About
Hi, I'm Shengrui Chen, and I also go by Leon. I'm a UC San Diego student studying Math-CS and Cognitive Science. I could describe myself as a software engineer or an AI engineer, but I think of myself more simply as a problem solver.
My background spans full-stack development, algorithms, game development, and early-stage machine learning research. I enjoy learning across different areas and turning rough ideas into systems that work.
Technology will keep changing, and I want to make sure I keep moving forward with it. Whatever I work on, I hope to build things that are genuinely useful to people and make technology more practical and meaningful.
Research
My research interests sit at the intersection of machine learning, perception, and cognition.
Machine Learning, Perception, and Cognition Lab
Student Researcher
Working with Prof. Zhuowen Tu at UC San Diego's mlPC Lab. I am exploring research directions across machine learning, computer vision, deep learning, and multimodal learning, with an interest in models that can learn from structured, large-scale, and multi-modal data.
Experience
Practical engineering, research, and student development experience.
Helport
Software Engineering Intern
Working in a product-oriented engineering environment on AI-enabled software systems. Gaining hands-on experience with backend services, containerized development, team collaboration, and production-focused engineering workflows.
iOffer
Software Engineering Intern
Built product features across an AI-powered education platform, including a React Flow workflow editor, student-facing dashboard views, and a backend case-experience crawler and query pipeline. Worked across a Next.js frontend and FastAPI backend, adding tests and integrating features with existing services.
CSES UCSD
Open-source student developer
Contributed to student-led software projects while learning from real codebases, collaborating with other developers, and improving my engineering workflow.
Selected Projects
A few projects that reflect my interests in useful software, interactive systems, and AI.
Study Buddy
Full-stack study partner platform
A campus-focused web app for finding study partners and groups, creating posts, commenting, searching users, and supporting private and group chat. I designed both the frontend and backend architecture and worked through real full-stack integration issues.
Recollection
Multiplayer cooperative puzzle game
A cooperative puzzle game about memory, communication, and solving challenges together. I contributed to both game design and technical implementation, including shared-control interactions and multiplayer logic.
Visual Reasoning with VLMs
Vision-language reasoning
An AI project exploring how vision-language models reason over visual information, approach multi-step tasks, and reveal failure cases beyond simple image recognition.
Anime Generative Studio
Generative media and creative tooling
A creative AI project exploring anime-style generation, visual model workflows, and the practical strengths and limitations of open-source generative models.
Skills
A focused set of technologies I use across software engineering and research.
Languages
Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, C/C++, Java, and Linux kernel programming.
Product Engineering
React, Next.js, Node.js, FastAPI, REST APIs, and PostgreSQL.
ML & AI
Machine learning, computer vision, multimodal learning, reinforcement learning, and AI agents.
Infrastructure & Tools
Docker, Kubernetes, Git, GitHub, Postman, and Linux development workflows.
Resume
Education
University of California San Diego
- Math-CS / Cog Sci
- Focused on machine learning systems, software engineering, and algorithms
Skills
- Languages: Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, C/C++, Java, Linux kernel programming
- Product Engineering: React, Next.js, Node.js, FastAPI, REST APIs, PostgreSQL
- ML & AI: Machine learning, computer vision, multimodal learning, reinforcement learning
- Infrastructure & Tools: Docker, Kubernetes, Git, GitHub, Postman, Linux