hjvm personal portfolio

Email
hjvm at upenn dot edu
Location

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

About me

PhD researcher in Computational Linguistics at UPenn with a B.S./M.Eng. in EECS from MIT, specializing in deep learning and natural language processing. My research bridges insights from human language acquisition and representation learning to develop data-efficient speech and language systems.

I have industry experience with patent-backed, client-facing explainable AI systems and NLP pipelines deployed to the U.S. Department of Defense, alongside a strong publication record (BlackboxNLP, GenBench) and a proven track record of building scalable, production-ready ML systems.

What I do

Natural Language Processing

Customized data analysis and natural language processing pipelines including OpenAI Assistant API integration.
LLM Benchmarking

In-depth linguistic evaluation of Large Language Models in comparison to traditional, statistical language models and human judgement data.
Linguistic Analysis

Application of multiple levels of linguistic analysis, including Pragmatics, Syntax, and Phonology; from different perspectives such as Theoretical, Historical, and Computational Linguistics.
Phonetics & DSP

Large scale digital signal processing (DSP) and acoustic analyses of speech databases to attest scientific hypotheses, answer theoretical questions or discover patterns in the data.

Advisors

Prof. Charles Yang

Professor of Linguistics, Computer Science, and Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Mark Liberman

Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Professor of Computer and Information Science at University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Daniel Swingley

Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Robert C. Berwick

Robert C. Berwick is Professor of Computational Linguistics and Computer Science and Engineering, in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Resume

Education

University of Pennsylvania
August 2022 — Present
PhD in Linguistics.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Septempber 2019- June 2021
M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
June 2015 - May 2020
B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Industry Experience

AI Innovation Intern
Virtualitics, Inc June 2024 — August 2024
As an intern familiar with Virtualitics' software stack, I prototyped, and led the integration of OpenAI's API into the company software. I produced demos of our implementation of generative AI capabilities for key stakeholders within the company, including C-suite executives, shareholders and potential new clients.
Natural Language Processing Engineer
Virtualitics, Inc February 2021 — August 2022
Lead R&D engineer in a $750000 (USD) SBIR Phase II contract (CONTRACT NUMBER: FA864922P0579) with the Air Force. Developed the Deficiency Report AI Monitory (DReAM) from the ground up with successful completion of all milestones. Managed Virtualitics' Artificial Intelligence engineering resources to enable full integration of DReAM within the Virtualitics AI Platform.

Led R&D effort to design, prototype, patent (PATENT NUMBER: US-20230004557-A1), and deploy into production a series of custom Explainable AI algorithms to produce descriptive, plain English descriptions of the clusters or communities of nodes detected in Network Graphs loaded into the Virtualitics Explore. Presented the final product at the Caltech Explainable AI (XAI) Virtual Workshop.

Prototyped, deployed and patented (PATENT NUMBER: US-20220342873-A1) the VIP AI-Guided Suggestions feature, a statistical subsystem that underlies the Natural Language Query system in VIP that analyses the dataset currently loaded into the software and recommends AI routines or specific visualizations based on the statistics of the dataset in order to reveal crucial insights about the data.

Teaching Experience

LING 4000 - Tutorial in Linguistics
University of Pennsylvania Fall 2024
LING 0500 - Introduction to Formal Linguistics
University of Pennsylvania Spring 2024
LING 0001 - Introduction to Linguistics
University of Pennsylvania Fall 2023
6.034 - Artificial Intelligence
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Fall 2020
6.08 - Introduction to EECS via Interconnected Embedded Systems
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring 2020
6.034 - Artificial Intelligence
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Fall 2019
6.803/6.833 - The Human Intelligence Enterprise
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring 2019

Leadership Experience

48th Annual Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC48)
Philadelphia, PA PLC48 Chair (September 2023 - Present)
As the Project Manager for a team of 20 PhD students in the UPenn Linguistics Department, I interface with the department faculty, the UPenn administration, and the Graduate Linguistics Society of the university to organize the 48th installment of the Penn Linguistics Conference. I coordinate working meetings with each subcommittee, write weekly progress reports, set dated milestones, and delegate tasks as needed.
47th Annual Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC47)
Philadelphia, PA Head of Finance (September 2022 - May 2023)
Organized and managed the first in-person Penn Linguistics Conference since 2019. I opened new funding sources, raised approximately $16K USD, and managed the budget while adapting to inflationary pressures. I revamped the conference website, managed its ticketing platform, and exceeded our revenue target by $4K USD.
MIT Casino Rueda
Cambridge, MA Dance Instructor, Curriculum Director (September 2018 - February 2020)
As the head instructor of MIT's Casino (Cuban Salsa) Rueda group, I taught weekly open lessons to the MIT and Cambridge-Boston community. I also designed curriculums, trained instructors, and coordinated performances.
NCAA Division 1 MIT Men's Lightweight Rowing Team
Cambridge, MA Team Member (September 2015 - May 2019)
Joined as a walk-on novice and competed on the varsity team for all four years, culminating in a place in the top varsity boat (1V) during my senior year.
Association of Puerto Rican Students at MIT (APR)
Cambridge, MA Association Member (September 2015 - June 2021)
Conducted outreach to encourage prospective Puerto Rican students to apply to MIT and supported incoming students from Puerto Rico in their transition to university life in the Cambridge-Boston area.