# Nihal Nazeem > CSE Department Teaching Assistant + Graduate Student Researcher @ UCSD Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/nihalnazeem Hi! I'm Nihal Nazeem, a first-year Master's graduate student pursuing a degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego seeking internships for Summer 2025. With experience and interest in multiple fields of computer science ranging from: Cybersecurity, Data Science; High-Performance Computing to Brain-Computing Interfaces; and research in Transistor DTCO, Autonomous Robotics, and Computer Vision for Robotics - I am always looking for opportunities to gain more breadth and depth of experience. Recently, Embedded Systems, Unconventional Computing paradigms, and Heterogenous computing have piqued my interest, as I see robotics as the intersection of combining my interest in Resource-Constrained Embedded Computing and Artificial Intelligence. In the software development process, I enjoy understanding the problem at different levels of abstraction, weighing different feasible algorithmic approaches, and then implementing the algorithm that addresses the issue at hand. What excites me about this process is blending the creativity and analytical thinking required to handle these puzzles. The commitment, flexibility, and self-discipline I've developed through Music, Debate, Robotics, and Martial Arts are crucial to my approach to utilizing available opportunities from different perspectives. By learning and leading with humility, I can continue developing new interdisciplinary strengths - as no one knows everything, but everyone knows something. ## Work Experience ### Graduate Student Researcher @ UC San Diego Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE) Jan 2025 – Present | La Jolla, California Contextual Robotics Institute and Qualcomm - High Speed Visual SLAM for autonomous driving ### CSE Department Tutor (2022-2024) & Teaching Assistant (WI 2025) @ UC San Diego Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE) Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 CSE 100/R: Advanced Data Structures (Dr. Niema Moshiri and Dr. Debashis Sahoo) - Tutored Data Structures and Algorithms in C++ for a class of 450+ students - Vetted Programming Assignments and Final Exam, and held Lab Hours with a 100%+ satisfaction rating ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ using the Socratic Method - Helped students understand how to use GDB, gprof, and Valgrind (to investigate seg-faults and memory leaks/errors) - Addressed conceptual and implementation clarifications from data structure theory questions to pointers to the difference between destructors and clear methods, - Get students familiar with C++ conventions, syntax, and documentation - Engage and guide students into reframing their knowledge to discover and understand Data Structure properties from a first-principles approach for various applications via collaborative problem-solving and question-probing in Discussion Section ### Undergraduate Researcher @ UC San Diego Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE) Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 Embedded Systems and Software Group/VLSI Design Lab - 3D integrated circuits (CFET and other FET architectures) with gear ratio - Develop Design Rule Algorithms and translated the current version from Perl to C++ ### SPIS Academic Mentor (Machine Learning Projects Specialization) @ UC San Diego Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE) Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 Help UCSD first-year students from different majors and varying computer science backgrounds learn everything from Python to Machine Learning with lectures from CSE faculty and tutoring from CSE students, create a capstone project, survey CSE research at UC San Diego, and understand the transition to college life at UCSD - Clarified questions from other mentors about Algorithmic Problem Solving (APS) sets and ‎ ‎ ‎ aided students in APS Assistance Hours ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ - Sorting, Greedy Algorithms, Divide and Conquer, Dynamic Programming - Worked with 50+ students to answer Foundations of CS (FoCS) and capstone project questions ‎ ‎ ‎ during Lab Hours ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ - Replit, Github, PicoBot Automata-based programming, Object-Oriented Python and turtle ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ programming ,‎ Recursion, PIL Image Manipulation, PyGame Game Development, Flask Web ‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Development, Machine Learning and hyperparameter tuning - Worked with Instructors to improve content - Provided feedback and addressed follow-ups to a group of students on their labs, APS sets, and ‎ ‎ Enrichment Videos - Co-hosted speaker panel and facilitated speaker-audience interaction for a research presentation - Coordinated ideas for Discord Bot integration and community-building activities with fellow Mentors ### Drone Software Engineer (Autonomous Computer Vision Flight Navigation, Control, Comms)-Project Atlas @ SEDS UCSD Jan 2024 – Present | La Jolla, California - Researched Martian chemicals, geology, and caves for ISRU objectives productive for human habitation via powered flight - Architected Software and conducted Systems Design Preliminary Design Review, with positive feedback from NASA Chief Engineer - Developed Hardness Reductions as Iteration Test Cases to transform final abstract goal into actionable items - Created containerized SITL (Software in the Loop) Testing with Docker and documentation - Wrote code for: - empirical semi-autonomous power characterization for the Jetson Nano Orin and MavSDK - telemetry - Iteration Test Cases - Proposed flight navigation and control algorithms: - (sensor-fusion/v)SLAM, Learning-based Model Predictive Control, PID, RRT, PRM, Voronoi Shattering ### Hardware Technologies SDE Intern (RFSW - Cellular Firmware [Embedded Software]) @ Apple Jan 2024 – Jan 2024 | California, United States Modem Software, Cellular/Wireless Communication Real Time Embedded Systems - Translate Requirement and Dependency Analysis to Design - Test as Design: Form and Prove Design Correctness - Open-Closed Principle - Proactive Communication to balance Collaboration and Independence - Debugging, Analyzing issues from an end-to-end contextual level Creating 100% Hardware-Independent Antenna Configuration API for various Coexistence mitigations - Power Limiting - Temperature Control, RF Radiation to tissue, battery-level driven voltage, external devices - Antenna Blocking - Coupling Mitigation GNSS intermodulation Interference Detection - Order 4 and Order 5 Side Band and Out-of-Band Interference Create a new AT Command Interface for Host Coex Message to various Coex Elements - Separation of Concerns between Coex and Core Location: no spec changes introduced - Support Core Location Team’s non-signalling test for GNSS L1, L5 on Tempest-side - Capable of signalling test for - GNSS - WiFi - Bluetooth - Ultra-Wide Band - UNII Bands Address a Multicore Concurrency Issue - Create a 3-scenario Sub-Component Test to model and resolve the issue - Improve robustness between back-to-back events (Power Limits and Gains) - Address limitation for firmware abstraction layer - Create AT Command message to conditionally queue or send events - Queue Size increase Cross-team and timezone collaboration Presented to Senior Director of Hardware Engineering ### Software Engineer Intern @ Piper Networks Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | San Diego, California, United States Rail engineering solutions for safety, reliability, and real-time tracking - Point cloud registration and scene reconstruction with Computer Vision Libraries (Point Cloud Library, Open3d) - Software Architecture and implementation of custom Visualizer in C++ ### Board Member (Software Developer) @ Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) - UC San Diego Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | San Diego, California, United States ### Principal Member @ Quantum Computing at UC, San Diego Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | La Jolla, California, United States ### Electrical Team @ Triton Robosub Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | La Jolla, California, United States ### Board Member (ACM Cyber) @ ACM at UCSD Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | La Jolla, California, United States ### Triton NeuroTech Drone Project @ Triton NeuroTech at UC San Diego Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 Objective: Fly a drone from hand gestures by reading muscle signals. Software Development: - Created Block Diagram for electronics - Created Signal Protocols for drone movement direction, safety procedure, landing, and homing - Researched possible Drone simulators, communication protocols (MavLink and ArduPilot), and ‎ ‎ ‎ relevant functions from mavsdk - Created and implemented Finite State Machine waypoint-based concurrent program for ‎ ‎ ‎ Ground Station control of drone movement to integrate the Machine Learning pipeline’s ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ multiclassification output of 6 hand gestures from EMG signals - Tested program in drone simulation with keyboard inputs Data Collection and Preprocessing: - Worked on a customized experiment for gesture collection via a Cyton board - Worked on a data collection codebase that uses OpenBCI Lab Streaming Layer to read and prepare ‎ ‎ ‎ EMG electrode data with filters ### Upverter Innovation for Environmental Change 2021 International Student Design Competition @ Nanoengineering and Technology Society at UCSD Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | San Diego, California, United States Objective: Creatively address a local environmental issue using PCB design. Designed a Stingray-sensing PCB using Voltage Detection - University-Level Finalist out of 81+ International teams - R&D Engineer role - Requirement analysis - Guided team research by transforming the abstract problem into ‎ ‎ ‎ actionable items with respect to species, weight, respiration rates, ‎ ‎ ‎ and frequency constraints - Architected and Implemented solution using biomimicry with Altium Upverter PCB ‎ ‎ Design and Arduino ### Summer Program for Incoming Students (SPIS) @ University of California, San Diego - Jacobs School of Engineering Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | San Diego, California, United States Five-week program in computer science concepts, mathematical modeling, algorithmic problem solving, and programming where I created MusicGen, which is a Markov-Chain model producing original variations on a piece of music using Python file I/O and processing. ### San Marin Speech and Debate @ San Marin High School Jan 2016 – Jan 2020 | Novato, California, United States As the Debate Captain for San Marin Speech and Debate I taught Parliamentary Debate Theory to Novice, Junior Varsity and Varsity Debaters and earned Winning and Undefeated Records at Parliamentary Debate Tournaments as a member of the Golden Gate Speech and Debate Association and National Speech and Debate Association. ### Student Teaching Assistant @ San Marin High School Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 I've helped teach my high school's AP Computer Science Principles course with the lesson plan and class logistics. I taught base conversions, helped my classmates: go from code blocks to text; understand top-down abstraction; and explained how they could debug their code and use alternative approaches for their final projects by identifying and classifying their issues into syntax, logic, or arithmetic errors. ### FIRST Robotics Competition Team 2551 - Penguin Empire Robotics @ FIRST Robotics Competition Team 2551 - Penguin Empire Robotics Jan 2016 – Jan 2020 | Novato, California, United States During my time at Penguin Empire Robotics I was the President of the team and contributed to the Build Team for Houston World Championships. I learned about electronics, design, prototyping construction, and research for the robot. Other technical skills I gained included soldering, power tool and machine operations, reading engineering drawings, computer-aided design (CAD) with Fusion 360 and OnShape. I also learned game strategy data analysis through Google Sheets, Google Forms, Microsoft Excel, and AppSheet. ### Assistant Instructor @ Z-Ultimate Self Defense Studios Jan 2014 – Jan 2020 | San Rafael, California, United States Taught self-defense and self-discipline for Pre-K to 4th Graders and adults. ### European Tour - Prague, Vienna, Budapest @ Marin Symphony Association Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 After 6 years with the Marin Symphony Youth Programs, I finished my time playing Violin I for the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra with this tour. ## Education ### Master of Science - MS in Computer Science and Engineering UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering ### Bachelor of Science - BS in Computer Engineering UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering ### High School Diploma San Marin High School ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nihalnazeemcse --- Source: https://flows.cv/nihalnazeem JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/nihalnazeem/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05