Experience

Professional journey and technical expertise

Professional Experience

UCLA StarAI Lab logo

AI Researcher

UCLA StarAI Lab

Los Angeles, CA

Sept 2025 - Present
  • Building production web platform for AI researchers to explore 20 years of Knowledge Compilation research (public demo: kcm.kahdian.com)
  • Partnering with PhD researchers to design features based on real user feedback
  • Engineered algorithms eliminating 90% of manual data entry and 99% of human-generated errors
  • Streamlined testing and release processes, saving 50+ hours of manual work
TypeScriptSvelteKitAWSGitHub ActionsLaTeX
UCLA Garrick Institute for Risk Sciences logo

Software Engineering Intern

UCLA Garrick Institute for Risk Sciences

Los Angeles, CA

June 2025 - Sept 2025
  • Saved 100+ hours of recurring data entry tasks by scripting conversion of 4 proprietary data types
  • Validated and processed 5,000+ risk event datasets for Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (provides 23% of California's clean energy)
  • Collaborated with a cross-functional team of 5 engineers on a 100,000+ line production codebase
C++PythonDjangoSeleniumReactGitLabDocker

Education

University of California, Los Angeles

Computer Engineering B.S., Applied Mathematics B.S.

Los Angeles, CA

Timeline: Flexible (B.S. completion target June 2027; potential M.S. path through 2028)

GPA: 3.96

Honor Societies & Leadership

  • National Merit Scholar (L3Harris corporate scholarship)
  • Dean's Honors List all quarters

Relevant Coursework

Software ConstructionAlgorithms & ComplexityLinear Programming (Graduate-Level)Convex Optimization (Graduate-Level)Complex Analysis (Honors)Probability Theory IProbability Theory II (In Progress)Artificial Intelligence (In Progress)Computing Theory (In Progress)Neural Networks & Deep Learning II (In Progress)Numerical MethodsComputer Organization

Technical Skills

Programming Languages

C/C++PythonJavaScript/TypeScriptJavaSQLBashMATLAB

AI/ML & LLM

OpenAI APIGemini APITensorFlowscikit-learnNumPyPandasAgentic AI

Web Technologies

ReactAngularSvelteNode.jsExpressDjangoSpring Boot

Data & Analytics

MatplotlibPostgreSQLMongoDBExcelData Pipelines

Tools & Platforms

GitGitHub ActionsDockerAWS (EC2, RDS)Distributed SystemsLinuxVSCodeJupyterSelenium

Key Achievements

3.96

Current GPA

100+

Hours Saved Through Automation

2nd

Place Congressional App Challenge

David Kahdian

Builder. Problem solver.

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