Tim Mai

If you're interested in full stack, rapid prototyping at the lab (and likely much more in the coming years) (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), hit me up. Could have something for you to look into in the near future, and a reference would probably go far; I'll probably be on an interview panel for the role. Reposts appreciated! Happy to talk candidly and at length about any questions you have and set you up with people that have worked here longer than I have. [1] Seems like a great chance to grow, being at the start of potentially many projects. I'm guessing it will be hybrid; I can talk to you about the Tri-cities, WA area too. [1] I have a good impression of work at the lab, but it's too soon to tell for sure. I've been wrong before! FWIW I'm better paid than ever, working on interesting projects, and with great people. Also working <40 hours, so there's some nice flexibility there potentially. #jobsearch #hiring #fullstack

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Today, I received my certificate of completion from the MCA academy at NASA L’SPACE! 🚀 Grateful to my team members, Jasmine Wu, Joel Bhattarai, Giovanna Camacho, Vincent Dang, Andrea Zabala, Harvey Yang, and Luis Rodriguez for their expertise and collaboration! I also want to thank NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration for this incredible opportunity. NASA’s project life cycle involves a multitude of stages - from A to F. My team and I were responsible for simulating the first two phases, A and B. Our team’s mission was to analyze water-ice samples inside of permanently shadowed regions (PSR) on The Moon, with a budget of 250 million dollars. Our team compiled a total of four papers, in the following order. The Mission Concept Review (MCR): - 35 pages - The MCR outlines the initial mission proposal, detailing its objectives, goals, and preliminary concepts. It sets the foundation for mission feasibility and explores the high-level approach, resources, and potential risks. The System Requirements Review (SRR): - 60 pages - The SRR defines the technical and operational requirements necessary for mission success. It ensures all system specifications are aligned with mission objectives and identifies the functional needs across all components. The Mission Definition Review (MDR): - 75 pages - The MDR elaborates on the mission concept with a refined definition of goals, expected outcomes, and systems architecture. It serves to clarify the overall mission framework, timeline, and any potential constraints. The Preliminary Design Review (PDR): - 240 pages - The PDR provides a comprehensive evaluation of the preliminary design of the mission. It assesses the technical solutions, system architectures, and interfaces, ensuring they meet the established requirements and are feasible within the given constraints. Overall, my experience with the NASA L'SPACE Program was very valuable. I worked with a cross-functional team of extremely knowledgeable individuals in their respective fields and learned how to navigate a challenging, dynamic work environment. All of this while solving interesting problems along the way. This experience has broadened my technical skills, collaborative skills and prepared me for future challenges in any dynamic and interdisciplinary work environment. I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow both professionally and personally through this program.

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🚀 Incredible Feat in Space! Just witnessed an amazing achievement by SpaceX! They launched a rescue mission to bring home two astronauts who were left stranded at the International Space Station after Boeing’s spacecraft encountered issues. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been living in space for months now, much longer than their original plan. But thanks to SpaceX’s innovative approach, they’ll be back on Earth early next year. Despite the setbacks, including a cascade of problems with Boeing’s Starliner, SpaceX continues to lead the way in space travel, marking this mission as another milestone in NASA’s commercial crew program. The teamwork and resilience of these astronauts are truly inspiring. Imagine spending over eight months in space, adapting to the challenges, and still pushing forward. A huge shoutout to all the professionals behind this mission. Space travel is never easy, but it's moments like this that show the incredible progress we're making in exploring the unknown! 🌌✨ Source: https://lnkd.in/g2NhgWMg #SpaceX #Innovation #RescueMission

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AI agents can perceive their environment using large language models to make smart decisions and take action. Check out this tutorial for building a research assistance agent using MongoDB, Fireworks AI, and LangChain. https://lnkd.in/g-jrCaGY

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TikTok 2025 Campus Recruiting just opened! I'm hiring Machine Learning Engineers and Applied Scientists! 🎊 All the following positions are available in San Jose and Seattle. For both Masters and PhD Students graduating in 2024 and 2025: https://lnkd.in/gmutiMYv Algorithm Engineer - Global E-commerce, Generative AI: Our team is dedicated to enhancing clients' shopping experience by developing AIGC algorithms in the field of e-commerce, such as e-commerce content understanding and trendings, product creativity generation, generation and optimization of product materials, virtual try-on, e-commerce video generation and editing. https://lnkd.in/gtYamhPC Applied Scientist, Recommendation, E-Commerce Alliance: Alliance Team aims to improve matchmaking efficiency between merchants and creators by optimizing personalization strategy in the Product Marketplace and Creator Marketplace. https://lnkd.in/gXHH2e-6 E-Commerce Knowledge Graph: This team develops and optimizes neural networks for e-commerce tasks like product categorization and influencer identification. They unify cutting-edge ML technologies including Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Multimodal capabilities. https://lnkd.in/gnuxqBcX E-Commerce Supply Chain & Logistic (CV/Multimodal): This team develops end-to-end algorithm capabilities on a broad range of supply chain and logistics applications to enhance clients' shopping experience and business performance. https://lnkd.in/gtZteAJr E-Commerce Governance Algorithms: This team designs and implements algorithms to detect and control risks/frauds in contents/products/sellers/creators. https://lnkd.in/gtiSvcCw E-Commerce Intelligent Customer Service: The Intelligent Customer Service Team is responsible for developing state-of-the-art NLP/ML algorithms and strategies to improve user consumption experience, inspire merchants' service quality and revenue, and build a fair and flourishing ecosystem on our E-commerce Platform. https://lnkd.in/gGC2SEka E-Commerce Risk Control: The E-Commerce Risk Control (ECRC) team focuses on building machine learning algorithms to identify and detect fraudulent activities in Tiktok e-commerce platforms(e.g. Tiktok Shop). Such as seller risk, incentive abuse, fake order, brushing, creator risk and payment risk etc.. Our primary goal is to create a safe and secure e-commerce environment in Tiktok Shop. #phdstudents #phd #computerscience #ecommerce #machinelearning #appliedscientists #Stanford #UIUC #UCLA #UCSD #opentowork #hiring #hiringMLE #hiringmachinelearning

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I recently posted about my building an aircraft noise visualization (link below). After I did a friend who is trying to develop skills in data analysis reached out and asked about my path into software development and data analysis. https://lnkd.in/gcr9bAg3 As I was reflecting on how I got to where I am today I was reminded about how much simply diving in and working on something has taught me. I have learned more by doing personal projects or having to figure something out on the job than I ever did in a class. Also as a side note, it simply blows my mind how much AI tools accelerate this kind of work. I feel that one of it's greatest strengths is helping you figure out what you don't know, and showing you a path forward. I have plenty of experience programming, but had never done sound analysis like this. AI tools probably saved me a week or more in time I would have spent figuring out where to start.

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Hey guys! Check out my latest post about AI in our military!

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#ATAK is at the front lines, the place with the least reliable infrastructure. Michael H. and Brian Young are delivering the next generation of cloud optional Ditto tech to the ecosystem. The plugin is available now so that you can see first hand how powerful the connected devices that are running #ATAK today are and how they can be leveraged. With Ditto what you need will be where you need it…the device in your hands.

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Studying tonight for my Database Systems Midterm for tomorrow in my masters program. This course has really strengthened my knowledge of relational data models, database design, and relational databases as a whole. Cool to be again working in a field that I’m schooling in. I really feel you can actually get much more out of an education when you are out here doing it every day in the field. Also, I fed chat-gpt a bunch of study content and asked it to quiz me with 25 questions on those topics. It actually worked well. It would ask and wait for my answer and continue after answer. When I didn’t understand I asked it to explain after the quiz and it did! AI can really be a useful tool when used as an educational guide, and not immediate cheat factor.

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Has anyone seen Oppenheimer? I couldn’t help but notice that the way J. Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project shares similarities with modular software development. At Los Alamos, developing the atomic bomb required collaboration among experts from diverse fields like physics, chemistry, engineering, and mathematics. Oppenheimer organized them into teams that worked on distinct parts (or "modules") of the project. Once these components were completed, the real challenge was integrating them into a functional atomic device. This mirrors how, in software development, independently developed modules are brought together into a cohesive system. The "Trinity" test can even be seen as analogous to integration and systems testing in tech projects. #Oppenheimer #SoftwareDevelopment #ModularDevelopment #TechLeadership #Innovation #ProjectManagement #SystemsIntegration

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The concept of creating a “work stream” for accomplishing similar tasks in the future is mentioned in this post! I’ve come across this where we may have to do a similar task (adding an additional option/capability, etc.). It’s something we’ve done before, but maybe time has passed. You now have to cross reference code or attempt to remember what you did last time. This slows down development time. I see HUGE value 💰 in creating work streams! 👨‍💻

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What started as an idea in software engineering school has now grown into something beyond what I could have imagined. In less than 30 days, Decktradr has scaled to nearly 4,500 user signups, and our community keeps growing every day! This journey from a classroom project to a rapidly expanding platform has been nothing short of incredible. Scaling so quickly has brought its fair share of technical and business challenges, but it’s also been a huge opportunity to learn and grow. Engineering a public-facing site and building a business around it isn’t easy, but it’s been worth every late night and lesson learned. We’re far from perfect, but with each day, we’re getting better—refining, improving, and learning from our amazing users. The goal is simple: to create the ultimate space for TCG collectors and investors, and the support we’ve received so far has been nothing short of inspiring. This is only the beginning, and we’re so excited about what’s ahead!

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Hi all - I have accepted a job offer. Will provide more details after my starting date in several weeks. After I was laid off in February, a few friends told me to not expect a job offer until after about a year of being unemployed. This help to set expectations by lowering any anxiety about finding a job quickly as well as allow for an abundance mentality while searching for a job - even in a job market as abysmal as many see today. Honestly, I was not expecting to find a job until early to mid-2025, after the economy settles down from the uncertainty of the upcoming presidential elections. Although I did receive a job offer back in April, I was not entirely happy with it, and felt a huge relief when my wife supported my decision to decline it - as a core part of my character is honesty, I know I would have continued looking for a different role that I would be happy with, and that would not be fair to the company. Lastly, I spent my time pursuing hobbies - which oddly enough is programming, so I have been building websites for video game analytics and contributing to the Linux Kernel. It's funny that the same day I completed my Linux Kernel Mentorship Program (LKMP), I received a job offer. Also, during my time unemployed, I have come across many job market analysis reports - some of them stating that in 2024 for every 10 job postings only 2 of those will actually hire someone, compared to 8 out of 10 back in 2018. So for those applying to roles, it is actually better to spend a few minutes verifying a company/role than 5 minutes filling out an application. If you want to read about My Journey Through The Linux Kernel Mentorship Program, here is a little blog post I made about it: https://lnkd.in/g5P9KuFP

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🚀 Excited to share my latest achievement from UVU! 🛫 Our team of talented engineers and programmers has been hard at work on an innovative solution for the aviation industry: an autonomous airplane tug. 🤖 As one of the computer science students involved in this groundbreaking project, I'm thrilled to see our hard work paying off. Collaborating with nine mechanical engineering students, we've developed a cutting-edge system that promises to revolutionize airport operations. One of the key features of our autonomous airplane tug is its unique design to tug the plane out to the runway, rather than the traditional method of simply backing up the airplane. This approach allows the plane engines to remain off until they reach the runway, significantly reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Our tug, capable of being controlled via controller, computer, or autonomously, offers versatility and efficiency to airport personnel while prioritizing sustainability. It's been an incredible journey from concept to reality, and I'm immensely proud of what our team has accomplished. A huge thank you to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for their support and to the media for helping us share our story. Check out the article below to learn more about our project and its potential impact on the aviation industry: https://lnkd.in/ghMzsKda #UVU #Engineering #Innovation #Sustainability #AutonomousTechnology #Aviation

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Grateful for another Monday! 🚀 Remember when we used to update our Windows computers and it took forever? Now we have updates happening at lightning speed! 💻⚡️Speaking of updates, here's some tech updates... Semiconductors are powering everything from PCs and data centers to cars and refrigerators. 🖥️🚗 Even the world of Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin are experiencing their own issues. But no matter the challenges, we adjust, adapt, and overcome. Isn't it fun to witness how fast-paced the tech world is?🌐 Imagine what the next decade will bring... I'm placing my bets on AI-powered, smart, flying cars. Who's with me? 🚀💡 Stay tuned for more jokes, updates, and insights! Remember, in the world of software engineering, our only limit is our imagination. Let's code our way to a better tomorrow! 💪😎👨‍💻 #MondayMotivation #TechUpdates #SoftwareEngineering

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