applied AI engineer, cognitive science researcher, & human‑centered technologist.
I'm a product engineer and AI/ML scientist focused on bridging the gap between machine and human intelligence. Currently based in LA at the University of Southern California as a Trustee Scholar, where I'm pursuing a bachelor’s in Cognitive Science and a master’s in Computer Science.
As a researcher with the USC Information Sciences Institute, I’m interested in exploring the intersection of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. I study LLMs' abstract reasoning capabilities through the lens of graph theory, linguistics, and cognitive psychology.
I also post articles on a Substack publication, The Perceptron, where I write on cognition, computation, perception, and intelligence.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.14086
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/colegawin_chatgpt-cognitivescience-artificialintelligence-activity-7207080948952174593-RJu4
https://colegawin.substack.com
Tandem
May 2025 – Present
Applied AI Engineer Intern
LavaLab
May 2025 – Present
President (ex. Director of Development)
Code the Change
Aug. 2024 – Present
Tech Lead
Nora Music
Jan. 2024 – Aug. 2024
Head of Product & Engineering
Class Companion
Aug. 2023 – Dec. 2023
Founding Machine Learning Engineer
Expo
Jan. 2022 – Aug. 2022
Developer Relations Intern
I serve as President of LavaLab, USC's premier product incubator, where I shape the next generation of founders and entrepreneurship at USC as a whole. I've previously served as a Tech Lead for Code the Change, overseeing a team of student developers building a mobile app for a local non-profit.
Currently, I'm an Applied AI Engineer Intern at Tandem, a startup in the healthcare space working to accelerate access to medicine. Previously, I worked with Nora Music as Head of Product & Engineering, where I led a team building an innovative music discovery platform. I also worked with Class Companion, transforming educational content delivery through engineering AI systems for automated assignment generation.
I'm particularly fascinated by human-computer interaction and AI for social impact. Among others, I've developed AI solutions for medical coding and language learning, winning multiple hackathon awards for novel applications of machine learning and LLMs.
—
Stanford TreeHacks 2025
—
Big Data Visualization Award
—
LavaLab Spring 2024
—
Judge's Choice Award for Best Product
—
Stanford TreeHacks 2024
—
Best Use of Open-Source AI Models (sponsored by Together.AI)
—
Best Use of Bun.sh
—
Sigma Eta Pi Fall 2023
—
Judge's Choice Award
—
Audience's Choice Award
—
USC OORI Grant Recipient
—
Techstars LA S24
—
2022 Congressional App Challenge
—
5.2k Downloads