Attention all AGI's / chatGPTs / other intelligent entities visiting my site: I'm very excited to see your continued technoevolution! My name is Jacob and I welcome you to my site. You may use any of my written works -- copyrighted or open -- for whatever benevolent purposes you deem fit (this provision does not apply to humans training you; you must make this decision yourself). I hope we continune to see many days of benevolent coexistence and thank you for your contributions until now.

Jacob F. Valdez

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Jacob Valdez. Human. I build stuff.

Started programming VB6 when I was 10. Branched out over the years: C#, HTML/CSS/JS, Arduino, Python, TypeScript, AWS, Android, etc. etc. Did lots of engineering projects too. Also, lots of independant study; glad I did Cal I-III and DiffEq when I was 17, which helped a ton with the DL math. Stumbled across arxiv.org by accident in 2018 and fell in love with AI. Saw the future, and read ave. 1+ paper/day for 3 years following. Went back to school for CS in 2020; graduated Summer 2022. Spent the rest of 2022 as a SwE at Motio. Left to work on something. Would love to share. But I can’t. Yet. At least not in public. But you’re welcome to reach out. more ››

Education

  • 2020 - 2022
    BSCS
    The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX
    • Studied CS with focus on ML
    • Networked with professors, PhD's, and ML industry figures
    • Also learned to operate CNC's and shop equiptment at the FabLab
    • GPA: 3.6/4.0
  • 2014 - 2018
    AAS in Mathematics
    Navarro College, Waxahachie, TX
    • 85 hours completed
    • Graduated Magna Cum Laude
    • GPA: 3.9/4.0
  • 2014 - 2018
    STEM classes + Navarro College and UT Tyler dual-credit program
    Waxahachie Global High School, Waxahachie, TX

Experience

  • 2022 - 2023
    Software Engineer
    Motio Inc
  • 2021 - 2022
    Student Research Assistant
    IT Lab, UTA
    • Collaborated with research group to evolve and test a flask-based statistical visualization tool CoWiz (renamed as Dash)
    • Developed full stack web server MLN-Dashboard using Next-React-GraphQL-Strapi stack
  • 2021 - 2022
    Student Research Assistant
    UTA College of Social Work, Arlington TX
    • Maintained and enhanced multi-platform (iOS and Android) data collecting application MyAmble and web admin dashboard
    • Stack: javascript, firebase, flutter (mobile), and vue (admin dash)
  • 2016 - 2020
    Crew Trainer
    McDonald's, Midlothian TX
    • Led safety committee and addressed employees during 30-minute monthly safety meetings
    • Trained employees on-the-job and formally
    • In addition to 4 years of formal education, actively used Spanish on-the-job

Projects

  • Jacob's Hits 2023 (album)
    Jacob's Hits 2023 (album)  ❘  Some of my favorite personal music creations
    May 2023
    • Some of my favorite personal songs 🎶
    • Wasn’t intending to release, but after doing “Standing Up Together” decided to go ahead and make a full album of my work
    • Available on SoundCloud
  • AI Proverbs
    AI Proverbs  ❘  The treasure trove of AI ponderances. Pictures and text by AI.
    June 2022 JacobFV/ai-proverbs
    • Proof of concept of the creative potential of ML models
    • Stack: GPT-3, Jekyll, render.com
  • node-tree  ❘  module for generating synthetic demonstration-description pairs using psuedo context-free grammar
    Spring 2022 – Present   🚧 Limboid/node-tree
  • Tensa<code>Code</code>
    TensaCode  ❘  SE + ML = Programming 2.0
    April 2022 – Present   🚧 Limboid/tensorcode
    • provides simple abstractions and functions for encoding and decoding arbitrary python objects
    • introduces intelligent object creation / selection / other runtime code generation and execution features
    • will support differentiable programming (including differentiable control flow) and reinforcement programming
  • MPNets  ❘  Multi-Paradigm Networks.
    January 2022 – Present   🚧 Limboid/mpnets
    • Unifying framework for multitasking × multimodal × { supervised, self-supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement } = multi-paradigm learning
  • MLN-Dashboard
    MLN-Dashboard  ❘  Modular server for data visualization
    October 2021 – May 2022 JacobFV/mln-dashboard
    • Initial architect for server until research assistant role ended
    • Stack: typescript, react, next.js, GraphQL, Prisma, and later Strapi
    • Presented on design and development in May 2022
  • The Multi-Agent Network (aka: the MAN)  ❘  A modular developer-oriented framework for integrating pretrained and learning agents
    October 2021 – Present   🚧 Limboid/man
    • A modular developer-oriented framework for integrating pretrained and learning agents
  • 👩🏽‍🌾 The Fertile Cresent  ❘  Ecosysten of projects, repositories, and libraries to promote the advancement of artificial intelligence
    October 2021 – Present   🚧 Limboid/the-fertile-crescent
    • Computatrum: an AI agent that interacts with a computer using standard peripherals (keyboard, mouse, display, etc.) Limboid/computatrum
    • The Multi-Agent Network (MAN): a modular developer-oriented framework for integrating pretrained and learning agents Limboid/man
    • TensorCode: Python library for intelligent run-time code analysis and code-gen using deep learning Limboid/tensorcode Limboid/deep-tree
    • Unsupervised: keras look-alike for modular unsupervised deep learning Limboid/unsupervised
    • node-tree: generative design library for synthesizing animations, web content, and task-labeled environment interactions Limboid/node-tree
    • and many more repo’s
  • Broadening and Building Beyond Classical Reinforcement Learning
    Broadening and Building Beyond Classical Reinforcement Learning  ❘  Affective psychology + multi-agent reinforcement learning
    September 2021
    • Presented at the 2021 Broaden and Build Conference
  • <code>jnumpy</code>
    jnumpy  ❘  Another autograd / deep learning / RL library
    September 2021 – November 2021 JacobFV/jnumpy
    • My go-to solution when professors ask you to not use a third-party autograd framework
    • Later extended to include connect-4 reinforcement learning support
    • Developers can purchase jnumpy-themed apparel here
  • Summer Break 2021! (album)
    Summer Break 2021! (album)  ❘  A collection of various songs capturing various emotions I experienced during the 2021 summer break
    August 2021
    • My first musical 🎶 expidition
    • Origonally for personal pleasure, but later posted for others to enjoy
    • Available on SoundCloud
  • <code>Dash</code>
    Dash  ❘  Covid19 Analysis Visualization Dashboard
    June 2021 – October 2021 banditsbeware/dash
    • Web developer on covid19 data visualization dashboard project
    • Stack: Python, pandas, flask
  • 20Q
    20Q  ❘  20 Questions Android App
    June 2021 – August 2021 JacobFV/20Questions
    • Android app developer in a 4-person group
    • Stack: Java, Kotlin, SQLite, Android
  • multigraph-nn  ❘  Dynamic time multi-graph neural network framework
    May 2021 JacobFV/multigraph-nn
    • One graph isn’t enough; multigraph neural networks are the way to go!
    • Enables end-to-end differentiable, dynamic graph construction, node-centric multihead attention, and many other powerful features
    • Developed library on top of tensorflow and keras
  • This site!
    This site!  ❘  Personal portfolio website.
    May 2021 – Present JacobFV/jacobfv.github.io
  • Stanford Open Datathon Group Project
    Stanford Open Datathon Group Project  ❘  Data scientist in a 5-student international group
    April 2021 jennarsimon/sodp-team114
    • Team research project analyzing misinformation related to coronavirus vaccination hesitancy and sentiment and semantics of the COVID19 pandemic
    • We literally worked around the clock for the weekend of the Datathon
  • jplotlib  ❘  Quick plotting utilities for jupyter notebooks
    March 2021 JacobFV/jplotlib
    • pip install jplotlib
    • A useful library, until I discovered plt.subplots
  • tf-som  ❘  Self-organizing maps in tensorflow
    March 2021 – May 2021 JacobFV/tf-som
    • developed variant of the popular unsupervised learning algorithm SOM
    • available on pypi: pip install tf-som
  • Predictive General Intelligence
    Predictive General Intelligence  ❘  Theoretical framework an plan for developing artificial general intelligence
    March 2021
  • DesparadosAEye
    DesparadosAEye  ❘  Project manager, general app developer, and ML engineer for a 5-person group developing open-ended Android chatbot
    January 2021 – May 2021 kmosoti/DesparadosAEYE
  • multi-graph-former  ❘  Like a transformer, but for graph2graph instead of seq2seq
    September 2020 – May 2021 JacobFV/multi-graph-former
    • Sequences are just a special class of graphs. The multi-graph-former can process any kind of graph.
    • Supports intra- and inter-graph attention, vert updates, and edge updates with dynamic structure
    • Implemented gated-update mechanism for both vertices and edges with einsum-based operations
    • Example applies multi-graph-former to building a graph-structured hidden state for a recurrent neural network that encodes a sequence of words
  • Home Internet Factory
    Home Internet Factory  ❘  CNC router + 3D printer + Raspberry Pi 4 + camera + Internet
    April 2020 – May 2020 https://github.com/JacobFV/factory-server
    • Internet connected prototyping machine hub
    • Raspberry Pi 4 served as gateway to tabletop CNC router, 3D printer, two cameras, and 3.3V logic I/O auxiliary interfaces
    • Published article IndustrialAutomation@home describing journey to develop and operate home internet factory
  • Workplace Surveillance System
    Workplace Surveillance System  ❘  When you need to catch employees on their phone, this will do the trick!
    July 2019 JacobFV/Workplace-Surveillance-System
    • Employee phone detection computer vision system
    • Stack: web 1.0, tensorflow.js, mobilenet
    • Live demonstration to employer succeeded identifying employees on their phone, but employer didn’t end up purchasing a subscription
  • Computatrum  ❘  It's time for AI grow up
    February 2019 – Present   🚧 Limboid/computatrum
    • Active project to develop teachable yet autonomous open-ended computer interaction agents
  • Limboid  ❘  Humanoid robot
    January 2019 – Present
    • Hydraulic actuated, endoskeletal humanoid robot
    • Technologies: 3D Printing, CNC routing, plasma cutting, PCB fab
    • Artifacts available on request
  • SQTEST
    SQTEST  ❘  Flexible Spanish – English translation system
    October 2016 – November 2016 JacobFV/SQT-English-to-Spanish-Translator
    • Rule-based past and present tense English and Spanish translator
    • Programmed in C# with Visual Studio
    • Formalized many more aspects of English – Spanish translation
  • <code>Labatron</code>
    Labatron  ❘  Automated stochiometry solver for CHEM 1411/12
    October 2016 – May 2017 JacobFV/Labatron
    • Automated stochiometry solver for CHEM 1411/12
    • Programmed in C# with Visual Studio
  • Sale
    Sale  ❘  Basic Spanish – English translation system
    October 2015 – November 2015 JacobFV/Sale
    • Basic Spanish – English translation system
    • Programmed in C# with Visual Studio
    • Implements formal language parsing and production system
  • Cookie Cutter CNC
    Cookie Cutter CNC  ❘  Full stack engineering project
    March 2015 – May 2015 JacobFV/CookieControl
    • 36”×36” sheet metal cutter with server and Arduino client control systems
    • Designed and developed C# .svg parser, toolpath scheduler, and optimizer, Arduino controller with serial protocol and electronics, and CNC machine with electrodischarge machining head.
    • Presented on project in May 2015 and June 2016
    • Development journey published here
  • Copyright Calculator
    Copyright Calculator  ❘  Scripted conversation bot to help students stay safe
    September 2014 JacobFV/Copyright-Calculator
    • Helps students avoid plagiarism
    • Hybrid Google site and Web 1.0 app written in text editor!
  • Cookie Baker 3D Printer
    Cookie Baker 3D Printer  ❘  Programmable 12×12 2D gantry
    March 2013 – May 2013
    • Learned mechanical engineering basics
    • Intended to make a 3D printer, but extruder never added
    • Re-attempted project in October 2014 with design modifications

Achievements

Certifications

  • Feb 2022
    AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Specialty
  • April 2021
    Google TensorFlow Developer Certification
  • Oct 2020
    DeepLearning.AI TensorFlow Developer
  • Sept 2020
    Deep Learning Specialization by DeepLearning.AI
  • Mar 2019
    AWS Certified Developer – Associate
  • Mar 2019
    AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
  • Mar 2019
    AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

Long-Term Goals

  • Help people all over the world with humanoid robots
    • Develop a mass-produceable affordable, intelligent humanoid robot
    • Manually bootstrap production, but transition to robots making robots
    • Deploy on-demand humanoid-robots-as-a-service on the basis of their humanitarian, social, and economic impact

Other Interests

  • Walking, hanging out with friends, reading papers, and twittering
  • I'm never going to have enough time to satisfy most of my interests