Miguel Monares

I am a student interested in machine learning and blockchain. 

I study at UC San Diego, where I am double majoring in Mathematics-Computer Science and Cognitive Science with a specialization in machine learning and neural computation.

Recent News

Experience

I like to develop and deploy great things.
Intel
Jan 2022 - Present
Student Researcher
At Intel, I build software and infrastructure in edge AI, big data telemetry, and real-time computer vision applications. I am interested in applying and deploying novel machine learning architectures to understand and improve the user experience.
Research Assistant
At UCSD, I am interested in achieving robust computer vision systems. Currently, I am working on identifying and alleviating limitations and biases in computer vision facial expression recognition models.
National University of Singapore
Aug 2022 - Jan 2023
Research Assistant
At NUS, I developed cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) regulation infrastructure for capital markets. I also worked on a blockchain benchmarking framework to profile and compare decentralized apps across and within different blockchains.
Berkeley Pharma Tech
May 2021 - Aug 2022
Software Engineer Intern
At Berkeley Pharma Tech, I architected and led the development of projects in blockchain and mobile applications. Selected projects include a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to fund climate change research of fast growing redwood trees and a full-stack mobile game about infectious diseases.

Publications

My research interests lie in robust machine learning and computer vision toward fair, ethical AI systems.
Mapping System Telemetry to End User Experiences
Miguel Monares, Ritik Raina, Shuangquan Feng, Jamel Tayeb, Farnaz Abdollahi, Virginia de Sa, Bijan Arbab, Vijayalaxmi Patil
Intel Corporation, 2023
PDF (internal Intel publication)
We present a multimodal, edge-based AI system for real-time PC anomaly detection with model personalization, root causing, and severity analysis. We validate this system and conduct a user study leveraging facial expression recognition to study the mapping of anomalous PC behavior to end users' frustrating experiences.
KDD-UC @ ACM SIGKDD, 2023
PDF
We exhibit the presence of racial biases in an action unit (AU) activation estimation model and highlight the non-linearity of biases across skin colors and AUs using an artifically generated dataset of faces. Further, we demonstrate the importance of dataset diversity and representation in achieving robust computer vision models.
BBSF: Blockchain Benchmarking Standardized Framework
Kunpeng Ren, Jeff V. Buskirk, Zheng Yong Ang, Shizheng Hou, Nate Cable, Miguel Monares, Hank Korth, Ooi Beng Chin
Workshop on Verifiable Database Systems @ ACM SIGMOD, 2023
PDF
We design a benchmarking framework for standardized, transparent, and fair blockchain benchmarking on workloads derived from realistic web3 applications.
Exploring Biases in Facial Expression Analysis using Synthetic Faces
Ritik Raina, Miguel Monares, Mingze Xu, Sarah Fabi, Xiaojing Xu, Lehan Li, Will Sumerfield, Jin Gan, Virginia de Sa
SyntheticData4ML Workshop @ NeurIPS, 2022
PDF | video
We created a dataset of synthetically generated faces as a means to explore racial biases in several publicly available computer vision facial expression recognition models.
Understanding User Frustration with PC Anomaly Detection
Miguel Monares, Ritik Raina, Jamel Tayeb, Farnaz Abdollahi, Virginia de Sa, Bijan Arbab, Vijayalaxmi Patil
Intel Corporation, 2022
PDF (internal Intel publication)
We develop a real-time anomaly detection system to identify and collect information about anomalous PC behavior, assisting in root-causing of frustrating or unexpected behavior and, opportunistically, manual/automatic remediation of problematic behavior toward greater user satisfaction.

Projects

I like to build in my free time.
ethos
CEO, Founder
ethos is a self-sovereign platform for privacy-preserving loyalty and rewards using aggregated digital identity.
buildspace s4 cohort.
Mythra
CEO, Founder
Mythra is an account-based solution that integrates your digital identity, assets, and experiences. Built on ERC-4337 Account Abstraction. Managed a team of 5 engineers, BD, and product for development and strategy.
SugarBlock
CTO, Co-Founder
SugarBlock operates as a P2P marketplace that enables nonprofit organizations to find skilled labor and rewards freelancers using crypto donations. 
$15,000 Grand Prize in the Franklin Templeton Blockchain Fintech Competition

Service

NeurIPS
Reviewer
SyntheticData4ML Program Committee: Reviewer.

My experience

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Webflow
Graphic Designer
April 2014 — Mar 2015
Webflow
Web Designer
Apr 2015 — Mar 2016
Webflow
Visual Developer
Jun 2016 — Jul 2017
Webflow
Dictator
Aug 2017 — forever

Want to get in touch?
Drop me a line!

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Experience

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Intel
Student Researcher
Project 2
Web Design
Project 3
Web Design
Project 4
Graphic Design

My experience

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla.

Webflow
Graphic Designer
April 2014 — Mar 2015
Webflow
Web Designer
Apr 2015 — Mar 2016
Webflow
Visual Developer
Jun 2016 — Jul 2017
Webflow
Dictator
Aug 2017 — forever