AG./arsalanghogari.com
seeking new-grad SWE roles · graduating May 2027 · Los Angeles · press ⌘K or `
Computer Science + Business · USC

Building AI products, autonomous robots, and software that scales.

AI  •  Robotics  •  Product  •  Leadership

illustrative simulation · barracuda auv
Detect. YOLO + RT-DETR on-vehicle.
02

About

human 0.99 Arsalan Ghogari

I'm studying Computer Science / Business Administration at USC's Viterbi and Marshall schools, specializing in AI Applications. I build perception systems for robots, AI tools that actually ship, and web platforms used by thousands of students.

Mostly I like the part where a research-y idea turns into something people actually use — whether that's a robot that can see or a chatbot that answers a student's question at 2am. I'm back in LA after completing a study abroad semester at the University of Bristol, and on the hunt for my next big project.

03

What I’ve Built

Technical Projects & Skills

RoboSub Autonomy Stack Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Underwater pool frame from the AUV's camera real frames · robosub course loading model… yolo · onnx int8 · onnxruntime-web
the AUV's own YOLO weights · not a video — every box is computed on this device
gategatered pipered pipered pipebin GTSAM · LM optimizer poses 60 landmarks 6 factors 54 iter 0 graph error 33.741 worst landmark – spec: all landmarks < 0.30 m real optimizer · synthetic obs
Real-time underwater detection and SLAM for the AUV — custom datasets built from ROS bags, YOLO + RT-DETR compiled ONNX → TensorRT for on-vehicle inference (detection mAP 0.40 → 0.90), and GTSAM factor-graph navigation validated to under 0.3 m absolute error on rosbag replay. Python · ROS 2 · YOLO · RT-DETR · TensorRT · GTSAM
Ask USG ● Live Production RAG Chatbot query BM25 pgvector RRF fuse +siblings answer MRR 0.91 → 0.98 TTFT 6.2 s → 0.5 s answer quality 83% → 95% · 1,100 beta questions illustrative Production RAG chatbot for USC's 20,000+ undergraduates — unifies 97 auto-discovered site pages, two multi-tab Google Sheets, and a live Google Calendar on a weekly GitHub Actions schedule. Lifted answer quality 83% → 95% via an eval pipeline built from 1,100 real beta questions, swapped pure vector search for hybrid BM25 + pgvector retrieval, cut time-to-first-token 92% (6.2 s → 0.5 s) with SSE streaming, and extended it into a LangGraph agent with crisis/academic-integrity guardrails and prompt-injection hardening. Campus-wide launch Fall 2026. Python · Node/Express · OpenAI · pgvector · LangGraph · Docker PTDrone ● Live Drone Ground Control & Manufacturing Cell (Capstone)
microfactory v6 · concept model hover to peel · drag to rotate loading model…
Lead a five-person CSCI 401 team building, for an outside stakeholder, a drone ground control station, an AI chatbot that answers parts questions and triggers on-demand manufacturing, and a simulated manufacturing cell. Set up the production pipeline: Next.js static export on Render with preview-branch review gating deploys. Next.js · React · TypeScript · Render
Parley AI Voice Negotiation Agent Vendor A—Vendor B—Vendor C—leverage: competing bids · honesty tripwires in code41 CI-gated tests Solo build for the ElevenLabs × Hack-Nation Global AI Hackathon: a voice agent that discovers vendors via live Google Places, phones them, negotiates using competing bids as leverage, and books the winner — producing a genuine $2,400 → $2,250 price drop, with in-code honesty tripwires and 41 CI-gated tests. Next.js · TypeScript · ElevenLabs · GPT-4o · Supabase Shroom AI Seasoning Carousel An interactive, AI-powered seasoning carousel that pairs an ESP32 microcontroller with a React UI to suggest meals and spice combinations from whatever is on hand. React · Tailwind · GPT · ESP32 Postcards from Bristol ● Live Interactive 3D Photo Carousel A drag-to-spin 3D photo carousel documenting my exchange semester — built as an incoming Bristol ambassador for the USC study-abroad team, with pointer/touch dragging and arrow-key navigation in vanilla JS. HTML · CSS · JavaScript AnchorNotes Collaborative Note-Taking App Selected as a top-2 implementation out of 37 teams for an original note-map visualization — delivered an app 70% faster than peers via Android Profiler-guided optimization, thread offloading, and database indexing. Java · XML · Android Studio
PythonC++CUDAJavaJavaScriptTypeScriptSwiftCMATLABOpenAI APILangGraphLangfuseRAGROS 2PyTorchTensorRTONNXGTSAMNVIDIA Isaac SimReactNext.jsNode/ExpressSwiftUIPostgreSQLpgvectorAWSStripeWordPressRenderDockerK3sGitHub ActionsGitLinux/Bash

Non-Technical Projects & Skills

Crisis Intervention

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline trained (50+ hours). 100+ crisis calls answered with active listening, de-escalation, and composure in high-stakes conversations.

Community Outreach

Connecting people with mental-health resources at large community events — meeting people where they are and reducing stigma.

Mentorship & Program-Building

Mentored first-gen and transfer students in C.E.N.T.R.I.C.'s inaugural cohort, coordinating across 30+ faculty and staff.

Digital Strategy & Leadership

Owning a platform used by 20,000+ students and leading engineer teams of 2–10 — translating organizational needs into shipped features.

04

Current Experiences

AI Engineer USC Industry Collaboration Program

Sep 2026 — Present

Only AI engineer on a cross-functional student team building internal software for a Canadian construction company (details under NDA). Own the AI engineering for automating a core internal workflow, from requirements to delivery.

AI EngineeringLLMsProduct
AI MODEL OUTPUT WIRED INTO THE BUILD

Software Lead USC RoboSub

Jan 2025 — Present

Promoted 4× in 18 months (Software Engineer → Perception Lead → Perception & Autonomy Lead → Software Lead); now direct 5–10 engineers across the AUV's vision, SLAM, planning, and mission-control stack (ROS 2, NVIDIA Jetson). Migrated the inherited 10,000+ line ROS 1 codebase to ROS 2, more than doubled underwater detection accuracy (mAP 0.40 → 0.90) by building the dataset and training YOLO + RT-DETR compiled to TensorRT (FP16/INT8) for real-time on-vehicle inference, delivered GTSAM-based SLAM fusing stereo, IMU, DVL, and depth (every landmark under 0.3 m error on rosbag replay), and root-caused the AUV's sluggish surge from 75 GB of wet-test data to a thrust clamp set at 12 N instead of 30 N — then retuned the GPU-parallel MPPI controller (CUDA/C++).

PythonC++CUDAROS 2PyTorchTensorRTGTSAM
uscfrl.comlive · scroll inside
USC AUV / RoboSub team site (uscfrl.com) homepage

Director of Digital Strategy USC Undergraduate Student Government

May 2025 — Present

Own USG's digital infrastructure serving 20,000+ students, shipping front-end features on the official WordPress site (dynamic announcements, interactive election interfaces) — invited back for a second year. Made $352K in student-government spending publicly searchable across 40+ organizations, assemblies, and committees, cutting manual reporting 95% with automated Senate Bill, Legislative Project, and Funding trackers.

JavaScriptWordPressLeadership
usg.usc.edulive · scroll inside
USG website (usg.usc.edu) homepage

Math Peer Mentor C.E.N.T.R.I.C. (Viterbi & Dornsife)

Aug 2025 — Present

Mentored 5 first-generation and transfer students in the program's inaugural cohort, coordinating with 30+ professors, advisors, and residential staff and building the program's application-tracking, mentor-matching, and scheduling workflows.

MentorshipCoordination
C.E.N.T.R.I.C. program logo
05

Volunteering

Community Engagement Ambassador Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services

May 2026 — Present

Rejoined after a semester abroad, now on the Outreach Team — connecting people with mental health resources at community events like the Sacred Music & Healing Festival and WeHo Pride, expanding community awareness of crisis resources and making it easier, and more normal, to ask for help.

OutreachCommunication
Didi Hirsch outreach team at a community Pride event

Crisis Counselor Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services

May 2025 — Jan 2026

Completed 50+ hours of intensive crisis-intervention training and served a weekly suicide-prevention shift on the national 988 Lifeline — volunteering near-daily over winter break and answering 100+ crisis calls with active listening and de-escalation.

Crisis InterventionActive Listening
didihirsch.orglive · scroll inside
Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services website (didihirsch.org) homepage
06

Education

University of Southern California

B.S. Computer Science + Business Administration · Expected May 2027

Viterbi School of Engineering & Marshall School of Business · Minor in AI Applications

Study Abroad — University of Bristol, UK (Spring 2026)

3.9 GPASAT 1550Presidential ScholarViterbi ScholarDean's ListW.V.T. Rusch HonorsThematic Option Honors