The hardest part of research is always to find a question that's big enough that it's worth answering, but little enough that you actually can answer it. — Prof. Edward Witten
I am an AI scientist and engineer. I currently work as a Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon, on the Special Projects Team within Amazon Ads, specifically Sponsored Products. My work focuses on generative and agentic AI, large-scale recommendation systems, and problems at the intersection of Computer Science and Economics. Before joining Amazon, I was a Machine Learning Research Scientist and Associate Director of the PittNAIL Lab at the University of Pittsburgh, while also serving as a Research Collaborator at HealthUnity. Prior to Pitt, I worked as a Research Engineer at DawnLight, a Sequoia Capital-backed startup, and earlier as an AI Researcher at Mayo Clinic. I love all aspects of AI and software systems, and am interested in optimizing the entire stack, from algorithms, training dynamics, and model alignment to per-second and per-watt efficiency on everything from edge devices to large-scale computing clusters. A more detailed biography is also available.
My contact card:
curl -Ls oniani.org/card | shNews & Updates
- 10/2026 First-authored paper accepted at Amazon Machine Learning Conference (AMLC) 2026 Workshop on Test-Time Scaling
- 07/2026 Reached exactly 1,000 citations on Google Scholar (h-index: 14, i10-index: 15) on July 4, 2026!
- 03/2026 Nominated to be an Amazon Research Liaison (ARL)
- 12/2025 Promoted to Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon
- 09/2025 First-authored paper accepted at Amazon Machine Learning Conference (AMLC) 2025 Main Conference
- 03/2025 First-authored paper on LLMs for drug indications named Top 10 (8th) Chemistry Scientific Reports paper
- 03/2025 Co-first-authored literature review on AI for Precision Nutrition published at Advances in Nutrition
- 10/2024 First-authored paper accepted at Amazon Machine Learning Conference (AMLC) 2024 Workshop
- 08/2024 Co-authored survey on NLP for Digital Health in the Era of LLMs published at IMIA Yearbook 2024
- 07/2024 Co-authored paper on using NLP for extracting sleep information published at JAMIA
- 06/2024 Joined Amazon as an Applied Scientist
- 05/2024 First-authored paper on LLMs for generating drug indications published at Scientific Reports
- 04/2024 First-authored paper on LLMs for CDS accepted at IEEE Human-Centred XAI Workshop
- 04/2024 Co-authored abstract on LLMs for Bone Cancer accepted at ASCO 2024
- 03/2024 Co-authored paper on Generative LLM Metrics published at Nature's npj Digital Medicine
- 03/2024 Inducted as a Full Member into Sigma Xi
- 03/2024 Co-authored paper on using NLP for addressing housing instability published at JCTS
- 01/2024 Co-authored paper on Information Retrieval (IR) literature review published at JHIR
- 12/2023 Check out news articles on our recent Generative AI Ethics publication [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
- 12/2023 First-authored paper on Generative AI Ethics published at Nature's npj Digital Medicine
- 11/2023 First-authored paper on In-Context Learning (ICL) released on arXiv
- 09/2023 Received the Green Card for Exceptional Ability (NIW)
- 09/2023 First-authored paper on ReDWINE published at IJMI
- 08/2023 First-authored paper on LLMs Vote prompting released on arXiv
- 06/2023 First-authored paper on SNNs for FSL was published at JMIR AI
- 04/2023 Joined HealthUnity as a collaborator
- 12/2022 First-authored paper on NMT models for health literacy accepted at AMIA Summit
- 12/2022 Co-authored paper on rule-based NLP for Alzheimer's Disease IE released on arXiv
- 02/2022 Joined University of Pittsburgh as a Machine Learning Research Scientist
- 08/2021 Co-authored paper on SBDH in the era of AI was published at Health Data Science
- 06/2021 Joined DawnLight as a Research Engineer
- 05/2021 Finished undergraduate studies at Luther College
- 05/2021 The spotlight of the Luther Navigator project (that I dreamed up) in the Luther Magazine
- 04/2021 Joined DawnLight as a Machine Learning Intern
- 10/2020 Inducted into Pi Mu Epsilon
- 10/2020 The spotlight of my internship at Mayo in the Luther Magazine Fall 2020 article
- 05/2020 Presented at the JAMIA Journal Club Webinar dedicated to our JAMIA publication
- 11/2020 First-authored paper on qualitative evaluation of LLMs accepted at ACM-BCB
- 05/2020 First-authored paper on co-occurrence network embeddings published at JAMIA
- 04/2020 Co-authored paper on teaching CS in a small classroom accepted at MICS
- 03/2020 Two articles I wrote about Mayo Clinic and the COVID-19 pandemic: Luther College blogpost and my personal reflection post
- 02/2020 Joined Mayo Clinic as a Research Intern
- 12/2019 First-authored paper on CCL language design and type theory is out
- 06/2019 First-authored paper on the analysis of IRA disinformation campaign is out
- 01/2019 First-authored paper on the topology of robotic configuration and motion planning is out
- 06/2018 Check out college news article on my summer research in unit testing
- 08/2017 Started undergraduate studies at Luther College