Machine Learning Team Lead

What I worked on

• •Led a 15-person ML team on IntelliSAR, a Cal Poly research collaboration with experienced search and rescue leaders, under Dr. Franz Kurfess.
• •Trained K-means, K-Nearest Neighbors, and SVM models on the International Search and Rescue Incident Database (ISRID), Robert Koester's historical missing-person dataset, to surface behavioral patterns that narrow a search area.
• •Built a K-Nearest Neighbors wander-status prediction model reaching 86% recall and 75% precision on a heavily imbalanced dataset where only 14% of incidents were unsuccessful outcomes.
• •Identified predictive relationships between elevation, subject situation, and rescue outcome, and between age, gender, and time missing, confirming and extending published findings on dementia prevalence among missing persons.
• •Presented findings twice at the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Conference in Las Vegas, most recently in April 2025.
• •Coordinated with the supervising professor and implemented agile practices that reduced project turnaround time across the team.