Tien-Khoa

Hi, I am Khoa

PhD Student
National University of Singapore

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Resume
Education
National University of Singapore
2026 - Present
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Computer Science
National University of Singapore
2024 - 2026
Master of Computing
AI Specialisation, Dissertation Track
National University of Singapore
2019 - 2023
Bachelor of Computer Engineering
Graduated with First Class Honours
Stanford University
2021 - 2022
NUS Overseas College Programme (Silicon Valley)
Research Experience
Research Assistant at NUS School of Computing DEC 2023 - PRESENT
• Supervisor: Professor Ng Teck Khim.
• Enhance 3D reconstruction in cluttered environments (trees, foliage, irregular geometry).
• Develop refinement pipeline for cross-view consistency, and outlier suppression.
• Lead data collection and benchmarking for outdoor multi-view reconstruction.
• Explore the use of LLM-guided reasoning for view selection and geometric error correction.
Teaching Experience
NUS Full-time Teaching Assistant (from July 2023) and Undergraduate TA (January 2020 - May 2023):
CG1111A Engineering Principles and Practice I AUG 2023 - PRESENT
• Supervised hands-on laboratory sessions integrating fundamental engineering principles with practical applications.
• Guided students in circuit analysis, electronic components, and microcontroller-based system design.
• Provided feedback on lab performance, design documentation, and project implementations.
CG2111A Engineering Principles and Practice II JAN 2024 - PRESENT
• Conducted lab sessions focused on systems integration, embedded software development, and real-time control.
• Supported students in designing and debugging multi-component systems on Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms.
• Assessed students' implementations and reports, providing detailed technical feedback.
CS1010E Programming Methodology JAN 2020 - PRESENT
• Conducted tutorial sessions.
• Introduced Python programming language and fundamental concepts of computational problem solving to students.
• Graded and gave feedbacks on students’ assignments.
CS2040 Data Structures and Algorithms AUG 2023 - DEC 2024
• Taught key data structures such as linked lists, trees, graphs, hash tables, and priority queues.
• Explained algorithm design techniques including recursion, sorting, graph traversal, and greedy strategies.
• Conducted problem solving sessions to strengthen students' analytical and algorithmic thinking.
CP2106 Independent Software Development Project (Orbital) MAY 2021 - AUG 2021
• Advised junior students on their software engineering projects.
• Provided timely feedback and periodic evaluation on the participating projects.
CG2271 Real-Time Operating Systems JAN 2021 - MAY 2021
• Conducted programming tutorial sessions for 67 students.
• Reinforced students’ knowledge on RTOS concepts.
• Enhanced concurrent real-time programming competencies in students.
Internship
Software Engineering Intern @JUL 2021 - JUL 2022 | San Jose, CA
• Applied computer vision to detect inventory information in warehouses.
• Designed and implemented a routing algorithm for optimal drone flying path.
• Developed warehouse simulation environment for autonomous drone testing.
• Created a multi-platform application to observe the status of drones and charging stations.
• Integrated software components and enhanced the reliability of data pipeline.
Portfolio
BioAcousticNet — Wildlife Soundscape Audio Classifier MAR 2025 - MAY 2025
• Built a scalable audio-classification pipeline for multi-species detection on BirdCLEF 2025 soundscapes.
• Processed audio into PCEN mel-spectrograms; applied MixUp, CutMix, and SpecAugment for regularization.
• Trained EfficientNetV2 with GeM pooling, k-fold CV, AdamW, and cosine annealing; added ensemble inference and temporal smoothing.
• Optimised inference with OpenVINO, improving CPU throughput by ~20%.
Tech Stack
Reinforcement Learning for C1 Terminal Game OCT 2024 - NOV 2024
• Implemented PPO agent with structured state representation and constrained action space.
• Improved sample efficiency via reward shaping, clipping, and advantage normalisation.
Tech Stack
G-ELCo: Towards Gender Equality in Emoji Composition MAR 2023 - MAY 2023
• Identified gender bias in emoji semantics in BERT-based models.
• Proposed G-ELCo dataset and a SimSCE-style contrastive ranking approach to reduce bias.
• Reduced measured bias by 52.7%, outperforming previous models.
Tech Stack
Peas - The Threat DetectorAUG 2022 - NOV 2022
• Developed a robust model to detect weapons in short videos.
• Applied YOLOv5 to filter invalid videos with no person detected.
• Developed a multimodal approach using Inception v3 on image and audio data.
• Achieved 82.64% accuracy on the course dataset.
Tech Stack
Laser Tag++ - The Laser Tag Shooting GameAUG 2022 - NOV 2022
• Developed an augmented reality game to visualize laser tag shooting.
• Implemented frameworks for player detection and motion tracking.
• Visualized real-time gameplay on Android and iOS.
Tech Stack
Arm - The ARM v3 ProcessorOCT 2022 - DEC 2022
• Implemented an FPGA-based processor consisting of Decoder, Register File, ALU and Memory units to execute ARM-based instructions including data processing, memory I/O and branch.
• Developed a 5-stage pipeline and implemented circuits to resolve data hazards.
• Integrated an efficient branch prediction algorithm to improve clock per instruction.
Tech Stack
Schwarzenegger - The Fitness Tracking ApplicationAUG 2020 - NOV 2020
• Developed software to track workout and diet and to suggest fitness plans based on physique data.
• Implemented algorithms to suggest physique objectives to maximize workout performance.
• Built and integrated new API with existing components.
• Managed product releases on GitHub, set up project site and introduced continuous integration.
Tech Stack
FitNUS - The Temperature Tracking Mobile ApplicationMAY 2020 - AUG 2020
• Developed an Android application for NUS students to monitor their health during COVID-19.
• Alerted users to declare temperature twice a day and updated NUS circulars.
• Implemented real-time in-app messaging to enable users to consult doctors on COVID-19 symptoms.
Tech Stack
Mozzie - The FPGA-Based Voice-Controlled GameMAR 2020 - APR 2020
• Created a game on FPGA to allow players to use voice to control character movements.
• Implemented a video player on FPGA where users use their voice to adjust play speed.
• Developed an arithmetic unit to execute math operations on FPGA.
Tech Stack
Rav - The Racing BotSEP 2020 - NOV 2020
• Built a robot that can move in multiple directions, play music, and blink the LED in various colors.
• Developed an Android application to control the robot from smartphones.
• Implemented RTOS concepts to control scheduling and concurrency of the system.
Tech Stack
Alex - The Search and Rescue RobotFEB 2020 - APR 2020
• Built a search and rescue robot which can navigate in an unseen environment.
• Supported control of the robot using command lines from computer.
• Used LiDAR and ROS to map the environment back to the user.
• Established TLS client-server setup to secure the connection between Alex and computer.
Tech Stack
mBot - The Smart NavigatorOCT 2020 - NOV 2020
• Built an automated robot which can navigate itself through a maze in minimum time.
• Used IR proximity and ultrasonic sensors to detect walls and avoid collision.
• Developed color sensor to decode the challenge at each checkpoint.
Tech Stack
NUS Full-time Teaching Assistant Award MAR 2025 & MAR 2026
• Recognized for excellence in teaching contributions as a full-time tutor.
NUS Honour List of Student Tutors MAY 2023
• Recognized for excellence in teaching contributions as a student tutor.
NUS Faculty of Engineering Deans' List
Awarded to top 5% of each cohort
• AY20/21 Semester 1
• AY20/21 Semester 2
Young Sustainable Development Goals Leaders Award 2022MAR 2022 - JUL 2022
• Awarded First Runner-Up
• Designed an Internet of Things solution to suggest an eco-friendly commute route.
• Developed a smart battery charging scheme to prolong battery life of electric vehicles.
NUS Venture Initiation Programme AwardsJAN 2022 - JUL 2022
• Awarded for pursuing an entrepreneurship idea on developing a platform connecting online content creators with their supporters by using NFTs.
MIT Bitcoin Expo Hackathon MAR 2022
• Participated in the MIT Bitcoin Expo hackathon challenge.
Molehack - NFT 2.0MAR 2022
• Awarded Early Mole Awards for promising NFT projects.
• Developed a platform to connect online content creators with their supporters using NFTs.
Orbital 2020 (Apollo 11 - Advanced)MAY 2020 - AUG 2020
• Participated in NUS School of Computing’s summer independent software development course where first year students work in pairs to complete a software project of their choice in an iterative software development life cycle.
• Achieved positive feedback from mentors and peers.
Shopee Code League 2020JUN 2020 - AUG 2020
• Participated in a 2-month online coding challenge consisting of a series of coding competitions.
• Attended online training workshops open to all students and professionals across the region.
Tech Stack
PresidentJUN 2022 - MAY 2023
IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN) Lambda Omega (NUS) Chapter
• Awarded Key Chapter Recognition in 2022.
• Responsible for organising 5 community outreach events and industrial visits, benefiting over 200 NUS undergraduate students.
• Hosted 20 students and faculty members from American University of Sharjah of UAE for their visit to NUS.
Project Director of External RelationsAUG 2020 - JUN 2022
IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN) Lambda Omega (NUS) Chapter
• Organized PhD Sharing Sessions and Industrial Talks for audiences from NUS and other institutions.
• Reached out to the NUS PhD Students and Alumni to invite speakers and promote the events.
Skills
I learn new languages quickly and continuously seek to improve my proficiency in them.
I enjoy building efficient and scalable applications with clean and simple-to-use UIs.