheduling and reporting systems, according to customer's business requirements. I also ensured timely deliverables (technical design documents, use cases, user documentation, etc.) and built and presented a variety of prototype demos. Also responsible for maintaining the real-time production environment already in place at the client site.

July 2006 - January 2008
Associate

Worked as part of a 7-person team, implementing an integrated OPX2 system at a pharmaceutical company. Designed and developed the costing system, to meet the design and functional requirements of the customer's finance department, and fully integrated the module with the scheduling and resourcing systems, according to business processes. I was also in charge of migrating existing projects into the new integrated project system.

Worked as part of a 4-person team implementing OPX2. OPX2 is currently used by many large pharmaceutical companies. We customized OPX2 for deployment at a major domestic wireless carrier. Upon completion of the configuration, we performed a migration of all their project data onto our application. Post migration, I acted as the point person for any technical issues that arose with this client's OPX2 system.

MIT Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

February 2006 - June 2006
Researcher

Modeled silicon crystal and simulated fractures in the material along the (111) crack surface. Simulations were conducted using the ReaxFF method, and novel results were obtained which were consistent with those from physical experiments, resulting in a new explanation for the physics of crack propagation in silicon.

Results accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 2006 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society and the 2006 International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modeling.

MRS abstract text available here. [txt]

MIT Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

February 2005 - May 2006
Researcher

Calculated work functions of various hydrogenated single-walled carbon nanotubes. Research was conducted using the Plane-Wave Self-Consistent Field method, creating quantum-mechanical models and running simulations. Simulations allowed the calculation of the Fermi energies and the plotting of the various band structures of the simulated hydrogenated nanotubes. Data analysis (via MATLAB) allowed final calculation of the work functions. Similar research was also performed into the energies of covalent attachments in the functionalization of a single-walled carbon nanotube.

Results written up in senior thesis Work Functions of Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. Available here. [PDF]

Poster presentation at the 2006 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

June 2004 - August 2004
Student Intern

Investigated the effects of a cold beryllium reflector on the flux of long wavelength neutrons. Experiments were conducted in the Target-Moderator-Reflector System (TMRS) at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Created a detailed scale model of the TMRS using MCNPX (a Monte Carlo radiation transport code) and ran simulations on the model to observe the flux leakage from the beryllium reflector filter.

Research was published in the proceedings of the 2005 meeting of the International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources.

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2002-2006
Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering

Skills

Extensive use and moderate configuration of UNIX/linux, Windows, and OSX environments.
Comfortable puttering around in Perl, Python, MATLAB, SQL, HTML.
Familiar with R, Hadoop, PHP, and a variety of materials modeling and simulation software tools.

Interests

2004 - 2006
Member of the Student Information Processing Board, a student group focused on improving student computing at MIT

2003 - 2006
Network administrator and webmaster for 100-person student organization

2002 - 2006
Disc jockey and producer of MIT college radio show

1988 - present
Violin instrumentalist