Hi, I'm John Zhang.
A
Self-motivated Machine Learning Researcher and Software Engineer ready to solve interesting and challenging problems.
About
I am an Engineering Science Student at the University of Toronto. I am passionate about problem-solving and software development. I'm self-motivated, a fast learner, and very gritty. I have worked on many software projects in Python, C, C++, and Javascript during my bachelor's. I have 24 months of professional work experience throughout my internships and co-op term, where I worked on C++, C# backends writing performant and Object Oriented code and applying Machine learning to business needs. I want to develop applications on the cutting edge that solve real-world problems.
- Languages: Python, C, C++, C#, JavaScript, SQL, Bash, Tcl, Verilog, MATLAB
- Libraries: NumPy, Pandas
- Technologies:Flask, Node.js, Vue.js, React, Transformers, PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, HTML, CSS
- Tools: Git, Perforce, Azure ML, Linux, Docker, Jira
Interested in opportunities to work in Software Engineering leveraging my skills in Machine Learning.
Experience
- Led R&D into a novel GenAI feature that improves hardware design flows by leveraging LLM design generation.
- Built a data processing and augmentation pipeline to create a hardware system dataset with millions of tokens.
- Outperformed SOTA prompt-engineered foundation models by 300% on test set by leveraging performance efficient fine tuning (QLoRA) and RAG to fine-tune an open source LLM with Transformers library on Azure ML Studio.
- Designed a custom language for LLM outputs, increasing total inference speed by 100% from baseline.
- Developed and integrated C++ and Tcl code to support the migration to a modern database for Quartus tools, using Object Oriented Programming patterns for improved maintainability.
- Architected a testing framework for a user-facing debug tool and used it to validate the tool’s reliability on thousands of inputs from customer designs.
- Continuously resolved customer requests and bugs by implementing software features and fixes, including creating a Quartus Python module for merging customer debug files.
- Designed a custom language for LLM outputs, increasing total inference speed by 100% from baseline.
- Tools: C++, Python, Transformers, AzureML, Bash, Tcl
- Developed a pipeline to process 40,000 datapoints with xtb, Open Babel, and PyTorch, building a molecule dataset. dispenser robots; improved an optimization algorithm that reduced the cycle-time of the automation process by 25%.
- Trained and tuned graph convolutional neural networks to predict molecule solubility with Pytorch Geometric while experimenting with various architectures and physical chemistry features
- Demonstrated that a electronic surface mesh approach is valid on solubility task, beating some architectures such as XGBoost and GC by 10% in RMSE loss on ESOL solubility task
- Tools: Python, PyTorch, Bash, Pyvista, Openbabel, xtb
- Developed a program in C++ that fixes mesh holes by transforming meshes into voxel grids with OpenVDB.
- Improved triangle element feature query speed in C# by more than 10x by redesigning algorithms to leverage Bounding Volume Hierarchies.
- Collaborated on and presented a cross-platform model viewer in Typescript using Vue.js and Electron.Bounding Volume Hierarchies.
- Developed an augmented reality interactive 3D geotechnical model viewer app using Unreal Engine 4 and deployed it on the Microsoft HoloLens.
- Tools:C++, C#, Javascript/Typescript, Vue.js, Node.js
Projects
Skills
Languages and Databases
![](/assets/img/python-logo-1-300x300.jpg)
![](/assets/img/cpp_logo.png)
![](/assets/img/C_Logo.png)
![](/assets/img/javascript.png)
![](/assets/img/Logo_C_sharp.svg.png)
![](/assets/img/bash_logo.png)
Libraries
![](/assets/img/pytorch-logo.png)
![](/assets/img/huggingface.png)
![](/assets/img/numpy-logo-1-500x500.jpg)
![](/assets/img/pandas-logo-2-500x500.jpg)
![](/assets/img/jax.png)
Frameworks
![](/assets/img/react.png)
![](/assets/img/flask-logo.png)
![](/assets/img/vue.png)
![](/assets/img/nodejs.png)
Technologies
![](/assets/img/git.png)
![](/assets/img/perforce.webp)
![](/assets/img/linux.png)
![](/assets/img/docker.png)
![](/assets/img/azure.png)
Education
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Degree: Bacher of Applied Science in Engineering Science - Machine Intelligence
- Bayesian Statistics
- Probability
- Multivariable Calculus
- Linear Algebra
- Differential Equations
- Advanced Algorithms
- Deep Learning
- Classical Artificial Intelligence
- Operating Systems
- Software Engineering
- Parallel Programming
- Operating Systems
- Decision Support Systems
Relevant Courseworks: