2024–now
Machine Learning Research Intern
PACS AI Group · Medical imaging research · Boston & remote
Physics × computation / Santa Barbara
Roy Vaid
Physics, machine learning, and research software.
I’m a physics student at UC Santa Barbara. I build software for medical imaging, autonomous navigation, astronomy, and quantitative research.
- Now
- B.S. Physics, UCSB ’30
- Based
- Santa Barbara, California
- Status
- Open to opportunities
About
Physics student and software builder
My work covers CT imaging, astronomy, embedded navigation, and live data systems. I handle the research code, evaluation, and user-facing software.
Outside the lab, I founded Borrow the Sky, a library astronomy-access program, and ran public stargazing nights for young people. At Phillips Exeter Academy, I co-led the Astronomy Club and turned an online forum into a shared satellite-data project.
Education
UC Santa Barbara
B.S. Physics · expected 2030
Languages
Python · Java · Kotlin · SQL
plus Rust & TypeScript in current builds
Recognition
U.S. Presidential Scholars semifinalist
MacKenty Astronomy Prize · ONR Award
Experience
Research experience.
Summer 2025
Astrophysics Researcher
Summer Science Program · Astrometry and orbit determination · Georgia
July 2024
Research Intern
UCSF Radiology & Biomedical Imaging · CT reconstruction and segmentation
Selected work
Projects
Astrometry, medical imaging, robotics, standalone VR, and Earth observation.
Near-Earth asteroid 2009 KD5
I helped collect three astrometric observations, recovered the asteroid’s heliocentric state with Gauss’s method, and propagated measurement uncertainty into all six orbital elements with Monte Carlo trials.
1.046 AUsemi-major axis
0.262eccentricity
13.489°inclination
The measured astrometry was published in Minor Planet Circular 186587 under R. K. Vaid for object 263976.
CT report generation
At PACS AI Group, I built λ-AttentionNet, a multimodal model that combines TransUNet imaging features with CLIP vision-language outputs to draft radiology reports and express confidence per prediction.
72→92%report accuracy
−42%reporting time
2 sitesdouble-blind study
I also built the PyTorch data pipeline: voxel normalization, anatomical segmentation, and OCR that parsed reports into seven structured sections.
Insect navigation in 3.2 kB
I designed an insect-inspired familiarity circuit for panoramic navigation on a microcontroller. Procedural Kenyon-cell connectivity eliminates the projection lookup table.
3,130 Btotal state
0 Bprojection ROM
70%homing convergence
Accepted as a spotlight and poster at the IROS 2026 Workshop on Insect-Scale Autonomy. The repository includes the implementation, simulation, and memory audit.
SourceVR
Seven Source-engine games, running directly on a standalone headset.
I’m a main dev on the native Quest and PICO ports, including the unified launcher, retail-content import, update path, and save-preserving migration tools.
- C++
- Java
- Android
- OpenXR
- APK downloads
- 2,885
- GitHub stars
- 53
Qualyx
A desktop VR game, running natively on Meta Quest.
I’m a main dev on the standalone Half-Life: Alyx port, with work across native runtime bridges, rendering, controller tracking, and Android packaging.
- C++
- Java
- OpenXR
- ARM64
- APK downloads
- 967
- GitHub stars
- 31
Satellite data explorer
I co-built a local-first geospatial explorer for studying migration, urban growth, and activity change through satellite-derived proxy metrics.
Earth Engine computes the tiles. FastAPI, SQLite, React, and Leaflet handle time-series analysis, regional comparisons, animations, and exports.
Publications and workshops
Research
R/01
NeurIPS 2026 · NEmo Workshop · accepted poster
Does a Readable Symbol Matter? Causal Calibration of J-Lens Predicates in Embodied Action Selection
Tests whether readable symbolic predicates in embodied language agents causally influence the next action.
R/02
IROS 2026 · Workshop on Insect-Scale Autonomy · accepted spotlight + poster
How Much Route Fits in 3.2 kB? Capacity Limits of Quantized Kenyon-Cell Familiarity
Tests quantized familiarity navigation under a 3.2 kB state budget with closed-loop LiDAR trials in a Seville ant habitat.
R/03
CoRL 2026 · SPAIS Workshop · submitted
What Do Robot Safety Benchmarks Observe? A Paper-Level Audit of Evaluation Oracles in Robot Foundation Models
Audits 36 evaluator units across six manipulation-safety benchmarks, separating simulator-internal labels from signals a runtime robot monitor could observe.
R/04
ICLR 2027 · under review
Activation Tails Select Suboptimal Profiles in Expressive Networks
Constructs an expressive-network failure mode where vanishing Gaussian activation tails still determine the leading parameter profile of a positive-risk trajectory.
R/05
AIxVR 2026 · submitted
Latent Augmentation: AI-Enabled XR and the Erosion of Unwatched Social Interaction
A framework for studying hidden capability asymmetries when AI-augmented XR enters face-to-face interaction.
R/06
NeSyDebates 2026 · submitted
Residual Effects of Symbolic Binding
Measures how in-context symbolic aliases change the persistence of intermediate arithmetic states across transformer layers.
R/07
ICWSM · submitted
Can a Small Audit Certify Rare Online Harms? Finite-Sample Limits and Prediction-Assisted Prevalence Bounds
Establishes finite-sample limits for rare-harm audits and evaluates prediction-assisted prevalence bounds that require fewer human labels.
R/08
IEEE ICASSP 2027 · submitted
Predicting Spectral Training Dynamics in Bilinear PINNs with a Weight-Space Modal Tangent Kernel
Derives the weight-space modal tangent kernel for bilinear Fourier PINNs and tests its training-trajectory predictions against gradient descent.
Archive
Other projects
01 OpenGlobe Local-first 3D/2D globe for public Earth, mobility, hazard, infrastructure, and space data. CesiumJS · MapLibre · DuckDB
05VMAGMotion, color, pulse, and audio signals recovered from video.CV · Python · TS
06IMC Monte CarloDistribution-first backtesting for market-making strategies.Python · simulation
07gov-dataClean JSON over SAM.gov and USAspending with signed webhooks.FastAPI · data infra
08Alternative Data LabTests whether real-world activity proxies carry a stable market signal.Statistics · Python
10TVSummarizerTurns episodes and subtitles into short vertical recap videos.Main dev · private sourcecollab
11Prediction-Market MatcherDesktop research tool for matching prediction markets and comparing order books.Main dev · Electronprivate
12Steering MetricsControlled comparison of activation-space costs under a fixed probe.Interpretability · PyTorchresearch
Observing archive
Astrophotography
Contact
Get in touch
I’m looking for research and engineering roles in physics, machine learning, and quantitative systems.