About Me

I recently graduated from Clemson University with my Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science. I completed my Master’s with a concentration in Data Science & Informatics, and I completed my Bachelor’s with a minor in Cybersecurity.

I have over a decade of self-led experience with software development, have worked with companies such as Microsoft, Giant Oak, and Ally Financial, and have professional experience in a variety of fields including cloud software development, cybersecurity, and front-end development.

Over the past couple years I have become quite active in artificial intelligence and machine learning research, with my first publication on knowledge distillation being accepted to EMNLP 2023. More recently, I’ve published work on training the first large language models trained for the Setswana language as well as experimenting with improving LLMs’ ability to count. I’m also testing out training African-centric multilingual models as well as some basic model pruning. Back when I worked under Clemson’s IBM Wattson in the Watt CI, I also helped develop systems for classifying FAST ultrasound exams and analyzing text in COVID hospital reports. Even further back, I’ve assisted in virtual reality research under Clemson VRFE, and developed a new method for estimating the circumference of an ellipse back in high school.

I’m very interested in continuing to pursue research and am currently working to further improve my existing research as well as releasing a fully synthetic system prompt-following SFT dataset, which will hopefully be made public soon.

I’ve also worked as the codirector of CUhackit, Clemson University’s official student hackathon organization, the only hackathon organization in South Carolina recognized by MLH, and home of the largest hackathon in South Carolina! We do a lot of interesting work and help get many future engineers their first start, so if you or your organization are interested in working with us don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll get you in contact with the team.

On the side, I love skiing, going on camping and hiking trips, and playing retro games on my homemade arcade cabinet.

Feel free to reach out with any inquiries at nbrown9@clemson.edu. Cheers!