About Me

Hey! I'm Sia.

I'm a senior at UC San Diego majoring in Cognitive Science with a specialization in Machine Learning and Neural Computation, and minoring in Computer Science. My passions lie in the space where technology meets people in meaningful ways — whether that's through software development, AI, HCI, or data-driven research.

I love tackling real-world problems, whether it's building intuitive applications, training and fine-tuning ML models, or digging into data to uncover meaningful insights.

Scroll down to check out my journey and what I've been working on!

Projects

Skills and Toolkit

AI & ML Frameworks & Techniques

PyTorch
TensorFlow
Hugging Face Transformers
GPT APIs & Prompt Engineering
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG, GraphRAG)
LoRA / PEFT fine-tuning
RLHF
Evolutionary Algorithms
Reinforcement Learning
Scikit-learn
Sentence Transformers

Data & MLOps Tooling

Pandas & NumPy
SQL / Postgres
Matplotlib & Plotly
FastAPI
Docker
GitHub Actions CI/CD
n8n workflow automation
LLM Ops pipelines
Pinecone & FAISS vector search

Full-Stack Development

Python
C++
Java
React + Vite
TypeScript
SwiftUI
Firebase (Firestore & Auth)
REST APIs
Algorithms & Data Structures

Cognitive Science & Product

Neural Computation
Cognitive Modeling
Experimental Design & A/B Testing
Human-Computer Interaction
Product Road-mapping
Agile / Scrum
Stakeholder Communication
Technical Writing
Figma UI/UX Design
Product Management

Experience

Course Designer / Instructional Assistant

UC San Diego | September 2024 - June 2025


COGS 150: Large Language Models and Cognitive Science
● Facilitate discussions and office hours on the mechanics of large language models, their cognitive science implications, and societal impact.
● Assist in developing and grading coding labs and assignments that integrate AI ethics, machine learning concepts, and multimodal cognition.
● Collaborate with faculty to refine course materials and foster critical discussions on AI and human cognition.



COGS 10: Cognitive Consequences of Technology
● Led discussion sections for 100+ students, exploring real-world applications of technology and cognitive science.
● Worked with esteemed professor Jim Hollan to design and evaluate projects, ensuring high academic standards and engagement.

Website Developer

Personal Portfolio| December 2024 - February 2025


● Designed and developed a responsive portfolio website using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript
● Implemented a seamless dark/light mode toggle with localStorage persistence for user preference
● Created interactive UI elements including 3D tilt effects, scroll animations, and text transformations for engaging user experience
● Detailed project pages with responsive layouts and consistent visual language across the site
● Mobile-optimized interfaces with performance considerations including lazy loading, and animation simplification
● Integrated GitHub linking for project source code along with interactive galleries and feature showcases
● Source code available here.