Current goal: reduce barrier to entry for humans to build great things. Some previous goals: - contribute to humanities understanding of Dark Energy (FAILED miserably) - contribute to humanities understanding of Gravity (FAILED) - reduce the cost of space missions (Success) - deploy ML models into production in a useful enterprise context (Success) - visit every major culture in the world and learn about the essence of humanity (In progress) Positions: GenAI GTM & Technical Execution at Scale AI (2024 - Present), Head of AI - Canada at Palantir Technologies (2023 - 2024), Deployment Strategist at Palantir Technologies (2023 - 2023), Research Physicist - UV Imaging Satellite at University of Toronto (2020 - 2023), Research Physicist - Balloon-Borne Spacecrafts and Cosmology at University of Toronto (2019 - 2023), Teaching Professional at University of Toronto (2018 - 2022), Machine Learning Research Engineer (PhD Internship) at Semantic Health (2022 - 2023), Visiting Researcher at Princeton University (2019 - 2019), Chairperson & Speaker of Council at AMS of UBC Vancouver (2017 - 2018), SURE Fellow at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) at The University of British Columbia (2017 - 2018), Teaching Assistant at The University of British Columbia (2017 - 2017), Junior Researcher at Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany (2016 - 2017), Residence Advisor at The University of British Columbia (2015 - 2016), Junior Solutions Engineer at Tasktop (2015 - 2015) Skills: Generative AI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Palantir, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), Programming, Java, C, C++, Matlab, Python, Jupyter, Racket, Ruby, Groovy, LaTeX, Mathematica, Apache Velocity, Microsoft Office, Lathe, Milling, Microprocessors, Arduino, Data Analysis, Public Speaking, Leadership, Event Management, Research, Physics, Mathematics, Teaching, Robert's Rules of Order, Data Modeling, Statistical Data Analysis, Mathematical Modeling, Cosmology, Charismatic Leadership, Time Management, Science, SolidWorks, Data Analytics, Neural Networks, Applied Mathematics, Machining, Linux, Research and Development (R&D), Git, GitHub Recent Posts: The U.S. AI Safety Institute has selected Scale AI as the first third-party evaluator authorized to assess AI models on its behalf, opening a new channel for testing. That agreement will allow a broader range of model builders to access voluntary evaluation, according to a Scale AI release shared with FedScoop ahead of the Monday announcement. Participating companies will be able to test their models once and, if they choose, share those results with AI safety institutes around the world. https://lnkd.in/eyxty53T Zifan Wang does it again! One of the most important benchmarks this year! Our GenAI business is seeing truly historic levels of growth. Come join the mission to elevate humanity in the age of AI! For strategic projects lead roles feel free to apply directly here: https://lnkd.in/eWt3qyaq After about a year of talking about it I finally actually started a blog: https://lnkd.in/ehTpYGwv I will be targeting one post per week that is either: - Organizing the chaos in my mind with random writing - Documentation of learning something new - Explanation of something on which I am knowledgeable Check it out, subscribe, and let me know what you think. Feel free to message me if you are interested! Come work with Aakash Sabharwal and Mihir Pandya on accelerating data development for Gen AI! It seems like everyone in SF near exclusively uses twitter/X. So in order to fit in I have went ahead and made an account. If you are interested in my less professional and sometimes more controversial posts feel free to follow me there! Spicy update: It is with a complex mix of emotions that I am announcing that after a little over a year, I have left my role at Palantir Technologies. This was not an easy decision. I absolutely loved my time at Palantir and still strongly believe that Foundry+AIP is an incredible product that customers can use to extract a ton of value. However, after some reflection regarding what I wanted to do post-exit from aerospace, the answer was always to have as large of a positive impact as possible. At Palantir, my impact was very positive; however, since the operations are all north of modeling in the context of AI, this meant that my impact was limited only to Palantir customers and, in reality, the subset of Palantir customers that fell under my role. At that point, I decided that I wanted to pursue a south of modeling role. Since I do not have the technical chops to go straight into pure modeling research, the clear option was to be on the data side. That way, my work impacts the models whose use is ubiquitous enough, resulting in a much broader cone of impact per unit action. So, I have moved to San Francisco and decided to join Scale AI's Generative AI business unit, effective next week. Special thanks to all of my Palantir colleagues who made my time there incredible and taught me a ton of important lessons. With that said, I cant wait to start at Scale and see what they have to offer! I forgot to post a spicy update on here! I successfully defended my Astrophysics PhD thesis titled "Near-Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Instrumentation and Cosmology in the New Space Era". With this chapter of my life over I have chosen to dedicate the next chapter to "safe AGI" adjacent work. I will be stepping away from research for a bit to focus on safe deployment of LLMs and LLM-centric workflows into production, (but in a non-chatbot context), with Palantir Technologies. Image credit: Ajay and Emaad If someone wants to teach you how to make money with ChatGPT, they don't know how to make money with ChatGPT. Because if they did know how to make money with ChatGPT, they would make money with ChatGPT instead of teaching you how to make money with ChatGPT. Our official press release on the flight status is out. SuperBIT (my baby) has launched and we have already taken some super cool images shown in the link below. All these images are processed by Steve Benton. I am happy to announce that after 3 years, 7 months and 13 days I have submitted my #PhD Thesis to my committee for evaluation titled: "Near-Ultraviolet Instrumentation and Cosmology in the New Space Era" For anyone who is interested I have attached a 3 page public accessible summary of my thesis to this post. Will post the entire thing once its published after my defence! A big thank you to everyone who supported me through this intense process with a special shout out to my collaborating advisers: Suresh Sivanandam (UofT Astronomy/Dunlap), Barth Netterfield (UofT Physics/Dunlap), Bill Jones (Princeton Physics), Richard Massey (Durham Physics), Jacqueline McCleary (Northeastern Physics), and Miriam Diamond (UofT Physics). With this I also want to announce that last December I accepted an offer from Palantir Technologies that I will be starting this June. I did not want to announce this until the thesis is done hence the late announcement. Looking forward to this new chapter. Seeking input: What AI and data topics do you feel lack written pieces that bridge the gap between non-technical business writing and highly technical work? Specifically, topics that you feel need to have their technical concepts explained in an accessible way. I rarely post on LinkedIn, but today I came across a plot that I believe to be misleading. Misleading information is my biggest pet peeve so I wanted to share a clarification. The plot in question shows the average number of employees at an S&P 500 company needed to generate $1 million in revenue over time. While this plot is fine in the correct context, many posts using it convey one of two messages: either (1) tech innovation is increasing productivity... YAY! or (2) AI will take our jobs... SCARY! . However, these messages lack context and meaning, as the $1 million in revenue metric is not adjusted for inflation. This makes the original plot, at best, an exaggeration of the real effect and, at worst, a complete misrepresentation of a non-existent effect. To highlight the issue, I created a plot that TRYS to accounts for inflation. It's important to note that this plot is also essentially meaningless, as I had to assume that the number of dollars generated per employee varys linearly (as in if 1M 1985 dollars are 500k in 2018 then the value for 2018 in the original plot needs to be multiplied by 2 to correct for this). This assumption of linearity is not necessarily accurate and was made only for the purpose of highlighting a point. To sum it up, the blue curve may not be entirely accurate, but it effectively illustrates the absurdity of the original orange curve. Rant over, this was a nice little procrastination from writing my thesis XD Hiring our first sales lead at Semantic! Feel free to reach out directly if you're passionate about equipping the health system with the latest in transformative ML technology, are looking for a disruptive and world-class environment to grow your skills, or know someone that is. Took my first step toward the AI transition over the weekend. I will be doing a few more of those online programs over the next few months! I am officially beginning the active search for employment and would love to use my network's help to identify exciting roles. Specifically, I am looking for opportunities that provide large room for learning and growth where my experience can be beneficial. If you are interested in helping me out please read the additional information I provide below and feel free to DM or call me. I appreciate your help! I have finally completed the core research for my doctoral dissertation that will be titled “Near-UV to Optical Instrumentation and Cosmology in the New Space Era” and have decided to not pursue academic roles. I think academic research in the pure sciences is of extreme importance for the development of humanity and I acknowledge the privilege I had to contribute to the growth of our society's knowledge of the cosmos. Despite that, I am personally interested in transitioning into more applied roles with more tangible and direct economic and/or social impacts on our society and future. My situation is rather flexible due to me finishing my Ph.D. research 2 years early so I am open to all the following flavors of opportunities: - Full-time positions starting anytime between January 2023 and May 2024 (This is the window I can choose to graduate during) - Full-time positions starting ASAP (This would involve me taking on a role before finishing my Ph.D. and writing my thesis in parallel for an official graduation date anytime before May 2024) - Traditional Ph.D. Internship (in this scenario I would graduate 4 months after the internship is over). - Mitacs Internship (in this scenario I would graduate 6 months after the internship is over as the internship work would have to be integrated into my thesis). The industries I am most interested in joining are: - Aerospace - Tech (I would like to transition into AI specifically, I would love to work on computer vision problems) - Any role that involves solving hard problems Greatest strength/weakness:  My time working as an instrumentation scientist on end-to-end spacecrafts has developed me into a true “Jack of all trades, master of none” since the modus operandi is, need to do something/solve problem -> learn enough to get it done and tested -> move on to next problem. This is both my greatest strength but also my greatest weakness. Thank you for reading this long post! This is my first time on the non-academic job market so any help or advice you can provide will be much appreciated. Note: For personal reasons, I am restricted to roles within Canada until May 2024. Another cool article about some of my work. This article is based on an interview I did a year ago. Ahmed Shaaban Hina Mahboob this post actually does a great job illustrating what I've been saying / predicting for Calgary. My brother who is both hard working and intelligent with experience in software development, UX design, and cognitive systems research is actively looking for work. Feel free to reach out if you are hiring. “People are on average two times more likely to want to provide help than we think they are” Great podcast on the importance of self awareness in leadership!