Jinyi Zhao

About / Jinyi Zhao

A researcher who builds.

I’m Jinyi. I work where research, machine learning and useful software meet.

I graduated from UC San Diego in 2026 with two B.S. degrees: Cognitive Science, specializing in Machine Learning and Neural Computation, and Mathematics–Economics. That background connects how systems learn with how people evaluate evidence and make decisions.

At Taichang Technology, I worked as an Algorithm Engineer Intern on an experimental UAV inspection platform. The work brought together simulation, LiDAR, local costmaps and reproducible machine-learning experiments.

My projects explore related questions through different tools: maritime market research, UAV Sandbox for simulation-based robotics research, and a local job-application workflow. I also build smaller business tools around the research. I’m interested in making the assumptions behind a result as usable as the result itself.

AI tools are part of my day-to-day workflow: organizing research, exploring product ideas and developing software. I work iteratively—providing context, breaking a problem into reviewable steps and checking the output against sources or the running application. The value is in directing the tools and judging the result.

A few chapters so far

Experience & education

  1. Jun – Sep 2026

    Algorithm Engineer Intern

    Taichang Technology · Hangzhou

    Worked on simulation-based UAV inspection, sensor replay, local costmaps and reproducible ML research using PX4, Gazebo and Python.

  2. 2020 – 2026

    Two B.S. degrees

    University of California San Diego

    Cognitive Science, specializing in Machine Learning and Neural Computation; and Mathematics–Economics.

  3. 2022 – 2023

    Teaching and peer education

    University of California San Diego

    Academic Peer Educator and Undergraduate Instructional Apprentice, supporting Python, data analysis and cognitive science coursework, including COGS 100 and COGS 108.

  4. May – Jul 2020

    Numerical Game Design Intern

    Shanghai Reign Network Technology

    Organized and validated marketplace and inventory data for numerical-design workflows.

Professional background: LinkedIn · Reviewed 2 October 2026

Beyond the project work

I have also volunteered with Shanghai Roots & Shoots and Feeding San Diego, and served as an officer of Triton NeuroTech at UC San Diego in 2023.

Questions I keep coming back to

  • Applied machine learning
  • Robotics & inspection
  • Evidence-based tools
  • AI-assisted research & development

How can a model’s reasoning be inspected? What makes evidence useful? How do we turn a research question into a tool someone can use?

See the work

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Good questions lead to useful work.

Research, building something, or comparing notes.

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