HPC Engineer with 9+ years of experience in system architecture and performance optimization for scientific and AI/ML workloads. Focus on translating hardware capabilities into real-world application performance, particularly for large-scale AI/ML training. Experienced in supporting diverse research needs across university clusters, statewide research infrastructure, and custom-built systems.
Experience #
HPC Performance Engineer Research Computing, Northeastern University | Jan 2025 – Present
- Optimizing multi-node PyTorch DDP training on production GPU clusters, tuning NCCL configuration, data loading, and Slurm resource binding
- Building internal tooling that validates cluster health and surfaces misconfigured or degraded nodes
- Supporting researchers with computational workflow optimization across multiple disciplines
GPU Training Benchmarking, AICR Benchmarking Group Massachusetts AI Computing Resource (AICR) | 2026
- Contributed to a statewide AI research infrastructure initiative run separately from Northeastern’s own clusters
- Built an automated multi-node GPU validation suite (PyTorch DDP, NCCL) that confirms nodes operate within expected ranges and surfaces misconfigured or degraded hardware
- Target systems include B200 and RTX PRO 6000 nodes across multi-node configurations
HPC Software Consultant Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Penn State University | Jan 2017 – Dec 2024
- 8 years supporting 500+ researchers across multiple disciplines
- Cluster performance optimization and user support
- Developed containerized environments for reproducible research (Singularity Hub contributor)
- System monitoring, resource allocation, and job optimization
Parallel Computing Support Application Engineer (Internship) MathWorks | Summer 2021
- Optimized parallel computing toolboxes for MATLAB
- Developed performance benchmarks for distributed computing
- Created documentation for HPC integration with MATLAB
Technical Skills #
| Category | Tools |
|---|---|
| Schedulers | Slurm, PBS (job arrays, dependency chains, resource optimization) |
| Parallel Computing | MPI (OpenMPI, Intel MPI), OpenMP, CUDA |
| Storage | NFS (exports, home/scratch), storage layout and data management strategies |
| Containerization | Singularity/Apptainer, Docker, Podman |
| Automation | Ansible, Bash scripting, system provisioning |
| Monitoring & Validation | Performance metrics, profiling, automated cluster health checking (HPL, PyTorch DDP validation) |
| Languages | Python, C/C++, MATLAB, Shell scripting; Fortran (reading and debugging legacy scientific code) |
| Version Control | Git |
| Performance | Profiling, optimization, bottleneck analysis |
Projects #
| Project | Description |
|---|---|
| HPC From Scratch | 6-node cluster from consumer hardware. Slurm, Ansible, NFS, FreeIPA, Lmod. |
| PyTorch DDP Benchmark | Multi-GPU/multi-node distributed training scaling benchmark for HPC clusters. [GitHub] |
| pkg_audit | RPM package consistency audit tool with Slurm partition sweep and Ansible remediation. [GitHub] |
| 4D LiDAR SLAM Optimization | Parallelized point cloud processing for real-time ROS 2 performance |
| Side Projects (upcoming) | Game of Life web app, browser poker, ESP32-P4 thermal camera |
Other Engineering Projects
NIST First Responder UAS Indoor Challenge (2022) Award: 3rd place + First Responder’s Choice (Prize: $80,000) Custom quadcopter for GPS-denied indoor emergency scenarios. [nist.gov]
VFS Design-Build-Vertical Flight Student Competition (2021 and 2022) Award: 3rd place (2022), 1st place in preliminary reports + Best Computational Simulation Award (2021). [engr.psu.edu]
9th and 10th ESA Global Trajectory Optimization Competition (2017 and 2019) Developed parallel algorithms for complex trajectory optimization. [psu.edu]
Education #
The Pennsylvania State University
| Degree | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PhD, Aerospace Engineering | 2024 | Minor in Computational Science. Dissertation: Multiple Gravity-Assist Trajectory Design with Continuous-Thrust Synergetic Maneuvers |
| MS, Aerospace Engineering | 2015 | Minor in Computational Science. Thesis: Optimal Orbit Raising via Particle Swarm Optimization |
| BS, Aerospace Engineering | 2013 |
Talks & Workshops #
See the Talks page for details.
| Talk | Venue | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Software Installation | Northeastern University | Summer 2026 |
| Introduction to Parallel Computing | Northeastern University | Spring 2026 |
| Linux Essentials for HPC Researchers | Northeastern University | Spring 2026 |
| Teaching Assistant – Aerospace Analysis, Programming for Engineers | Penn State University | 2015–2016 |