hello! i'm jonas reger. i'm searching for opportunities to continue research and development in nlp.

thanks for dropping in. i've been working in data science for 5+ years in education and linguistics. read on below to learn more about me and my work.

work experience

puzzle labs, inc.

  • puzzle labs, inc. - head of engineering - champaign, illinois

    head of engineering

    champaign, illinois

    nov 2023 — dec 2023 • 2 months

    actively engaged in meetings with executives, investors, and clients to grasp stakeholder needs, facilitating the development of an improved product for both the company and customers.

  • puzzle labs, inc. - data engineer - champaign, illinois

    data engineer

    champaign, illinois

    may 2023 — dec 2023 • 8 months

    optimized database performance, managed user data with aws s3 and xata, led nlp projects integrating spacy, gpt-4, and other tools, and implemented advanced language models like gpt-3.5-turbo and gpt-4 into the platform, while pioneering knowledge sdk development.

university of illinois

  • university of illinois - data science educator - champaign, illinois

    data science educator

    champaign, illinois

    jan 2019 — may 2023 • 4 years, 5 months

    designed and maintained a high-traffic stat 100 course website, contributed to curriculum development, collaborated with instructors, conducted office hours, taught introductory data science and statistics courses, served as a teaching assistant and instructor, and supported diverse students in acquiring data science skills.

sandia national laboratories

  • sandia national laboratories - r&d graduate intern - albuquerque, new mexico (remote)

    r&d graduate intern

    albuquerque, new mexico (remote)

    may 2022 — aug 2022 • 4 months

    analyzed social media data using python and pushshift api, employed huggingface nlp models for sentiment and topic analysis, developed random forest and deep neural network models for predicting user engagement, and contributed to a national security project at sandia national laboratories, collaborating with a multidisciplinary team.

education

university of illinois urbana-champaign

  • university of illinois urbana-champaign - m.s. statistics - champaign, illinois

    m.s. statistics

    champaign, illinois

    aug 2021 — may 2023 • 1 year, 10 months

    natural language processing, speech signal processing, stochastic processes, machine learning and modeling, data analysis and management, and mathematical statistics
    3.96/4.0

  • university of illinois urbana-champaign - b.s. statistics - champaign, illinois

    b.s. statistics

    champaign, illinois

    aug 2018 — may 2021 • 2 years, 10 months

    mathematics minor. highest distinction in statistics.
    coursework in machine learning and modeling, statistical data analysis, applied and theoretical statistics, fundamental mathematics, and linear algebra
    3.56/4.0

parkland college

  • parkland college - a.s. computer science - champaign, illinois

    a.s. computer science

    champaign, illinois

    aug 2015 — may 2018 • 2 years, 10 months

    coursework in c/c++, java, python, data structures and algorithms, discrete mathematics, and statistics
    3.32/4.0