Nigel Lu

M.S. in Computer Science

Sep 2023 - Present

NYU Tandon, New York, U.S.

B.S. in Data Science & Business and Finance

Sep 2019 - May 2023

NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China

Cumulative GPA: 3.908

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 - Present

• Research Assistant advised by Professor Guo Li
• Propose an instance-aware data augmentation strategy to improve support image diversity and reduce distribution inconsistency between query and support images in low-data regimes
• Incorporate 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-author a paper which has been submitted to the conference of CVPR 2023

Evaluating Parameter-Efficient Tuning Methods in Low-Data Regimes

New York University

Sep 2021 - Dec 2021

• Course Project mentored by Professor Sam Bowman
• Reproduce 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
• Verify and conclude 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
• Build an online learning engagement detection dataset along with post-class survey results and open to research community
• Based on PyTorch, OpenCV and OpenFace, establish a CNN-RNN hybrid baseline model for spatial and temporal processing
• Investigate 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-author a paper which has been submitted to the Nuclear Physics B journal in Nov 2022

Real-time Object Detection in Autonomous Driving Scenarios

New York University

Sep 2021 - Dec 2021

• Course Project mentored by Professor Augustin Cosse
• Pre-process and prepare 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

• Teaching English on weekends for a class of 52 elementary-level migrant children
• Prepare 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

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. Submitted to the 2023 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR).

Software Engineering Intern

eBay Inc.

IE Team, CCoE

Sep 2022 - Jul 2023

Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China

Built, improved, and redesigned some of eBay's cloud platform UIs

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

  Conceptualized and proposed a web-based ATB dashboard for real-time monitoring of clusters and ongoing change requests (CRs), enabling efficient tracking of past issues and reducing issue/crisis response time on cloud servers

  Spearheaded the development of the ATB dashboard as a Redux-powered ReactJS application

  Benefited over 100 infrastructure engineers by significantly improving incident response time, streamlining rollout processes, and improving operational efficiency

• KeyHub (encrypted email UI for password exchanges)

  Led the migration of eBay's KeyHub UI from Vue to React to align with eBay's tech stack.

  Upgraded KeyHub's encryption library to conform with the latest OpenPGP standard, fortifying security for password exchange across eBay's infrastructure team

  Integrated KeyHub into eBay's cloud console UI using JS-Plugin, promoting cohesive and smooth user experiences

• L7 Rule Configuration UI

  Orchestrated an intuitive UI for automating L7 rule configuration for eBay's cloud platform powered by Kubernetes, reducing configuration time by more than 70%

  Engineered real-time form validation via API and a seamless form auto-filling mechanism

Full-stack Engineer

Kaizntree Ltd.

Sep 2021 - Sep 2022

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 comprehensive management platform powered by VueJS, Django, and PostgreSQL for 50+ small businesses, seamlessly integrating with major sales channels like Shopify, Square, Etsy, Xerox, etc.

  Combined Django's backend wizardry with agile development (scrum) and CI/CD, allowing Kaizntree to resolve customer feedbacks under 48 hours and build a wholesale workflow from scratch within two weeks

• NYU Summer Launchpad

  Stood out in the 2023 NYU Summer Launchpad program and won the 2023 NYU x Yale Startup Competition, a testament to Kaizntree team's dedication and strong technical foundation

  Secured a $10,000 non-dilutive funding and $15,000 in AWS credits

Chinese Admissions Ambassador

NYU Shanghai

Oct 2019 - Present

Pudong, Shanghai, China

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

DevOps 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

Deep Learning Intern

Jiangsu Expsoft Ltd.

Sep 2021 - Dec 2021

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

• Built a NLP segmentation tree API specialized in civil and construction engineering setting, and deployed it as a web-based system with UI and API
• Using MobileNetV2 as feature extraction backbone network, build a liveness anti-spoofing detection network, and deploy it as a system with UI and API; Build a face recognition API based on DeepFace library from FaceBook (now changed name to Meta)

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