Nihal Karim
Data Science & Applied AI/ML
San Francisco,CA
Summary
Recent Data Science graduate and former Lead Electrical Engineer with a solid foundation in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and signal processing. Passionate about developing intelligent systems and delivering data-driven solutions to real-world challenges. Seeking an AI/ML engineering or data science role to leverage my interdisciplinary expertise and drive impactful outcomes.
Overview
4
4
years of professional experience
Work History
Data Scientist
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - USF Practicum
09.2024 - 07.2025
- Researched tokenization effects for low-resource languages; contributed data/evals to AfriMMLU on Hugging Face
- Fine-tuned, tested, and validated 10+ LLMs (GPT, Gemini, Llama, Gemma, Qwen) for multilingual tasks
- Used prompt engineering and LLM-as-a-judge protocols aligning outputs with human raters and BLEU/chrF/COMET
Lead Electrical Design Engineer
Bay Area Innovations – Product Design Firm
09.2022 - 06.2024
- Directed 20 + mixed-signal PCB projects from spec → DFM → bring-up/validation; coordinated HW/FW/SW integration
- Led project management, client relations, and hiring/mentoring for electronics team; sustained >90% repeat business
- Built embedded ML and edge ML prototypes with cameras/sensors (CV/audio/sonar): OpenCV preprocessing, TFLite on-device inference (Raspberry Pi/MCU), BLE/MQTT telemetry; delivered field-ready demos
Electrical Design Engineer
Bay Area Innovations – Product Design Firm
02.2021 - 09.2022
- Drove DFM and manufacturer test/validation, reducing average production cost by∼33% and lowering re-spin risk
- Standardized build/test documentation and handoff checklists, accelerating schedules by weeks and informally leading
- cross-functional execution – promoted to Lead EE in September 2022
Education
Master of Science - Data Science
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA07-2025
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 05.2001 -
Technical Skills
Programming/Tools: C, C++, Python, SQL, Pandas, Spark; Git, Github, CI/CD; Docker, GCP (GCS/TTS)
ML/CV/NLP: PyTorch, OpenCV, scikit-learn; Hugging Face Transformers/Datasets; SentencePiece/BPE; LLMs, Prompt Engineering, Fine-Tuning; NLP Evaluation (BLEU, chrF, COMET); MLFlow
Robotics/Edge: RGB-D Perception, Camera Calibration, Grasp Detection (CNNs), Sim-to-real Basics, MuJoCo; TensorFlow Lite/TFLite Micro, Quantization, Raspberry Pi; MCU, STM32, C2000, MSP432, Arduino, MQTT, BLE;
Hardware/Firmware: Altium Designer; Schematic Capture, HDI PCB Layout; Sensors; RF Modules; I2C/SPI/UART;
Leadership/Management: Cross-Functional Collaboration; Project Management; Client Relationship Management; Vendor/Contract Management; Hiring, Mentoring & Onboarding; Technical Documentation
Extracurriculars
- IEEE Student Branch
- Yoga, Gym, Basketball, Football
- St. Vincent Church Volunteer
Timeline
Data Scientist
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - USF Practicum
09.2024 - 07.2025
Lead Electrical Design Engineer
Bay Area Innovations – Product Design Firm
09.2022 - 06.2024
Electrical Design Engineer
Bay Area Innovations – Product Design Firm
02.2021 - 09.2022
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
University of Florida
05.2001 -
Master of Science - Data Science
University of San Francisco