My name is Jonathan Koch and I am a Research Scientist in Robotics and AI Engineer with expertise in Computer Vision, Reinforcement Learning, and NLP. I recently graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Florida, with a concentration in Robotics and AI. I am passionate about leveraging AI and robotics technologies for the betterment of society. My research focus has been in learning representations of sensory data in armed robotics for enabling sophisticated manipulation tasks.
Much of the work that has inspired me includes the itinerary of Sergey Levine from RAIL, Multi-Agent Emergent Tool Use from OpenAI, Human Representation Learning from Dr. Angela Radulescu at Princeton, and Generative Agents from Stanford Lab.
My passions outside of Computer Science include classical music, many years of playing the guitar, and practicing grappling in the beautiful art of brazilian ju-jistu. I also find inspiration in the nostolagic game of Minecraft, and much of my work in this field has stemmed from my interest in this game (join my SMP server: mc.jonathankoch.dev).
Professional Timeline
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November 2023 - Present: Cofounder / AI Engineer @ Joby AI
Responsibilities:
- Improved the core value prop of the job board by leveraging data to better match users to jobs.
- Streamlined processes and increased scalability.
Achievements:
- Contrastively finetuned vector search models, paving new avenues of product usage for our Web and API users.
- Utilized LLM agents for scraping over 30k jobs daily from 12 thousand career pages and job boards.
- Created an automation tool to auto-apply users to jobs, increasing monthly revenue by $5k and weekly average usage by 130%.
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June 2024: Started as ML Engineer @ Topaz Labs
Designing, training, and integrating ML models related to Quality Assessment, Segmentation, Semantics, and Enhancement. Architecting a zero-click image and video enhancement pipeline for API users. Deploying internal tools for scalable data analysis, model comparison, and data engineering.
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November 2023: Cofounded Joby AI
Improved job board core value proposition through data-driven matching. Contrastively finetuned vector search models, improving model inference costs and accuracy. Created automation tools increasing monthly revenue by $5k and weekly usage by 130%. Utilized LLM agents for scraping over 30k jobs daily from 12 thousand career pages and job boards.
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May 2024: Left ML Engineering Co/Op Role @ CAE USA
Successfully completed my role as ML Engineering Co/Op where I prototyped Generative Agents Architecture built on LLMs and incorporated contrastive learning into text classification, improving accuracy from 93% to 99%.
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May 2024: Graduated from the University of South Florida with Honors
Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, with concentration in Robotics and AI. Achieved Cum Laude honors with a GPA of 3.7/4.0.
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November 23th, 2023: Brought onto Data Science Team @ CAE USA
Selected to lead effort for Generative AI development, Data Science & Data Engineering @ CAE USA. Work on Machine Learning models, natural language processing and intelligent agents. Brought various representation learning and deep learning techniques to the table; developed pretraining pipelines for BERT models, created a text augmentation library for text classification samples created via structured generation. Expanded LLM software capabilitites, made general purpose software for tackling various language understanding problems.
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November 20th, 2023: Hosted IEEE Fall Banquet
Organized IEEE's 2023 Fall Banquet. Showcased our Campus and Engineering footprint in Tampa Bay and at USF. Over 70 students and 15 IEEE professionals attended to learn more about our Organization's recent engineering impact.
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November 14th, 2023: IEEE AI Workshop: Neural Networks in PyTorch
Presented and led a technical workshop detailing how to train Nerual Networks in PyTorch with a Google Collab available. Find the resources for this workshop here.
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August 10th, 2023: Started as UGTA
Selected to lead discussion sessions for Data Structures and Program Design in C.
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July 25th, 2023: Founded USF IEEE's AI Group
The purpose of this group is to promote the discussion and development of AI on college campuses through the IEEE Student Chapters. Our mission is to enable students to learn and develop with AI technologies and provide an environment where AI project development can occur. Also, the group will participate in one main project a year where students can collaborate on different aspects of software, hardware and engineering. We extended this collaboration to other universities such as ... via open-source software and extension of GPU access.
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Summer, 2023: Taught CoderSchoolAI Summer Camp
Educated younger audience in the core concepts involving artificial intelligence. Ran a curriculum based in Python and a custom software library developed by myself.
Topics include: Python, Search, Agents, Game logic principles, supervised learning, reinforcement learning -
April 28th - April 31st, 2023: Competed in VEX Worlds Competition in Dallas, Texas.
Travelled and represented USF at the largest VEXU competition in the world.
Team: Terri-BULL Robotics -
Febuary 11th - Feburary 12, 2023: Hosted IEEE's Lab Tour at USF's Engineering Expo
Planned and oversaw Lab Tour, set up Robot Soccer Competition for the lab visitors.
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May 2022: Started as Junior Software Developer at CAE USA in Tampa, FL
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November, 2021: Started as a Programming Instructor at theCoderSchool Tampa
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October 2021: Started as a Research Scientist at RPAL(Robot Perception and Action Lab)
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August 2021: Transferred to University of South Florida for Computer Science
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October, 2020: Joined UAlbany USF Student Chapter
Participated in workshops, Coding Interview practice, and shared side project development. Introduced to sophisticated robotics systems.
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August, 2020: Started Degree at SUNY Albany, Bachelors of Science Computer Science
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Spring, 2015: Released alpha of Custom Minecraft Prison Server
Server featured: Item shop, factions, custom skills, purchasable farms and resource mines, permissions system.