I'm Kevin "The Zhangster" Zhang.
I was always a peculiar one growing up. Born in Houston, Texas, I'm told I was completely silent in my childhood, armed with chubby legs and a strong propensity for curiosity, sometimes learning things the hard way. Then come pre-K, I flip-flopped and became a loud, hungry individual. I started eating tons and talking a lot more, but my curiosity never wavered. Moving into grade school, I gradually redistributed some of my energy into my studies, but continued to tower above my friends as a beacon of laughter and fun thought experiments. I remember in high school there was this concept known as the grade school triangle: Sleep, Success, or Social life, you can really only achieve two of the three. I always thought to myself though, why can't someone have all three? I graduated high school Top 5 of my class with straight As, was dubbed the "The Zhangster", famous for his booming, deep voice, bright laughter, and reliability, and never had dark circles under my eyes, not even once.
I graduated from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and I continue to be the curious cat I always have been, now just less loud. Back in college, I immersed myself in my studies, discovering a passion in robotics and software. I decided that the traditional computing major at my college wasn't fit for my interests, so I merged two career trees into one to make my own major, Computational Robotics. I now work hard to learn all that I can about both computer science and artificial intelligence for mobile robots.
As my major suggests, I do have an extensive software background. I have now taken 4 years of formal training in programming using Java, and I have also taken 3 years of college level software courses in Python. In addition, I have taken a year of college level courses for C and C++, and have taken 3+ years of data structures and algorithms courses, plus self studying. I have almost 3 years of industry experience in Python and C++. Besides coding, I am also very familiar with many robotics topics, including machine learning, simulation, computer vision, mobile robotic planning, and sensor fusion. I am also an extremely fast learner: I taught myself Reinforcement Learning to a proficient level in less than a year and impromptu learned full stack web development from scratch during an internship to complete a project within the span of 3 months. I am constantly engaged in self-learning and am always looking for a fun, challenging endeavor to work on.
"I've known Kevin for a few years and had the pleasure of working with him throughout the summer of 2017. He interned with my team at nuTonomy and immediately jumped in with meaningful contributions across many of our team's projects. Kevin demonstrated an interest, ability, and motivation to develop and test advanced robotics software. He consistently took it upon himself to seek out challenging problems. He developed software to monitor and validate computer and sensor systems on-board our autonomous vehicles. This software helps our operations teams maintain global fleet health. I sincerely enjoyed my time working with Kevin for his independence, responsibility, honest feedback, and work ethic. Moreover, he is very kind and personable with a pleasant sense of humor; he would make a strong addition to your engineering team. Thanks Kevin!"
- Ryan Eggert, Autonomous Vehicle Engineer at nuTonomy Inc.
In the past, I have interned at Amazon Robotics, a more modern, agile subsidary of the larger Amazon whose goal is to automate fulfillment centers. I was given the opportunity to work at a large company with global scale impact, leading a team to research patent-pending solutions to robotic storage systems to take Amazon's warehouses to the next level with computer vision, machine learning, and mobile robotics.
My endeavors had also led me to intern at nuTonomy, a bustling startup with a vision to revolutionize urban transportation through their software, nuCore, a system designed to put autonomous cars on the road. There, I was so far ahead of my main project schedule that I self-initiated my own projects, including optimizing a section of the codebase for efficiency and introducing a new planning model to the planning team pipeline.
Even as a freshman in college, I had worked for Ivani, a startup company in Missouri that specializes in network presence sensing technology and home automation. There, I interned as a Software Development Engineer and exceeded project expectations to help patent a new presence sensing technology, US10321270B2.
Throughout college, I was involved in a number of organizations at Olin, such as Olin Robotics, Olin Aquaponics, and Olin Ultimate. I also competed in Hackathons and worked on side projects, such as teaching coding to kids, crafting pottery, and building an autonomous snowball launcher to win snowball fights during Boston winters.
When not working hard professionally, I've grown to adopt a number of hobbies and personal interests. I enjoy indoor rock climbing, tennis, and strength training to stay fit. Stemming from my mother's culinary expertise with home-cooked meals and my dad's love for a good cocktail, I have developed a passion for cooking and bartending (Check out my instagram for my adventures in "Kevin's quest to become a better chef" @kzhang8850). Given the time, I also like experiencing new things such as traveling deep into the wintry tundra in Hokkaido, Japan, or participating in goat yoga in Hawaii. More commonly, I find fulfillment in having a good time with friends over good food because to me, it's the little things that count. On a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon, I might play some video games or watch the latest TV show, listen to music, read up on the latest news in the technology and robotics circles, and keep on the lookout for the passerby chicken (Chickens are my spirit animal).
"I first met Kevin Zhang during 2017 internship program at nuTonomy inc. Initially, he joined 'team car', in which he focused on automating car operations and troubleshooting processes, but his interest quickly grew to other advanced algorithms used for autonomous driving... As a senior research scientist at the motion planning and controls team, I suggested Kevin to work on an extra project after the completion of his primary assignment. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly Kevin made progress on his new assignment. Although Kevin just finished his sophomore year in Olin college, he was able to understand in great details concepts that are typically introduced in graduate-level robotics courses. Moreover, it seems natural for Kevin to learn by doing, and during the month of us working together he implemented a game-theoretic approach for navigating an autonomous car in traffic. As a bonus, he proposed a machine learning algorithm for computing the optimal lane merging strategy. Based on my observations of Kevin's progress during his internship at nuTonomy, I can say with confidence that he will be a valuable addition to our team as well as any team of motivated engineers... Kevin is also a very personable and kind fellow, and it was a pleasure to work with him."
- Dmitry Yershov, Senior Research Scientist at nuTonomy Inc.
As for what's next in my life, I have been working at Toyota Research Institute as a full-time Software Engineer on Planning and Controls - Prediction team for autonomous vehicles for over 2 years now. I have learned so many things and worked on so many cool projects. More than anything, I've learned that it's people and teamwork that make a project or even a company succeed. My greatest takeaway so far has definitely been that people matter most, and I am grateful to have been surrounded by seasoned veterans who were also kind to and trusting of me. I'm looking for a change of pace and am actively seeking new opportunities in the machine learning and robotics fields. I hope to find a new company whose vision resonates with me and can provide me what I'm looking for in an organization. But no matter what happens next or where I end up, I'll always be "The Zhangster", famous for his signature voice and bright laughter, and the guy you can always depend on.
