EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 8/18-5/23
Los Angeles, CA
PhD Student, Computer Science
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 8/18-5/20
Los Angeles, CA
Masters of Computer Science
GPA 4.0/4.0
CORNELL UNIVERSITY 8/14-5/18
Ithaca, NY
BS Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Computer Science
GPA 3.77/4.0
EXPERIENCE Graduate Research Assistant 8/18-Present
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Advised by Prof. Maja Matarić, Interaction Lab
• Compared models of synchrony with unimodal and multimodal data from infant-mother play videos
• Evaluated a Bayesian low-level surprise model as a predictor of infant eye gaze
Data Science Intern 6/20-8/20
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, CA
Advised by Dr. Umaa Rebbapragada, Machine Learning and Instrument Autonomy Group
• Developed an approach using gradient boosting to predict lock times at NASA’s Deep Space Network
Undergraduate Research Assistant 2/17-5/18
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Advised by Prof. Guy Hoffman, Human Robot Collaboration and Companionship Lab
• Created a system to collect physiological data to assess participant anxiety during a stressful task
• Conducted a study to explore how personality predicts users’ preferred commands to a home robot
Software/Systems Engineering Intern 6/17-8/17
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, CA
• Developed JavaScript code within a web application to automate and visualize the selection of
electronic hardware for spacecraft during the initial mission design process
Independent Study in Engineering Communication 2/17-5/17
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Conducted research on undergraduates’ strategies for preparation of technical presentations
Manufacturing Engineering Intern 8/16-12/16
Tesla, Fremont, CA
• Improved the overall efficiency of a cold stamping line through design and process changes
Student Project Team Engineer 9/14-5/16
Cornell University Unmanned Air Systems, Ithaca, NY
• Created a model to determine the optimal time to drop a rescue package from a drone
Chemical Lab Technician 6/15-8/15
Oil-Dri Corporation of America, Vernon Hills, IL
• Led a project to characterize bleaching earth products of both Oil-Dri and its competitors
COURSEWORK • Multimodal Probabilistic Learning of Human Communication • Machine Learning for Data Science
• Computational Human-Robot Interaction • Advanced Analysis of Algorithms • AI for Social Good
• Introduction to Computer Vision • Haptic Interfaces and Virtual Environments • Discrete Structures
• Data-Driven Web Applications • Systems Programming • Object Oriented Programming
OUTREACH Volunteer Interviewer 2/19-Present
Robohub
• Conducted 10+ interviews with robotics researchers, released throughout 2019 and 2020
Volunteer Robotics Teaching Assistant 9/18-5/19
Help Group STEM3 Academy, Culver City, CA
• Helped advise a classroom of 10-15 middle school students with social or learning differences
• Organized robotics demonstration days with presentations by roboticists in research and industry
AWARDS WiSE Qualcomm Top-Off Award (2020/21) 2020
Computing Community Consortium CS for Social Good White Paper Competition Runner Up Award: 2019
“A Computational Approach to Earlier Detection and Intervention for Infants with Developmental Disabilities”
Annenberg Graduate Fellowship, USC Viterbi School of Engineering 2018
Roger K. Berman Memorial Fund Certificate of Excellence in Professional Presentations 2017
Cornell Co-op Certificate of Distinguished Honor 2017
PUBLICATIONS Klein, L., Ardulov, V., Hu, Y. Soleymani, M. Gharib, A. Thompson, B. Levitt, P. Matarić, M.J. (2020).
Incorporating Measures of Intermodal Coordination in Automated Analysis of Infant-Mother
Interaction. In 2020 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction.
Klein, L., Itti, L., Smith, B. A., Rosales, M., Nikolaidas, S., and Matarić, M. J. (2019). Surprise! Predicting
Infant Visual Attention in a Socially Assistive Robot Contingent Learning Paradigm. 2019 International
Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). IEEE.
Nathans-Kelly, T., Evans, R., Klein, L., & Zhang, J. (2017). We WOVE, We Designed, We Conquered:
Assessing Engineering Self-Efficacy in a Mechanical Engineering Communication Initiative—Instructor and
Student Perspectives. 2017 International Professional Communication Conference. IEEE.
SKILLS Development: Python, JavaScript, Java, MATLAB, Git, OpenCV, C++, VBA
Research: Data Visualization, User Studies, Technical Writing, Statistical Analysis with R and Python