Ricardo Cruz, Developer in Porto, Portugal
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Ricardo Cruz

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Ricardo Cruz has proposed new deep learning and computer vision methods during his research, a PhD in 2021. His latest big job was in autonomous driving, working on RGB and LiDAR data. He enjoys a good challenge and keeping current with new technologies.

Portfolio

University of Porto [in partnership with Bosch]
Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV...
INESC TEC
PyTorch, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, TensorFlow...
Flykt
R, PHP, JavaScript, Python

Experience

  • Python - 8 years
  • Deep Learning - 5 years
  • TensorFlow - 5 years
  • Computer Vision - 5 years
  • Android - 4 years
  • PyTorch - 3 years
  • Object Detection - 3 years
  • Point Clouds - 1 year

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Python, C++, Computer Vision

The most amazing...

...experience I've had is being selected to participate in Google Summer of Code, where I contributed to the OpenSUSE and LibreOffice open-source projects.

Work Experience

Autonomous Driving Post-Doc Researcher

2021 - 2023
University of Porto [in partnership with Bosch]
  • Led a collaboration between the University of Porto and Bosch Car Multimedia to improve autonomous driving perception.
  • Developed frameworks for object detection using camera and LiDAR, specifically 2D discretization and raw point clouds.
  • Published new methods for efficient semantic segmentation and ordinal regression.
  • Supervised six master's theses, four bachelor's projects, and other team members.
  • Oversaw the HPC infrastructure with the use of Slurm.
Technologies: Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV, Artificial Intelligence (AI), High-performance Computing (HPC)

Machine Learning and Computer Vision Researcher

2015 - 2021
INESC TEC
  • Focused on research and rethought fundamentals about image classification and semantic segmentation for over eight publications.
  • Developed a method for background invariance using adversarial training, Used backpropagation for inference to refine existing outputs, and deployed learning-to-rank methods for class imbalance.
  • Contributed to workshops, Summer School on Computer Vision (VISUM), and other events.
  • Awarded "outstanding recognition" twice for organizing workshops and helping with the HPC infrastructure.
Technologies: PyTorch, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, TensorFlow, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

NLP Engineer

2014 - 2015
Flykt
  • Scraped Wikivoyage to relate keywords with different city destinations. This was a non-successful startup whose goal was to search for travel destinations.
  • Developed the exploratory NLP algorithm using R and also scikit-learn (Python).
  • Helped to port the algorithms to PHP for deployment.
Technologies: R, PHP, JavaScript, Python

Mathematical Modelling Research

2014 - 2014
University of Porto
  • Reviewed and proposed new models for the immune response after HIV infection.
  • Used differential equations solved analytically using Maxima and Sympy.
  • Solved some differential equations by transforming them into stochastic simulations, and the Gillespie algorithm was implemented in R.
Technologies: Python, Java, R, Differential Equations, Simulations

Experience

Light-weight Versatile One-stage Object Detection Framework

https://github.com/rpmcruz/objdetect
Developed this one-stage object detection framework because frameworks like Detectron2 are either for two-stage models or are not versatile and simple enough to adapt to new models.

The functionality includes:
• Pre-processing.
• Supports multi-scale and anchors grids.
• Flexible model heads, training, and evaluation.
• Post-processing, such as non-maximum suppression.
• Plot utilities.
• AP metrics.

Utilities for PointNet and Similar Networks

https://github.com/rpmcruz/pnets
These are a set of utilities for PyTorch to make it easy to do research on PointNet and similar networks.

Functionality includes:
• Augmentation methods.
• Dataset loaders.
• Metrics.
• Plotting routines.
• PointNet implementation.

My Android Play Store

My Play Store includes:
• A couple of games I authored.
• An object detection application I supervised bachelor's students on its development. The model runs directly on the device by exporting the model through TorchMobile.

Uber Pixor Implementation

https://github.com/rpmcruz/pixor
This is an unofficial PIXOR implementation. PIXOR is a neural network for object detection in LiDAR data. It works by discretizing the point cloud onto an image (2D top view) and applying a one-stage object detection based on YOLO (but simpler, without anchors). The innovation of YOLO is that it also outputs angles.

Education

2016 - 2021

PhD in Computer Science

Joint Degree: University of Minho, Aveiro, and Porto - Portugal

2013 - 2015

Master's Degree in Informatics and Applied Mathematics

Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto - Porto, Portugal

2009 - 2012

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto - Porto, Portugal

Certifications

AUGUST 2017 - PRESENT

Deep Learning Specialization

Coursera

MARCH 2014 - PRESENT

Machine Learning Specialization

Coursera

Skills

Libraries/APIs

PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV

Tools

MATLAB

Languages

Python, R, C, C++, Java, PHP, JavaScript

Platforms

Linux, Android

Frameworks

Flask

Storage

Databases

Paradigms

High-performance Computing (HPC)

Other

Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Object Detection, Statistics, Optimization, Web Development, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Applied Mathematics, Point Clouds, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Differential Equations, Simulations

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