Mentorship

Current M.S. Supervision

• Neil Dangat (2024–2026, Primary Supervisor)
  Neil is working on rethinking intra-frame keyframe storage for video compression using Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH). His system dynamically assembles keyframes from a shared block database, aiming to eliminate redundancy in streaming and surveillance formats. I support him on design feasibility, analysis, and technical milestones.
  
  

• Vaibhav Rumale (2024–2025, Co-Supervisor)
  Co-advised with Prof. Tyler R. Sorensen. I provided detailed editorial guidance on Vaibhav’s thesis structure, exposition, and coherence. I continued mentoring him post-graduation as he prepared for F1 visa-based OPT and job applications, helping him maintain strong academic momentum.
  
  

Capstone & Project Mentorship

• Rohan Pradhan (Spring 2025)
  As project reader, I mentored Rohan in his benchmarking-focused M.S. capstone project (primary advisor: Prof. Liting Hu). I helped him structure his technical narrative and refine his presentation for academic rigor and clarity.
  
  

Past Committee Member Roles (Fall 2023)

• Ann Sophie Abrahamsson
  Served as reader for her joint M.S. project (co-advised by Prof. Heiner Litz). Provided feedback on technical presentation, structure, and coherence.
  
  

• Nitya Bhupatiraju
  Also served as a reader for her capstone project, co-advised by Prof. Heiner Litz. Offered focused feedback to enhance readability and meet academic expectations.

I regularly mentor undergraduate students through independent research, civic tech collaborations, capstone projects, and summer outreach programs. Many of these students begin as curious learners in my classes and gradually take on more responsibility in projects involving AI, embedded systems, and education innovation. Below are highlights of recent and ongoing mentoring relationships:

• Justin Chung, Nicholas Mo (Spring 2025–Present)
  I am currently overseeing as project manager the student's work on the DMV Digital Wallet Resume initiative, a civic technology collaboration with the California State Government, ORA Systems, and Cal-IPGCA. These students are leading the design and implementation of a credential wallet system for secure badge issuance, metadata control, and selective sharing features. My mentorship includes systems architecture guidance, deliverable alignment, and government-facing technical communication.

• Jasmine Fortez, Arushi Tyagi (Spring 2025–Present)
  Mentored in foundational LLM research methodology with a focus on small language models (SLMs) for computer architecture applications. Their training includes theoretical grounding in transformer architectures, fine-tuning using LoRA in Google Colab, and academic paper comprehension. Both students are working toward co-authoring a peer-reviewed research publication by graduation.

• Ruthwika Gajjala, Rachit Verma (Spring 2025–Present)
  Mentoring both students in an embodied AI research project using the PiCar-X robot. They are developing a system where sensor inputs (e.g., camera, sonar) are interpreted via GPT-based API calls to trigger real-world robot actions. The goal is to explore transitioning from cloud-based to local LLM inference and to submit a co-authored conference paper upon project maturity.

• Sakshi Konnur (Spring 2025)
  Mentored through a structured LLM onboarding curriculum, including an in-depth reading of “Attention Is All You Need.” Feedback focused on transformer literacy, research framing, and graduate program readiness. The mentorship helped her transition into UCSC’s 4+1 MS CSE program.

• Teddy Danielson, Ryan Dong, Samuel Morrow (Winter 2025)
  Mentored in computer architecture research with emphasis on gem5-based simulation and benchmarking. Responsibilities included reading published papers, critically re-presenting technical arguments, and gaining hands-on experience with simulation toolchains. My role involved direct instruction, comprehension feedback, and research articulation coaching.

• Roy Chan (Fall 2024)
  Supervised Roy’s CSE 193 field study at NextLabs, focusing on C++ development, system-level debugging, REST API integration, and performance testing. Supported his technical report development, goal-setting, and deliverable alignment with academic expectations.

• Gladys Garcia, Manuel Hidalgo Sola (Summer 2024)
  Trained as peer mentors for a fully online, 10-day Data Science summer program targeting pre-transfer community college students. They were responsible for breakout room facilitation, assignment support, and inclusive group mentoring. I guided them in best practices for peer leadership, student engagement, and small-group discussion dynamics.