CV
Diego Calderon
Highly adaptable, curious, and lifelong learner.
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Education
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University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
MS in Computer Science (Expected 2024)
Completed 23/32 credits, GPA: 3.66/4.0 -
University of Arkansas
BS in Computer Science, Magna Cum Laude (May 2018)
Minor in Mathematics, GPA: 3.85/4.0
Skills
Programming Languages: Python, R, SQL, C++, Java, Go, JavaScript
Frameworks/Tools: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Pandas, Numpy, ArcGIS, Apache Airflow, MATLAB, H3, Jupyter, Matplotlib, ggplot2, MicroPython, Unreal, Unity, HTML, CSS, D3.js, Git
Relevant Coursework: Applied Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics, Human-Computer Interaction, Database Management Systems, High Performance Geospatial Computing
Research Experience
Research Associate
DPRG Lab, UIUC (June 2023 - Dec 2024)
- Collected weather data to compute and visualize heat island indexes across 150 Chicago sites
- Built LoRa-based ultra-low-power data loggers
- Secured pilot deployment through a proposal to city officials
Research Associate
iSENS Group, UIUC (Aug 2022 - May 2023)
- Built MATLAB and Python pipelines for FMCW and UWB radar data
- Extended tag detection pipelines
- Designed safety protocols for indoor drone flight
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Prof. Civelli, Economics, University of Arkansas (Jan 2017 – Oct 2018)
- Developed a GIS toolkit and MATLAB GUI for a cognitive assessment study (paper)
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Prof. Datta, Statistics, University of Arkansas (Aug 2017 – Aug 2018)
- Debugged 3D printer robot control issues
- Built a Shiny app for crime hotspot visualization
Undergraduate Research Fellow
Washington University in St. Louis (May 2017 – July 2017)
- Designed an algorithm for conditional linear regression
- PI: Prof. Brendan Juba
Work Experience
Produce Team Member
Whole Foods Market, Boston, MA (Jan 2025 – Present)
- Provided customer service and maintained displays and backstock
- Maximized sales through effective preparation and storage
Bus Operator
Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (Mar 2024 – Jun 2024)
- Operated 40/60 ft buses on fixed routes
- Conducted safety inspections
Gameplay Software Engineer
The Studio, UIUC (Apr 2023 – Aug 2023)
- Built inventory system for VR game
- Set up Perforce server and trained students
Research Programmer
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (Dec 2018 – Jul 2022)
- Developed open-source tools for civil engineering, economics, and environmental science
- Added Airflow-based fault tolerance to ingestion workflows
- Built APIs and integrated water-quality sensors
- Implemented OpenID Connect for the IN-CORE platform
Gameplay and Tools Programmer
Tesseract Center, U of Arkansas (Jul 2017 – May 2018)
- Designed the game Being, inspired by puzzle games and mental health themes
- Created prototypes and Doxygen-based C# documentation
Game Designer
Tesseract Center, U of Arkansas (Jan 2016 – May 2017)
- Designed and tested level spaces
- Balanced gameplay and designed dev tools
Publications
- Sinchi, Calderon et al. (2023). Under-Canopy Biomass Sensing Using UAS-Mounted Radar. IGARSS 2023. DOI
- Wang, Calderon et al. (2021). Effect of Residential Wind Retrofits on Community Resilience. J. of Infrastructure Systems. DOI
- Wang, Calderon et al. (2021). Community Resilience Assessment of EF-5 Tornado. In Life-Cycle Civil Engineering. DOI
- Calderon, Juba et al. (2020). Conditional Linear Regression. AISTATS 2020.
- Marini, Calderon et al. (2020). Semantic Annotation of Data Using JSON-LD. EarthCube. DOI
Awards
- Fiddler Innovation Fellowship Finalist (Apr 2024): Honorable mention for heat island project
- Illinois Green Fund (Jan 2023): $40,000 grant for urban heat island research
- Honors College Research Grant (Fall 2017): $3,000 for macroeconomic game development
- Florence McKee Scholarship (Fall 2017): $4,000
- FIES Scholarship (Fall 2017): $3,000
- WashU Summer Engineering Fellowship (Summer 2017): $5,000
- Maria Teresa Frans Scholarship (Fall 2016): $750
Presentations
- Nov 2019: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ — Architecture and data-flow of IML CZO
- Feb 2018: AAAI-32, New Orleans, LA — Conditional Linear Regression (poster)
Conference Proceedings
- Lee, Navarro, Tolbert, Kim, Naraharisetty, Wang, Ondrejcek, Calderon, Bradley, Fredricksen. IN-CORE: Interdependent Networked Community Resilience Modeling. PEARC 2019. DOI
Mentoring & Outreach
- Summer 2020: NCSA SPIN — Co-mentored a student on Clowder extractors and object detection API
- Oct 2019: IN-CORE Annual Meeting — Led support sessions and assisted with software installation and setup
Workshops
- May 2017: SAMSI Workshop on Data Assimilation for NWP, Raleigh, NC
- Worked with Dr. Ahmed Attia on a Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter
Personal Projects
- Monty Hall Game (R) — Shiny app used in bioengineering course to illustrate conditional probability
- Distributed Grep (Go) — Lightweight distributed grep debugging tool
- Indoor Navigation App (Android) — Accessibility-focused indoor wayfinding tool
- Toy Object Detection (Python) — FastAPI+YOLOv5 microservice
- Simple 3D Renderer (C++) — Educational 3D graphics engine built from scratch
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