James Diffenderfer Email & Phone Number

Livermore, California, United States

• Researching out-of-distribution and adversarial robustness, dynamic neural network adaptation for robustness (to out-of-distribution data) and compression, and catastrophic forgetting; Published at NeurIPS 2022• Designed neural network pruning and quantization experiments yielding 60× memory and 4× latency reduction on edge device (NVIDIA Jetson) while maintaining 95% of test performance compared to baseline• Proposed LDRD exploratory research project on gradient-free deep learning and secured funding for team of 4 researchers for 3 years (as Principal Investigator)• Managing project with team of 4 LLNL research staff, 2 university subcontracts, and 2 summer interns• Awarded LLNL Deputy Director Science and Technology (DDS&T) Publication Excellence Award

Livermore, California, United States

• Researched and developed neural network pruning and binarization methods and their effects on accuracy and out-of-distribution robustness; Published at ICLR 2021 and NeurIPS 2021• Investigated theoretical confidence in approximate computing methods through the use of error bound analysis and uncertainty quantification techniques; Implemented strategy on GPUs using CUDA• Proposed LDRD feasibility study research project on training scientific ML models and secured $150K in funding• Mentored LLNL Data Science Summer Institute (DSSI) and Approximate Computing summer interns• Awarded LLNL DDS&T Publication Excellence Award and Center for Applied and Scientific Computing SPOT Award

Livermore, Ca

• Investigating efficacy of methods for reducing bandwidth and storage costs in parallelizable algorithms being implemented on high-performance computing clusters• Collaborated on performing stability analysis for ZFP compression algorithm and for use of ZFP compression inline with parallelizable iterative methods which resulted in 2 research papers• Communicated results of analysis at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE19) in Spokane, WA

Livermore, Ca

• Supported efforts of Variable Precision Computing group on 2 research projects and acquired experience working with high-performance computing systems• Conceptualized method for analyzing the stability of the ZFP compression/decompression algorithm• Implemented and tested mixed precision versions of the fixed point iterative solver KINSOL with Anderson acceleration in the SUNDIALS C++ software package that resulted in a reduction in the number of iterations in 25% of test cases

Gainesville, Florida Area

• Researched and developed a nonlinear program solver, NPASA, which resulted in 2 research papers and currently developing C implementation of nonlinear program solver NPASA• Contributed to the source code and data structure development for the C implementation of the polyhedral constrained optimization problem solver PASA• Developed makefiles and implemented Python and MATLAB interfaces for the optimization software suite SuiteOPT

Gainesville, Florida Area

• Assisted with instruction and grading for 60 - 120 students 1 semester a year in Calculus 1, Calculus 3, or Differential Equations and received overall instructor rating of 4.76 / 5 from students• Introduced online student surveys, analyzed responses, and tailored instruction to the needs of each section• Administered examinations for 60 - 120 students, proofed examinations, and designed weekly assignments

Statesboro, Ga

• Instructed and developed course materials for 3 to 4 Calculus I, Survey of Calculus, Precalculus, Trigonometry, or College Algebra courses per semester• Personalized teaching techniques during office hours to accommodate learning styles of over 50 individuals• Volunteered on committee to organize and host the Annual Invitational Georgia Southern Mathematics Tournament and facilitated the grading and ranking of 800 - 1000 examinations

Statesboro, Ga

• Developed 16 hours of instructional materials for course reviewing math on the Graduate Records Examination (GRE)• Taught 6 separate month long courses to prepare students for the mathematics section of the GRE

Statesboro, Ga

Statesboro, Ga

• Collaborated on preparation and organization of bulk mail projects with up to 3,000 letters and compiled visiting student information packets for the Office of Admissions• Communicated details about Georgia Southern University to over 30 prospective or current students in person and on the phone each week

Statesboro, Ga

• Presented information about Georgia Southern University to groups of up to 300 incoming students and parents• Facilitated 14 different break out sessions for groups of 20 - 30 incoming students• Supervised 10 enrollment sessions of over 100 students and provided academic counseling to over 50 students

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Applied Mathematics - Optimization, 4.0

Activities and Societies: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Graduate Student Mentor

Master Of Science - Ms, Computer Science, 4.0

Master Of Science - Ms, Mathematics, 4.0

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Mathematics, 3.79