I'm Sheldon, but you might also know me as

an AI Researcher

Hey, thanks for stopping by! My work is driven by a deep passion for leveraging technology to make a genuine difference. At Hack4Impact-UMD, I lead diverse teams to build practical software solutions empowering nonprofits and communities. Whether it's refining AI models for research or speaking to hundreds of students about social-impact tech, I'm energized by collaboration, creativity, and purpose-driven innovation. Above all, I care about creating ethical and accessible tech that helps real people solve real problems.

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Experience

Work Experience

Artificial Intelligence Researcher

University of Maryland - Part-time

Apr 2024 - Present

Engineered end-to-end Python VLM benchmarking framework using llama-cpp-python, enabling robust inference from Llama-based (Llava) and other GGUF models via structured JSON output, resolving complex CUDA runtime issues on Colab GPUs (T4/A100).
Executed systematic VLM/LLM evaluations comparing diverse architectures (Llava, Moondream2) and quantizations, analyzing performance (accuracy, latency, F1), generating actionable insights guiding model selection for resource-constrained robotic platform.
Built a downstream multilayer perceptron model integrated with a fine-tuned Vision Transformer, improving human vocalization classification accuracy from 70% to 90% compared to baseline methods.
Developed an algorithm utilizing YOLOv8 model, deployed on Spot robots as part of the DARPA Triage Challenge.
Scraped audio from 25k+ YouTube videos, applying a variety of feature extraction and data engineering methods to develop and test multiple Multilayer Perceptron models.

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Software Development Engineer Intern

Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Internship

Jun 2024 - Aug 2024

Singlehandedly built full-stack web application for automated permission management using React, TypeScript, Python, and AWS services (DynamoDB, Lambda, API Gateway), automating and securing the current process.
Implemented 6 backend REST APIs using Python, Smithy, and FastAPI (1500+ LOC), including advanced error handling, input validation, and comprehensive logging.
Used AWS CDK to automatically deploy testing/monitoring stacks and AWS services such as DynamoDB Lambda, enabling seamless deployment of the project infrastructure on production.
Built React/TypeScript components (web form and data display table) to handle user data creation and editing, with features like input sanitization, error handling, and pagination.
Achieved 90% test code coverage across 70 backend unit tests with Python's unittest library, utilized Jest and testing-library/react for frontend unit tests, and used Cypress for end-to-end integration tests.
Integrated APIs with another team's AWS AppSync service using Python Requests library, enabling secure retrieval of user data without having to store sensitive info.
AWS Partner Analytics and Insights Team.

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Software Engineer Intern

Oracle - Internship

May 2023 - Aug 2023

Wrote thousands of lines of production JavaScript code resulting in performance optimization, improved tool integration, shortened build time, and reduced deployment cycles for multiple web applications.
Modernized DevOps application crucial to thousands of businesses by writing JavaScript code to update the JavaScript toolkit version of over ~75% of the application's pages.
Future-proofed customer-facing reporting and analytics application that serves thousands of businesses by rewriting its administration section to update its JavaScript toolkit version.

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Volunteer Experience

Co-Executive Director

Hack4Impact-UMD - Part-time

Apr 2024 - Present

Oversaw high-visibility operations, managing an executive board of 15 directors and driving strategy across all roles. Guided the direction of the organization by providing input on all key initiatives.
Spearheaded a Microsoft mentorship program that put DC-area Microsoft employees on our project teams, by ideating and pitching the collaboration, coordinating mentor placements, meeting with Microsoft leadership, improving program based on feedback, and performing other administrative tasks.
Built and maintained strategic partnerships with companies (including Microsoft, Uber, Bloomberg), on-campus faculty, and other key stakeholders such as UMD's President and UMD's Do Good Institute.
Developed full-stack development workshop for 120+ highschoolers at Microsoft's BAM Minority Student Day (github.com/DevShel/microsoft-workshop).
Represented the organization at tabling events/interest meetings and led general body meetings.
Represented the organization and spoke at Microsoft's 2025 Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit.
Handled high-stakes operations - drafting contract agreements, performing project audits for the national board, and resolving the variety of complex challenges that come with this work.

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Hack4Good Engineer

Microsoft - Part-time

Feb 2025 - Mar 2025

Architected and built a multilingual RAG agent with vectorizing and indexing documents via Azure AI Search Service and OpenAI's text-embedding-3-large model.
Developed experiments to refine chatbot translation strategy; created synthetic dataset to improve responses.
Hack4Good is an invite-only internal multi-month Microsoft hackathon, where Microsoft employees work with nonprofits to build free software solutions, organized by Hugo Marques and the Tech for Social Impact team.
As part of my team's project (led by Parijat Dalal) with Global FoodBanking Network, I defined our project description, led project meetings, and helped coordinate our team's direction.

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Director of Project Sourcing

Hack4Impact-UMD

May 2022 - Apr 2024

Led a 5-10 person sourcing team over 4 semesters, leading meetings with over 60 nonprofits and securing 5 high-quality projects each semester for our 100-member organization.
Built out the Director of Project Sourcing role from scratch - developing onboarding documents, standardized project description templates, and a director's guide for future leaders.
Defined and formalized key processes (including project voting, evaluation rubrics, nonprofit collaboration agreements, call scripts) to streamline project intake and selection.
Expanded project scope from basic websites to complex web applications, forging partnerships with larger nonprofits such as Leveling the Playing Field, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and The Children's Cancer Foundation.

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Awards & Honors

Google CS Research Mentorship Program

Google Research

2023

Selected for a prestigious Google initiative pairing students with industry-leading computer science researchers.

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Bitcamp 2023 Most Philanthropic Hack

Bloomberg

2023

Awarded for Occupan-See, a computer vision tool built to monitor unsafe occupancy levels in real-time.

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2nd Place, Amazon-UMD Design Challenge

Amazon

2022

Recognized for leading the creative redesign of the campus transportation app with a focus on accessibility.

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Technical Projects

ML/AI

Responsible AI Benchmarking

Developing reproducible evaluation pipelines for assessing language models on fairness, robustness, and misinformation benchmarks.

PythonPyTorchHugging Face

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ML/AI

Microsoft Hack4Good 3.0

Building an agentic assistant for a nonprofit! Implemented advanced RAG techniques for improved information retrieval.

Azure AI SearchAzure OpenAIText-embedding-3-large

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Full Stack

Microsoft Minority Student Day Workshop

I built a full stack workshop for over 100 kids! Created a complete end-to-end learning experience featuring modern web technologies.

Next.jsReactAzure Cosmos DB

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Speaking Engagements

Education

CMSC320: Advice in the Age of AI

Guest lecture in CMSC320 at UMD on practical insights from real-world AI/ML experience.

AIMachine LearningEducation

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Industry Talk

Microsoft Talks and Taps Event

Visited Microsoft's Reston, VA office to recruit Hack4Impact mentors.

MentorshipNonprofit Tech

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Organization

Hack4Impact-UMD Events

Regular speaking at Hack4Impact-UMD on social impact technology.

LeadershipSocial Impact

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Other Projects & Initiatives

Design

UMD Next

An app reimagined for The Amazon-UMD Design Challenge. Created innovative user experience designs focused on campus connectivity.

UX/UI DesignUser ResearchDesign Thinking

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Research

Northrop Grumman A.I. Challenge

Presentation about making computer vision more ethical. Addressed bias, privacy concerns, and proposed solutions for responsible AI.

AI EthicsComputer VisionResponsible AI

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Sustainability

Universitas 21 Challenge

Ideating methods to promote compressed natural gas vehicles in Tanzania. Developed sustainable transportation strategies for emerging markets.

SustainabilityInternational DevelopmentClean Energy

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