Nigel Lu

M.S. in Computer Science

Sep 2023 - Present

NYU Tandon, New York, U.S.

Cumulative GPA: 3.88/4.0

B.S. in Data Science & Business and Finance

Sep 2019 - May 2023

NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China

Cumulative GPA: 3.91/4.0

Minor in Computer Science

B.S. Data Science & Business and Finance

Sep 2021 - May 2022

New York University, NY, US

Studyaway Year at NYU CAS & NYU Stern

Few-Shot Segmentation with Adaptive Data Augmentation and Cross Attention

NYU Shanghai

Mar 2022 - May 2023

• Research Assistant advised by Professor Guo Li
• Proposed an instance-aware data augmentation strategy to improve support image diversity and reduce distribution inconsistency between query and support images in low-data regimes
• Incorporated a cross attention module with 4-D dense correlation refined by local consensus constraints to align query and support features for improved generalization ability
• Set up a neat and re-usable visualization code module to help verify and visualize the results of the proposed model. And build a neat and scalable codebase for few-shot segmentation research in PyTorch
• Co-authored a paper and submitted to the arXiv
• link

Evaluating Parameter-Efficient Tuning Methods in Low-Data Regimes

New York University

Sep 2021 - Dec 2021

• Course Project mentored by Professor Sam Bowman
• Reproduced four SOTA parameter-efficient tuning methods based on HuggingFace and OpenDelta libraries. Then evaluate the performance of these methods on various NLP tasks (e.g., sentiment analysis, Q&A, etc.) with different portions of training samples provided
• Verified that a parameter-efficient tuning method with a larger ratio of tunable parameters generally results in a better performance across NLP tasks, but usually converges slower regardless of the sufficiency of data

Multimodal Online Student Engagement Dataset

SMART-LAB NYU Abu Dhabi

May 2021 - March 2022

• Research Assistant advised by Professor Hanan Salam
• Proposed and built an online learning engagement detection dataset along with post-class survey results and open to research community
• Established a CNN-RNN based on PyTorch, OpenCV and OpenFace, hybrid baseline model for spatial and temporal processing
• Investigated the correlation between post-class self-evaluation results and personality surveys to provide insights on how personality may relate to engagement level in online learning. Apply various significance tests (e.g., T-test) to verify the potential correlations discovered
• Co-authored a paper and submitted to the Nuclear Physics B journal in Nov 2022
• link

Real-time Object Detection in Autonomous Driving Scenarios

New York University

Sep 2021 - Dec 2021

• Course Project mentored by Professor Augustin Cosse
• Pre-processed and prepared CityScape dataset for object detection under autonomous driving scenarios (e.g., remove classes irrelevant to autonomous driving). Then Fine-tune YOLOv3 model on the prepared dataset: by freezing the feature extraction backbone DarkNet53 and fine-tuning the feature pyramid network to better detect what matters in driving situations
• Achieved a detection frame rate of 42 on personal computer, with a mAP of 49.6% when transferred to testing images outside CityScape dataset

Teaching Volunteer

Stepping Stones, China

Sep 2019 - June 2020

Minhang, Shanghai, China

• Taught English on weekends for a class of 52 elementary-level migrant children
• Prepared each week's course, including designing and making the course materials, communicating with local teachers

Nuclear Physics B

Hanan Salam, Saloni Rakholiya, Jialin Li, Nigel Lu (my preferred English name). Multimodal Online Student Engagement (MOSE) Dataset for Studying Personality and Engagement. Submitted to the Nuclear Physics B, November 2022

link

CVPR 2023

Li Guo, Haoming Liu, Chengyu Zhang, Yuxuan Xia, Xiaochen Lu, and Zhenxing Niu. Boosting Few-Shot Segmentation via Instance-Aware Data Augmentation and Local Consensus Guided Cross Attention.

link

Graduate Assistant

The Learning and Teaching Nexus, NYU SPS

Jan 2024 - Present

New York, NY

• Co-hosted over 20 educational workshops and Zoomside chats, leveraging digital communication tools to enhance NYU SPS faculty's understanding of learning design tools, resulting in a 30% improvement in the overall learning experience.
• Conducted data analysis on Nexus's performance metrics (e.g., email reply rate, faculty feedback, monthly performance) using Python Pandas to identify key areas for improvement. This analytical approach led to a 25% increase in faculty satisfaction and a 15% improvement in email response efficiency.
• Managed and updated the Nexus Wix site, employing web development skills to ensure the availability of valuable resources, supporting over 200 faculty and student engagements monthly and enhancing resource accessibility by 50%.

Full-stack Engineer

Kaizntree Co.

Sep 2021 - Mar 2022 & Sep 2023 - Feb 2024

New York, NY & Remote

Established a startup building a one-stop management platform for small businesses (visit Kaizntree website here)

• Kaizntree Small Business Management Platform

  Built a one-stop management solution for small businesses using Vue.js, Django Rest Framework, and PostgreSQL, earning 10+ happy customers by reducing their time spent on management tasks from 15 to just 2 hours per week

  2-way integrated with 4 major sales channels using OAuth2, including Shopify, Square, Etsy, and Xero, and automated stock sync across platforms, putting an end to the cumbersome manual updates and stock inconsistency on different channels

  Led Kaizntree's development team and adopted Scrum Development, Circle CI/CD with Heroku to minimize friction throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC), enabling Kaizntree to address customer feedback 40% faster and continuously rolling out new features

Software Engineering Intern

eBay Inc.

Cloud Infrastructure Team

Sep 2022 - Jul 2023

Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China

Contributed to eBay's efficiency and security through innovative software solutions.

• Average-Time-to-Business (ATB) Dashboard

  Proposed and implemented an Average-Time-to-Business (ATB) dashboard using Redux, React.js, and Django to monitor cluster statuses and send checkout alerts, reducing crisis response time by 25% and boosting service availability from 99.14% to 99.8%

• KeyHub (eBay community's encrypted email UI for password exchanges)

  Led the refactorization of KeyHub to conform to the latest OpenPGP standard and Antd V5.0, patching 60+ security vulnerabilities

  Integrated KeyHub to eBay's Cloud Console using TypeScript, JS-plugin, and Redux, streamlining the encrypted password exchange process for over 100 eBay infrastructure engineers

• L7 Rule Configuration UI

  Orchestrated an intuitive UI with auto-filling for over 85% of the fields to streamline the L7 rule configuring process for eBay's Kubernetes (K8s) clusters, increasing efficiency by more than 70% and minimizing potential human errors in the loop

Chinese Admissions Ambassador

NYU Shanghai

Oct 2019 - May 2023

Pudong, Shanghai, China

• Collaborated with different departments in holding events, online panels, presenting weekly campus tours in representation of NYU Shanghai
• Assisted in the admission process by performing data analysis on incoming student applications and providing quantitative insights

Software Engineering Intern

Jiangsu Expsoft Ltd.

May 2021 - Sep 2021

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

• Expsoft Auditing Platform

  Leveraged the power of Springboot and Maven to build resilient and user-friendly auditing platforms for governments and civil construction companies

  Recognized for securing a high-value project worth $250,000, showcasing the value of the software

• Expsoft Civil Engineering NLP Segmentation Service

  Built a NLP segmentation tree API specialized in civil and construction engineering setting, and deployed it as a web-based system to Alibaba Cloud

• Expsoft Anti-spoofing Face Detection System

  Built a liveness anti-spoofing detection network using MobileNetV2 as feature extraction backbone network and DeepFace library from FaceBook (now changed name to Meta) as face recognition API

  Built and deployed the final product as a RESTful Spring Boot web application

Resident Assistant

NYU Shanghai

Aug 2020 - Jun 2021

Pudong, Shanghai, China

• Oversaw a residence hall with 688 residents
• Developed a safe and inclusive community for 49 students; Collaborate with a team of 31 people on implementing programs and administrative responsibilities; Assess and respond to crisis situations