Like a betta stirred by curiosity,
I find my way — welcome to my story.

Sandra Nguyen portrait

Hello I'm

Sandra Nguyen

By day, I'm a software engineer building user trust and guardrails for AI systems; by night, I'm a part-time student absorbing artificial intelligence like caffiene. Off the clock, you'll find me feeding my chubby fish and chasing candid photos.

In undergrad, my mentors gave me the fire to innovate, my peers the courage to mentor, and my sister the partnership of a lifetime.

As an Asian American woman in tech, I lead with that identity — proudly.

The world was my oyster.

Where I studied

Education

Where formal learning shaped how I think and build.

Grad school now

Georgia Tech OMSCS

M.S. Computer Science · AI specialization · expected Summer 2027

School after work. I'm in Georgia Tech's online MSCS while building software full-time. The AI track is where I go deeper on models, evaluation, and research — then bring that back to production problems.

Machine LearningCore methods and practice Artificial IntelligenceSearch, reasoning, agents Special ProblemsIndependent research Game AIDecision-making under constraints EdTechLearning systems & tools
California State University, Fullerton campus

California State University, Fullerton

B.S. Computer Science · Dec 2024 · Magna Cum Laude

Where I got serious about CS. Fullerton is where research, mentoring, and real projects started stacking up — not just homework. I left with a stronger sense of how systems behave when people actually rely on them.

Artificial IntelligenceClassic AI foundations Machine LearningIntro to ML methods Data Science & Big DataPipelines and analysis CybersecurityFoundations & principles Algorithm EngineeringPerformance-minded algorithms
Fountain Valley High School campus

Fountain Valley High School

Magna Cum Laude

Where it started. CS clicked here first. Calc taught me to sit with hard problems, and AP Lit made me pickier about how I explain things — still useful.

AP CSAFirst real programming AP Calculus BCStructure and proof-ish thinking AP English LitClear writing under pressure

Education

California State University, Fullerton

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Relevant Coursework: Artificial Intelligence, Introduction to Machine Learning, Intro to Data Sci. & Big Data, Cybersecurity Fnd. And Prncp., File Structure & Database, Algorithm Engineering, Data Structures, Statistics Applied to Natural Sciences, Mathematical Structure

Fountain Valley High School

Graduated Magna Cum Laude

Relevant Coursework: Relevant Coursework: AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus BC, AP English Literature and Composition

The currents changed once I started building for real people.

Bcoming a professional

Experience

Roles that turned curiosity into practice.

Software Engineer

February 2025 - Present

  • Build product and platform work around user trust, safety, and AI guardrails.
  • Turn ambiguous system behavior into clearer, safer user-facing experiences.

Information Security Engineering Intern

May 2024 - August 2024

  • Built a prototype that scraped, fingerprinted, and scored suspicious URLs in real time.
  • Used Airflow, AWS EC2, PostgreSQL, Pyppeteer, and Scikit-Learn to investigate ad cloaking and redirect behavior.

Community Tutor & Student Assistant

August 2022 - December 2024

  • Co-organized workshops, panels, socials, and leadership events for 1500+ women in CS and engineering.
  • Built web experiences for ECS leadership programming and tutored intro CS/math structures students.

Campus Director & Associate Program Lead

August 2022 - May 2024

  • Coordinated anonymous student culture and belonging data collection across six CS/engineering departments.
  • Worked with 12+ campus directors nationwide on data-driven advocacy.

Peer Mentor

June 2023 - December 2024

  • Advised 100+ students on data science and pairs-trading research projects.
  • Mentored freshmen and transfer students through goals, problem solving, and professional development.

Research Assistant

January 2024 - May 2024

  • Selected for a semester-long research fellowship under faculty mentorship.
  • Built a Unity learning analytics pilot study with 80 participants.

Research Fellow

January 2023 - August 2023

  • Selected for the NSF-funded Harnessing the Data Revolution Data Science Corps program.
  • Analyzed neuronal activity with statistical tests and multinomial logistic regression.

Experience

Ideas kept bubbling up past midnight...

Built things

Projects

Things I built when an idea needed a home.

Malicious Link Fingerprint preview

May 2024 - August 2024

Malicious Link Fingerprint

Apache Airflow PostgreSQL AWS EC2

Real-time detection and scoring of malicious links for Reddit Ads.

Novel fingerprinting methodology for dynamic content, cloaking, and ad threat detection.

Open project
Lightning MuQueen RC car preview

February 2024 - May 2024

Lightning MuQueen Remote-Controlled Car

Arduino Uno Bluetooth Motors

Arduino-powered RC car with steering, speed, and Bluetooth control.

Motor management, communication, and mechanical assembly in a compact systems project.

Open project
Auto-drifts every 5 seconds. Drag, hover, or focus to pause.

Projects

May 2024 - August 2024

Security, Privacy, and Compliance Engineering (SPACE) @ Reddit

February 2024 - May 2024

Theta Tau @ CSUF

Malicious Link Fingerprint

Real-time detection and scoring of malicious links coupled with novel fingerprinting methodology on dynamic content for safeguarding Reddit Ads.

Lightning MuQueen Remote-Controlled Car

Arduino-powered RC car with motor management, steering, speed control, and Bluetooth communication and mechanical assembly.

Along the way, I found friends with the same drive.

Weekend sprints

Hackathons

Fast sprints where pressure sharpened the work.

Lumi's Quest preview

February 24-25, 2024

Lumi's Quest: Revival

C#UnityWebGL

Coral reef conservation through a 2D adventure and quiz game.

Winner of Cool Game Project at FullyHacks.

Open project
Evergreen preview

February 16-18, 2024

Evergreen

FastAPINode.jsSQLite

Gamified, AI-guided access to CS education.

TreeHacks build centered on equitable customized learning paths.

Open project
Rheia preview

June 22-23, 2023

Rheia

PythonScikit-learnFlask

Data-driven STI early intervention and contact tracing.

Built for Tech Solutions to Reduce Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Open project
Mischief in Montreal preview

April 15-16, 2023

Mischief in Montreal

KerasScikit-learnTensorFlow

ML analysis for policy in Montreal's criminal landscape.

Winner of Best Overall and People's Choice at Embark Datathon.

Open project
Fully Green preview

April 8-9, 2023

Fully Green

JavaAndroid StudioScikit-learn

AI-powered image recognition for recycling assistance.

Winner of Best Mobile App at FullyHacks.

Open project
Drag or tap. The shelf keeps moving only when you are not interacting.

Hackathons

February 24-25, 2024

FullyHacks Hackathon @ CSUF

February 16-18, 2024

TreeHacks Hackathon @ Stanford

June 22-23, 2023

Tech Solutions to Reduce Sexualy Transmitted Infections Hackathon @ National Academy of Medicine

April 15-16, 2023

Embark Datathon @ UCI

April 8-9, 2023

FullyHacks Hackathon @ CSUF

Lumi's Quest: Revival

Coral reef conservation brought to life through an immersive 2D adventure & quiz game.

Winner of Cool Game Project

Evergreen

Gamification for equitable access to CS education, featuring AI-driven, customized learning paths.

Rheia

Novel solution to STI early intervention and contact tracing with data-driven healthcare application.

Mischief in Montreal

Thorough data analytics & machine learning approach for developing policies in Montreal criminal landscape.

Winner of Best Overall
Winner of People's Choice

Fully Green

AI-powered image recognition assistance with recycling mobile app.

Winner of Best Mobile App

Burning questions became answers I built.

Questions I chased

Research

Questions that needed more than a weekend to answer.

LightBox XAI preview

January 2024 - December 2024

LightBox XAI

SHAPLIMEGPT-3

Explanatory AI initiative for model decisions and real-time LLM explanations.

Mentored by Marc Velasco; senior capstone project at CSUF.

Open work
Phocrastination preview

March 2023 - May 2024

Phocrastination

C#UnitySVM

Game-based assessment and classification of academic procrastination.

Mentored by Dr. Doina Bein and Dr. June Ahn through Digital Learning Lab.

Open work
Hippocampal ensembles preview

June 2023 - August 2023

Hippocampal Ensembles

PythonBootstrappingRegression

Statistical analysis of neuronal activity in temporal event organization.

SoCal Data Science Program at UCI with Dr. Babak Shahbaba.

Open work
Malicious ads research preview

August 2022 - May 2023

Malicious Ads Analysis

BeautifulSoupRandom ForestStreamlit

Automating malicious content analysis to protect users from ad fraud.

ASSURE-US research with Dr. Doina Bein.

Open work
Real and fake job postings analysis preview

May 2022 - July 2022

Real/Fake Job Postings

PandasGaussian MixtureSilhouette

End-to-end Scikit-learn workflow on 18k job postings.

ASSURE-US research with Dr. Doina Bein.

Open work
Focus mode keeps details quiet until someone asks for them.

Research

January 2024 - Dec 2024

Senior Capstone Project @ CSUF

March 2023 - May 2024

Digital Learning Lab @ UCI

June 2023 - August 2023

SoCal Data Science Program @ UCI

August 2022 - May 2023

ASSURE-US @ CSUF

May 2022 - July 2022

ASSURE-US @ CSUF

LightBox XAI

Exploratory XAI initiative integrating novel methodologies, visualizations, and real-time LLM explanations to demystify the decision-making processes of AI models.

Marc Velasco

Phocrastination: A Game-Based Approach to Assessing and Classifying Academic Procrastination in College Students

Exploratory classification of real-world academic procrastination through game-based simulation of student learning environments.

Dr. Doina Bein, Dr. June Ahn

Hippocampal Ensembles Represent Sequential Relationships Among an Extended Sequence of Nonspatial Events

Data science & statistics-informed analysis of neuronal activity from a rodent-based odor experiment to determine hippocampal involvement in temporal event organization.

Dr. Babak Shahbaba

Data Science Analysis of Malicious Ads and Threat Detection Automation for Cybersecurity Progress

Novel approach to automating the analysis of malicious content on the internet to protect users against Google ad fraud.

Dr. Doina Bein

Data Science Analysis on Real/Fake Job Postings

End-to-end Scikit-learn workflow on 18k real/fake job postings from 2020 to predict legitimacy.

Dr. Doina Bein

And I finally got a taste of the vast ocean.

Publications

April, 2025

Yokohama, Japan

July 2023

San Francisco, CA

March 2023

Las Vegas, NV

Phocrastination: A Game-Based Approach to Assessing and Classifying Academic Procrastination in College Students

2025 ACM Computer Human Interaction (CHI)

Expected Author & Presenter

2024 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)

Presenter

2023 Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR)

Presenter

Improving Internet Advertising Using Click-Through Rate Prediction

14th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2023)

Co-Author

Data Science Analysis of Malicious Ads and Threat Detection Automation for Cybersecurity Progress

2023 IEEE 13th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC)

Author & Presenter

2022 Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR)

Presenter

Each success steers me in the right direction.

Awards

December 2024

Edwards Lifesciences

March 2024

Southern California for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR)

January 2024

Computing Research Association (CRA) Education

November 2023

CSUF Undergraduate Research and Opportunity Center (UROC)

May 2023

STEM Advantage

March 2023

Advancing Women in Technology (AWT)

Edwards Lifesciences Scholar

Awarded recognition for exceptional student leadership in WiCSE

William M. Whitney, Ph.D. Travel Award

Awarded $500 to support student travel to NCUR

Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (URA)

Awarded Honorable Mention for demonstrating outstanding potential in computing research

UROC Fellowship Award

Awarded $5,000 grant to conduct and present research at annual research symposium

STEM Advantage Scholarship

Awarded $3,750 grant to attend classes full-time and graduate with less student debt

AWT Scholarship

Awarded $7,500 grant to further education in the technology field

A few thoughts to leave you with.

Designed & made with ♡ by Sandra Nguyen @2025