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Pedro B

- Research Program Mentor

PhD at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC)

Expertise

Computer science, scientific computing, high-performance computing, parallel computing, GPU computing, numerical analysis, linear algebra, differential equations, physics simulations

Bio

Hi! My name is Pedro and I'm a Member of the Technical Staff at Radical AI. I really liked school and decided to pursue higher education, resulting in several degrees, a lot of internships, and other academic goodies. My whole career has been about solving math and physics problems with computers. I see computing and computer science as tools to answer bigger questions beyond just writing code; but the coding part is also one of the most fun parts of the process. Outside of work and research, I like playing instruments, eating all kinds of foods, and enjoying everything this beautiful city has to offer. Did I mention I live in NYC? Since I moved, I have eaten at 1000+ restaurants, watched more than 40 theater/musical shows, and biked more than 1500 miles inside the city. I also teach Zumba classes and play pickleball.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

The Rebel Project

Have you ever wondered why we do things the way we do them? Why we drive on the left seat while riding on the right lane? Why we call it "going off" when the alarm sound is actually "going on"? It seems like we do certain things just because everybody does them in a standardized way. Well, no more! We are going rogue on these problems! \m/ @_@ \m/ While these are just silly examples, there are real questions and learning opportunities around using the "wrong" solution for a given problem. In this project, you'll pick a task in machine learning, scientific computing, programming, math, physics, or something else, that you'll solve using some unconventional approach, and we'll try to get an answer as to why a solution you propose may not be the best approach. Who knows? Maybe you'll find a better way to solve the problem in the end. Here are some examples, with varying degrees of difficulty. You can also propose your own problem: - How many components can we remove before a physics equation becomes useless (e.g., removing wind resistance in free-fall motion) - Arithmetic procedures using different approaches (e.g., multiplication starting with the most significant digit as opposed to the least significant digit) - Passing by reference vs passing by value for primitive values - Representing numbers in IEEE format with varying mantissa and exponent sizes - Using spheres for collision detection as opposed to cubes - Evaluating mathematical expression (e.g., sin, cos, exp, etc.) directly, as opposed to using series expansions

Coding skills

C/C++, Python, Bash

Languages I know

English (native), Spanish (native)

Teaching experience

Aside from TAing several classes during my PhD, I also mentored college students and high school students during my undergraduate studies. I taught them Physics, Math, and Computer Science concepts of different complexities.

Credentials

Work experience

IBM Research (2021 - Current)
Research Scientist
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2018 - 2018)
Graduate intern
Sandia National Laboratories (2016 - 2016)
Graduate intern
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2015 - 2015)
Graduate intern

Education

Florida International University
BS Bachelor of Science (2013)
Electrical Engineering
Florida International University
MS Master of Science (2014)
Computer Vision
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC)
MS Master of Science (2016)
Scientific Computing
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC)
PhD Doctor of Philosophy (2022)
Scientific Computing

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