Richard Li
I'm passionate about applying programming techniques to improve quality of life—whether that's optimizing activities I love or pushing forward fields I'm curious about.
Welcome to my corner of the internet. Here you'll find my internships, research, projects, and a bit about my hobbies.
Education
Columbia University
Computer Science Major, Minor in East Asian Language and Culture
Previous Classes:
Data Structures and Algorithms, Classical Machine Learning, Advanced Systems Programming, Deep Learning for Computer Vision, Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra & Probability
Current Classes:
Operating Systems, Fundamentals of Computer Systems, Applied Machine Learning
Clubs:
- Wushu (Vice President Fall '25 - present)
- Application Development Initiative (Exec Board Co-lead Fall '25 - present)
- Columbia Space Initiative (SUITS Mission @ NASA Subteeam lead Spring '26 - present)
- Columbia Wealth Management Club (Marketing direction Spring '25, Treasurer Fall '25-present)
Academics
GPA 3.65/4.00 • Dean's List Spring '25, Fall '25
Languages
Python, Java, C, R, SQL, JavaScript, C#, TypeScript, Bash
ML & AI
Vision-Language Models, CLIP, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, LLMs, Text-to-Audio
Frameworks & Tools
PyTorch, PyTorch Lightning, React, Supabase, Unity, NumPy, Hydra, Playwright, AWS (S3/EC2), PostgreSQL, PineconeDB, Docker, CUDA, Linux, Git
Experience Timeline
Nov 2025
Software Engineer Intern @ Bite Campus Eats — New York, NY
Backend/API Software Engineer. Research algorithmic surge pricing in large food delivery companies.
Sep 2025
AI Research Intern @ Toonsutra — Bellevue, WA
Research the use of Vision Language Models to increase the accuracy of comic-book translation for four south-Asian dialects.
Jun 2025
Research Intern @ Microsoft — Redmond, WA
Researched the use of custom semantic linear classifiers for improving zero-shot model prediction.
Jan 2023
Bioinformatics & Data Analyst Intern @ University of Washington, Department of Medicine — Seattle, WA
Conducted research characterizing infection dynamics within the macaque placenta and fetal brain.
2023
Research Assistant @ Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences — Pasadena, CA
Researched use of Monte Carlo Markov Chains in adjusting NO2 Satellite readings for atmospheric factors (’23). Created a novel algorithm to predict and monitor spread of wildfires using satellite data (’22).
Jun 2022
Intern @ Clobotics Wind Services — Bellevue, WA
Gained experience applying neural networks for analyzing wind turbine quality datasets.
What I'm Into
Wushu
Martial arts training and discipline
Jazz
Exploring improvisation and rhythm
Book Club
Reading and discussing great literature
Skateboarding
Pushing boundaries and having fun
Fitness
Building strength and endurance
Tech
Always learning and building