Zach Zusin.

Zachary Zusin

Experience

PayPal

Software Engineer Intern

PayPal

May 2026 – Aug 2026

Details coming soon.

Columbia University

Graduate Researcher

Software Systems Lab, Columbia University

Sep 2025 – May 2026
  • Developed a framework for fine-tuning vision-language models for classification tasks with high intra-class diversity
  • Enabled automatic discovery of meaningful sub-categories, improving detection of complex visual variations
Columbia University

Graduate Researcher

Zemel Group, Columbia University

Sep 2025 – May 2026
  • Investigated new methods for automated theorem proving, leveraging complexity theory and machine learning
  • Created new representations of mathematical theorems and proof techniques to be better understood by ML models
  • Constructed techniques to quantify theorem difficulty and integrate real and synthetic data into model training
Columbia University

Undergraduate Researcher

Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Columbia University

Jun 2025 – Aug 2025
  • Implemented a diagnostic pipeline in Python to evaluate the efficacy of Temporal Convolutional Network models in classifying mouse behavior
  • Analyzed multi-modal time-series data (wheel velocity, paw locations, etc.) to validate models' behavioral predictions

Education

Sep 2025 – May 2026

Master of Science in Computer Science

Columbia University

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Researcher in 2 CS labs
  • Focus: Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Automated Theorem Proving

Sep 2021 – May 2025

Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science

Columbia University

Columbia College

  • Dean's List
  • Relevant coursework: Databases, High-Performance Computing, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Robotics, Analysis of Algorithms, Systems Programming, Computer Systems, Probability, Statistics

Projects

Bipedal Locomotion

Lightweight MuJoCo + PyTorch framework for training and evaluating bipedal locomotion policies with Proximal Policy Optimization, using GAE-Lambda advantage estimation and a clipped surrogate objective. Includes Actor-Critic networks, inverse kinematics, and support for both 2D and 3D robot morphologies.

Life Expectancy Analysis

Multiple linear regression analysis in R examining which socioeconomic and political factors most strongly predict national life expectancy, with model selection cross-checked across three criteria and validated two independent ways.

State Space Model POS Tagger

Part-of-speech tagger implemented in MATLAB using a structured state-space model with a bilinear-discretized state transition matrix and manually-derived backpropagation.

CKY Parser

Cocke-Kasami-Younger chart parser for context-free grammars, implementing probabilistic (Viterbi) parsing with a full Parseval evaluation harness.

Action Segmentation in Mice

Diagnostic and behavioral-fingerprinting pipeline built around a Temporal Convolutional Network model, evaluating its classification of mouse behavior from multi-modal time-series data across 57 research sessions.

Wikipedia Article Clustering

Live-scraped Wikipedia articles, embedded with Sentence-BERT, and clustered with UMAP + K-Means to surface topic structure — visualized as an interactive scatter plot.

Neural Network Dependency Parser

Transition-based dependency parser using a neural network architecture implemented in PyTorch, trained on Penn Treebank annotations.

Home Cooking Platform

Full-stack Flask + PostgreSQL web application with a 10-table relational schema and dynamic filtering that recommends recipes based on available ingredients, dietary restrictions, cuisine, and complexity — matching all selected constraints at once.

TDNN-Conformer ASR

Novel speech recognition architecture combining Time Delay Neural Networks with the Conformer model. Implemented and trained a 12.5M parameter model using PyTorch and WeNet on the LibriSpeech dataset.

Hierarchical Image Classifier

Bird, Dog, or Reptile? — a two-headed ResNet-50 that predicts both a coarse category and a fine-grained sub-class simultaneously, with confidence-threshold detection for categories never seen in training. Built with two Columbia classmates.

Trigram Language Model

Statistical language model using trigram probabilities with linear interpolation smoothing for text generation, perplexity evaluation, and TOEFL essay proficiency classification.

Wonderful Workouts

Weight training education platform with a hand-built HTML5 drag-and-drop routine builder, muscle-group coverage validation, a knowledge-check quiz, and PDF export.

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Skills

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Programming Languages

PythonJavaScriptTypeScriptSQLJavaCRMATLABElixirBash

Machine Learning

PyTorchScikit-LearnNumPyPandasMatplotlibComputer VisionNLPReinforcement Learning

LLM & Agentic AI

TransformersPEFT / LoRAvLLMAutoGenOllama

Web & Backend

FlaskFastAPIReactSQLAlchemyPostgreSQLPhoenixHTMLCSS

Tools & Systems

GitLinuxCUDABash