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Reza Ardestani

I'm an accomplished Computer Science graduate from the University of Lethbridge, and award-wining AI Scientist recognized with the prestigious Alberta Innovates Award for my groundbreaking work in Language Models. Moreover, I'm a full-stack Machine Learning Engineer with proven track record in Data Science, specializing in Language Models and Chatbot Systems. I'm currently seeking opportunities starting immediately in the field of Natrual Language Processing, Machine Learning, or Data Science to apply my expertise and drive meaningful impact within forward-thinking organizations.

📧 Email: Ardestani.reza@proton.me
👔 LinkedIn 🧑‍💻 GitHub
🌍 Location: NW, Calgary, Canada (open to relocate or remote)



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Skill Summary

Programming Languages

Bash, C/C++, Java, Python, R, Gams, Lingo, SQL, Git

Web, Mobile App Frameworks

Flask, Django, Kivy

Libraries

numPy, Pandas, sklearn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, LangChain

Soft Skills

Time management, Over-delivery, Agile development, Clear communication, Teamwork

Data, Database

SQLite, PostgreSQL, Neo4j, VectorDB, Snowflakes

Web, Cloud Technologies

HTML, CSS, Compute Canada, AWS, Heroku, Docker, Kubernetes

Operating Systems

MacOS, Linux (ubuntu), Windows

Languages

English, Persian, Arabic

Miscellaneous

Latex, Jupyter

Work Experience

Research assistant for developing Language Models using graphs

Sep 2022 - Aug 2024

University of Lethbridge

  • Addressed the handling of large datasets by caching tokenized inputs, resulting in reduced RAM usage and runtime
  • Vectorized operations for faster matrix multiplication
  • Utilized penalty to handle class imbalance
  • Leveraged various ML methods to improve the selection F1 score from 35% to 38%
  • Parallelized the training & fine-tuning to reduce runtime by 75%
  • Led the internship team to generate a dataset during 2 months, a task that had previously seen a 4-month unsuccessful attempt. Reduced time from 29 to 4 days by distribution on servers
  • Developed a model that outperformed Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI Research team & Facebook models

    • Practical Software Development (CPSC 2720) Lab Assistant

    Sep 2023 - Dec 2023

    University of Lethbridge

  • Taught 'Pointers' topic. Assisted labs on Software Design Patterns, Doxygen, & Gtest unit testing. Other covered topics: Anti-patterns, Git, Refactoring, and UML
  • 1 of 30 candidates to be appointed this lab due to my previous performance

    • Fundamentals of Programming II (CPSC 2620) Lab Instructor

    April 2023 - Dec 2023

    University of Lethbridge

  • Designed Lab lecture and exercises. Self-initiated recording of extra tutorial videos for students
  • Promoted to this position due to high student evaluations of my teaching and communication in the previous position

    • Fundamentals of Programming I (CPSC 1620) Lab Instructor

    Sep 2022 - April 2023

    University of Lethbridge

  • Used C++ to teach 50 students in a multicultural environment & voluntarily mentored some students for their Computer Science program
  • Self-initiated development of a Python program to automate the grading process, saving 100 hours

    • Research assistant for development of Chatbot Systems using GPT-1 and CLIP

    Oct 2021 - May 2022

    University of Tehran Polytechnic

  • Was Accepted, among many applicants, to research & develop Chatbot Systems
  • Participate in weekly research group meetings & collaborated with other researchers
  • By adopting GPT-1 & CLIP, developed a multi-domain & multi-modal chatbot system, a pioneering system which improved image search 60%
  • Used Singapore tourism dataset to design a travel assistant chatbot

    • IT Intern at Tehran Railway Headquarters, IT Department

    July 2021 - Aug 2021

    B.Sc. Internship

  • Learned different Computer Networks concepts, backup tools, & internal systems

    • Selected Projects

    Advanced Software Engineering

    2022

    Graduate Course at Lethbridge University

  • Implemented projects on Code Completion, Aspect Oriented Programming, and Rest-API.
  • Used agile software developing pipeline, Stat Analysis, Google Test, and Code Coverage tool.
  • Introduced to DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes.

    • RadarCx website for cryptocurrency traders

    2021

    Software Design course project

  • Despite unfamiliarity of our team with all the necessary development tools, we learned them quickly and became the second-best team in a competitive class.
  • The website was developed by adopting Scrum Methodology (Agile Software Development), CI-CD (Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration), and push-notification technology.

    • Several projects in AI

    2021

    Artificial Intelligence course

  • Selected covered topics; Heuristic search, Genetic algorithm, Adversarial search, Knowledge-based system, and Evolutionary algorithms.

    • Time series analysis with statistical methods and Neural Networks

    2021

    Data Mining course

  • Use of the statistical methods (AR, ARIMA, SARIMAX) from statsmodels lib and LSTM method from TensorFlow.

    • Topic detection and sentiment analysis

    2020

    Social Media Computing course final project

  • The Amazon movie dataset was used to extract topics using LDA method.
  • The sentiment was detected both unsupervised and supervised.
  • Other projects:
    • Twitter text classification
    • Spam detection in Persian language
    • Web crawling

    • Operations research

    2020 & 2021

    Linear Optimization and Combinatorial Optimization courses

  • During the former course, 12 problem sets were submitted, each of which was implemented by the Lingo.
  • During the latter course, 6 industrial optimization problems were implemented by GAMS software.

    • Selected Certificates

    Deep Learning Specialization

    2022

    Coursera (Certificates available on my LinkedIn)

  • Completed Andrew NG's Deep Learning Specialization on Coursera, mastering advanced AI topics through hands-on projects
  • Implemented foundational neural network architectures from the ground up to solidify knowledge of model construction, training processes, and optimization techniques

    • Advanced Natural Language Processing

    2022

    Independent Course at MCI Company

  • Implemented several projects on Static and Dynamic Embedding, Information Retrieval, and Chat-bot and eventually became top student and received back my course tuition as an award.

    • Marketing Research

    Jan 2019

    Intensive Course at Innovation & Technology Center (AUT-INOTEC)

  • Learned about market segmentation, targeting, and positioning to identify and reach key customer groups
  • Executed SWOT analysis, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to inform business strategies

    • Education

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    Master of Science in Computer Science

    Sep 2022 - Aug 2024

    University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

    All Courses:
    Database Management Systems : A+, Data Mining : A, Advanced Natural Langage Processing : A, Advanced Software Engineering : A-,

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    Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

    Sep 2016 - May 2022

    Amirkabir University of technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran

    Selected Courses:
    Artificial Intelligence : A+, Data Mining : A+, Social Media Computing : A+, Data Structures and Algorithms : A+, Logic and Set Theory : A+, Software Design : A+, Theory of Computation : A+, Computer Geometrical Design : A

    Experience Image

    Diploma in Mathematics and Physics

    Sep 2012 - May 2016

    National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET)

    Obtained full marks in both Calculus and Differential Equations exams, which were nationally administered as part of the university admissions assessment for high school students.

    Honors & Awards

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    Alberta Innovates Award

    2024

    A highly competitive award and prestigious honor recognizing innovative scholars for their pioneering work in advancing AI and innovation across various domains.

    Experience Image

    University of Lethbridge Graduate Research Award

    Sep 2022 & Sep 2023

    This award is given to outstanding graduate students at the University of Lethbridge for their excellent research and academic achievements.

    Experience Image

    Coca-Cola Master's Admissions Scholarship

    Oct 2022

    A scholarship awarded to exceptional students entering a master's program, sponsored by Coca-Cola, recognizing academic excellence & potential for future leadership.

    Experience Image

    Scored 316 / 340 on Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

    Oct 2021

    Ranked 79 percentile in the Quantitative Reasoning section among all graduate students who take GRE worldwide

    Experience Image

    Accepted in AUT, Iran’s second-best university

    Sep 2016

    Ranked top 1% in national university entrance exams, accepted into Iran’s second-best university (Based on 2021 QS ranking)

    Experience Image

    Accepted in NODET (National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents)

    Sep 2012

    NODET student selection exam is held annually nationwide for students entering secondary school. The organization is responsible for a number of schools across the country, which train students to a more advanced level in each field of stud

    Talks

    Experience Image

    Machine Learning Design Patterns and Principles

    May 2024

    Google Developer Groups (GDG), Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

    Led a well-received session (hosted by Google Developer Groups) on essential machine learning techniques including data handling, model training, optimization, and project structuring, resulting in a high satisfaction of attendees. The link to the session is available here. I also provided my fellow graduate students and other ML researchers with supplementary information and additional YouTube toturials about the details of handling all the parts of ML projects' pipeline. available here

    Voluntary Works

    Co-VP of Persian Club

    Sep 2023 - Aug 2024

    University of Lethbridge

    Contributed in rectifiying this club by co-hosting weekly meetings for writing the constitution of the club. Organizing festivals, namely Nowruz and Yalda. Holding an orientation for incoming Iranian students. Organizing events and raising awareness about women's rights in the Middle East.

    Assistant Systems Administrator

    Jan 2018 - Nov 2018

    University of Tehran Polytechnic

    This position, which was for two semesters, demanded Computer network skills to maintain the systems functional and have software and tools that students needed for their coursework. I was also helping the students use our on-site printers and connect to the network.

    President of the Office of Students' Affairs

    Aug 2017 - Dec 2017

    University of Tehran Polytechnic

    I served as a liaison between the student body and university administration, expediting requests for new facilities and addressing student concerns. Additionally, I played a role in organizing campus events, including the Ramadan Festival, enhancing cultural engagement.

    Interests & Hobbies

    Coffee with Friends ☕, Running 🏃‍♂️, Violin 🎻, & Philosophy 🧠


  • Enjoy going out for a dinner or coffee with friends to listen to their stories
  • Passionate about running; set the provincial record for a 100-meter competition in 2011
  • Driven by my deep passion for classical music & self-improvement in all dimensions of life, picked violin, one of the most challenging instruments, & achieved pre-intermediate proficiency
  • Studied several books and articles regarding philosophy of mathematics, science, and technology and cognitive science and epistemology, partially under the supervision of Dr. Milad Nouri, which led to improvement of my critical thinking and decision making