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Curriculum Vitae

Phone: 312-391-8828

E-mail: alvin.chin AT bmwna.com

 


 

Research interests
 

Languages

Vehicle automation and networking, machine learning and deep learning, data science and analytics, big data, data mining, quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, mobile social networking, ubiquitous computing, social computing, recommendations, computer-supported collaborative work, human-computer interaction, mobile computing, semantic web, and context awareness

Relevant work experience
 

HTML, CSS, JavaScript

XML

RSS

PHP

C, C++

Java, Scala

​Python

R

AI and Emerging Technology Researcher, IT Innovation and Research Silicon Valley, BMW Technology Corporation, Mountain View, CA, USA

Nov. 2020 - present

Manager: Susanne Heger

Skills

​•    Conduct research and feasibility of quantum computing for business problems within BMW
•    Conduct research and feasibility of neuromorphic computing for proof of concept applications to solve business problems

•    Helped to lead a business team in BMW on part defect in AutoML hackathon, part of the Democracizing AI project
•    Perform tech scouting and innovation for possible startups and companies to partner for innovation and research projects

  • Leading a project on causal machine learning for automotive supply chain

  • Helped initiate and lead UC Berkeley collaboration with 3 projects: causal machine learning for strategic decision making, human-in-the-loop reinforcement learning for robotic skills manipulation, and human-centric AI for improving driving experiences
     

MySQL, SQL, U-SQL

PhpMyAdmin

TCP/IP, UDP

Unix, Linux

Raspbian 

Windows XP, 7, 8, 10

Windows Phone 7, 8

Hadoop

AWS

Azure

Power BI

2010 - present

Senior Researcher, Machine Learning, BMW Technology Corporation, Chicago, IL, USA

Apr. 2015 - Nov. 2020

Manager: Jilei Tian

​•    Big data mining and analysis of BMW car data using machine learning algorithms for learning and predicting destinations, contributing to release of BMW Connected product since March 31, 2016
•    Created analytics for usage of machine learning features and user engagement using SQL, U-SQL, ADLS and ADLA, and Databricks on Microsoft Azure and visualizing in Power BI dashboard
•    Mentored 6 interns with machine learning projects dealing with adaptive location data collection based on driving behavior, improving POI accuracy, identifying mobility patterns by using activity data, crowdsourcing parking locations, deep learning for vehicle diagnostics, and improved fuel prediction
•    Worked on personalized individual modeling of preferences for seat heating in vehicle resulting in a conference paper publication
•    Created innovation for data collection, improved journey management and recommendation resulting in 9 accepted and 5 published patents

2010 - present

Senior Researcher, Xpress Internet Services China, Mobile Phones Nokia, Beijing, China

Sept. 2012 - Sept. 2014

Manager: Jilei Tian

​• Responsible for conducting applied research of web browser logs collected from Nokia Xpress Internet browser and providing innovation for the Xpress Internet Services team
• Study user behavior on the mobile web and in social networks, mine the big data from browser logs, and create recommendations of web content based on user profiling and context
• Coordinate projects with universities for research on the web browser logs

Senior Researcher, Mobile Social Experiences Team, NRC GEL Lab   Nokia Research Center, Beijing, China

Jan. 2010 - Aug. 2012

Managers: Hao Wang and Xia Wang

​• Nokia Find & Connect:  Project leader, led development team in implementation and research of social networking in Nokia offices and conferences such as UIC 2010 and UbiComp 2011
LeXiang: Research leader, led research team with concepting and development of an application for activity-based social networking and ephemeral social networking, worked on providing a framework for data analysis for research and conducted user studies
Ephemeral social networking and mobile social networking: Research manager, responsible for initiating, establishing and co-ordinating research agenda with interns, external partners and university collaborators, and working with internal development team for research prototypes
Research topics: Identifying and creating ephemeral social networks, user behavior in offline and online social networks and transition from online to offline, inferring social community intelligence from ephemeral social networks, and friend recommendation using physical context and content   
Research seminar organizer, responsible for organizing research seminars from outside faculty and industry

Member of Research Staff, Service Experiences Team and Mobile Social Networking Team

Nokia Research Center, Beijing, China

July 2008 - Dec. 2009

Managers: Jyri Salomaa and Hao Wang

​• Mobile Web 2.0 and Social Networking:  Researched Mobile Web 2.0 and social networking technologies for creating services and applications that integrate the phone with online and offline social networks
Nokia VIP Services: Contributed to research and trial of Nokia VIP Services for Beijing Olympics in August 2008
Nokia Find & Connect: Project leader for Nokia Find & Connect, a system for finding physical resources such as meeting rooms and people and connecting to them through ephemeral social networks. Trials were conducted in the Nokia office.

Education
 

University of Toronto, Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

Sept. 2003 - Dec. 2008

​Thesis:  Social Cohesion Analysis of Networks - A Novel Method for Identifying Subgroups in Social Hypertext (pdf)
Advisor: Mark Chignell

University of Waterloo, Master of Applied Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MASc)

Jan. 2002 - Jan. 2004

​Thesis: Service Invocation and Roaming for Pervasive Computing Environments
Advisor: Kostas Kontogiannis

University of Waterloo, Bachelor of Applied Science in  Computer Engineering (BASc)

Sept. 1994 - May 1999

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