Hi, my name is Ali Rahimian, and I'm a graduate research assistant at the Charlotte Machine Learning Lab (CharMLab), where I work on sparse attention, efficient Transformer models, and visual representation learning.

Some highlights from my CV:

• 2nd Place — JCAL Programming Contest (May 2018)
• 3rd Place — Sharif ICT Challenge (Aug 2019)
• 4th Place — Sharif Spaghetti Programming Contest (Dec 2019)
• 10th Place — JavaCup Programming Contest (Oct 2019)
• 31st Place — Mobile Programming Marathon (Sep 2019)
• Certificate of Achievement — 17th ACM ICPC (Nov 2019)

Selected Repositories

Efficient Transformer Models (2024-2025)

• fibottention — Inceptive Visual Representation Learning with Diverse Attention Across Heads
• sparse-attention-benchmarks — A Comprehensive Benchmark of Sparse Attention Mechanisms in Vision Transformers
• attention-is-all-you-need — Attention Is All You Need: A PyTorch Implementation from Scratch
• fine-grained-pruning — Fine-grained Pruning
• linear-quantization-vgg — Linear Quantization

Optimization for Machine Learning

• accelerated-gradient — Accelerated Gradient Methods: Momentum, Nesterov, and When Theory Misbehaves
• gradient-descent-lab — Gradient Descent Lab: Methods and Empirical Behavior
• jina — Genetic & simulated annealing optimization
• ridge-hyperparam-sweep — Ridge Regression Hyperparameter Sweep
• logreg-naive-bayes — ML Classifiers: Logistic Regression (GD/IRLS) + Naive Bayes (Gaussian/Bernoulli)
• nonlinear-2d-classifier — Nonlinear Decision Boundaries with a Two-Layer Neural Network

Deep Reinforcement Learning & Game Theory

• ctrl — CTRL: Cross-Task Reinforcement Learning
• carracing-ppo — CarRacing PPO (Gymnasium + Stable-Baselines3)
• pong-dqn — Pong DQN: Deep Q-Learning on Atari Pong
• frozenlake-qlearning — FrozenLake Q-Learning
• lunarlander-ppo — LunarLander PPO
• lunarlander-dqn-per-noise — LunarLander DQN: Prioritized Replay + Parameter Noise
• pacman-pathfinding— Pac-Man RL agent with BFS/DFS/A* heuristics
• alpha-beta-pruning — Optimal decision-making with minimax pruning

Computer Vision & Deep Learning

• truthlens — TruthLens: Training-Free Data Verification for Deepfake Images via VQA-style Probing (ICML 2025)
• watershed — Image segmentation with Watershed algorithm
• oneshot-openclip-tta — One-Shot Classification with OpenCLIP + Test-Time Prototype Adaptation
• moco-joint-ssl-training — SSL-First Image Classification (MoCo + Joint Optimization)
• vit-transfer-learning-pipeline — Transfer Learning for Maximum Accuracy: ViT Fine-Tuning Pipeline
• mnist-simplenet-pytorch — MNIST SimpleNet with PyTorch
• opencv-tracking-algorithms — Real-time tracking (CAMShift, Lucas-Kanade, KCF, etc.)
• ira — Real-time keypoint detection (face, eyes, edges)
• hsfc — Hand segmentation & finger counting with convex hull
• kcnn — CNN for image classification (TensorFlow/Keras, MNIST)

Distributed & Cloud Computing

• sparxiv — A Spark-Based Recommender System for arXiv
• aws-serverless-data-analytics-pipeline — AWS Serverless Data Analytics Pipeline
• aws-ecommerce-analytics-s3-glue-athena-pipeline — AWS E-Commerce Analytics Pipeline (S3 • Glue • Athena)
• spark-structured-streaming — Ride Sharing Analytics Using Spark Structured Streaming & Spark SQL
• spark-music-streaming-analysis — Music Streaming Analysis Using Spark Structured APIs
• jaccard-mapreduce — Jaccard Similarity with Hadoop MapReduce
• hadoop-mapreduce-wordcount — Hadoop-MapReduce-WordCount
• docker — Flask + Redis with Docker Compose
• docker-containers — Docker Containers

Parallel Computing

• cuda-openmp-nbody-simulation — Parallel N Body Simulation: Sequential, OpenMP, and CUDA Implementations
• cuda-h2d-d2h-bandwidth-study — CUDA H2D/D2H Bandwidth Study
• mergesort-parallelization-study — Merge Sort: Parallelization Study
• prefixsum-openmp-benchmark — Parallel Prefix Sum With OpenMP
• data-processing — Fast transaction data processing with SQLite
• parallel-computation — Blockchain transaction concurrency

Algorithms & Competitive Programming

• competitive-programming — ACM-ICPC problems & algorithm design
• Profiles
  • Codeforces: https://codeforces.com/profile/Ali811
  • Timus Online Judge: https://acm.timus.ru/author.aspx?id=238630

Systems, Networking & Security

• tcp-socket — TCP-based messenger
• aes-encryption — AES encryption/decryption

Software Development

• jaga — 2D/3D Android game development framework
• ase — Local search engine with TF-IDF and n-grams
• ezpark — Campus parking spot availability app
• kal — Kalshi Quick CLI + Demo Trader
• Discord bots:
  • Utility: community-votes, temp-vc, threads, infinity-bot, melody-cafe, owl, english-cafe
  • Minigames: game-of-life, bomb-party, find-the-spy, zuzu, esm-famil, math-blitz, flag-frenzy, perfect-match