Luca Pishos

Computer Science & Mathematics @ University of Florida

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Portrait of Luca Pishos

Experience

Where I've worked

AI/ML Engineer

Honeywell Aerospace · Phoenix, AZ

May 2026 - Aug 2026
  • Spearheaded the design and development of an automated document-processing pipeline that transforms FAA hardware documentation into a structured logistics matrix, reducing annual processing time from 1,200 hours to 20 minutes (a 99.97% reduction) and generating $184,000 in recurring annual savings.
  • Engineered core detection and remediation modules for an autonomous multi-agent system that identifies software defects, performs root-cause analysis, and deploys fixes; projected to save approximately $500,000 over 8 months by reducing debugging time.
PythonDockerCopilot APIPandasJira

Applied Machine Learning Scientist

Geospatial Artificial Intelligence Lab, UF/IFAS · Gainesville, FL

Jan 2026 - Present
  • Leading an independent, first-author research paper on scalable geospatial deep-learning method funded by the AI Scholars award, a highly competitive stipend granted to a very limited cohort of undergraduate researchers.
  • Integrated open-source machine learning models to build an automated tree detection architecture for satellite imagery, slashing annotation costs by 100% for the lab through iterative label refinement.
  • Accepted for peer-reviewed publication at ACM SIGSPATIAL, a premier international conference on geographic information systems, with findings additionally presented at the University of Florida's Artificial Intelligence Symposium.
PythonPyTorchYOLORex-OmniGitHub

Software Engineer

GatorAI · Gainesville, FL

Aug 2025 - Dec 2025
  • Collaborated with a team to implement an early warning system that alerts drivers when they drift out of lanes, using a camera and Raspberry Pi for real-time detection and feedback.
  • Developed and optimized computer vision models for lane detection on NVIDIA Jetson hardware, balancing model size, latency, and accuracy to meet embedded deployment constraints.
PythonComputer VisionNVIDIA JetsonRaspberry PiEmbedded Systems

Computational Neuroscience Researcher

Rangaraju Lab, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience · Jupiter, FL

Jun 2024 - Aug 2025
  • Co-authored and published original research with the Rangaraju Lab on dendritic mitochondrial remodeling during synaptic plasticity, specializing in the analysis of volumetric and spatial quantification using the MICrONS dataset.
  • Pioneered a feature-based classification model achieving 97% detection accuracy across 70,000+ mitochondria, automatically identifying cristae within dendrites in electron microscopy scans.
  • Reduced post-processing analysis time by 85% through the development of a novel approach to mapping the morphology of neurons by establishing a pipeline to construct 3D replica models and characterize the geometry of their outer spines.
PythonNumPyK-means ClusteringAlgorithm Design

Lead Software Engineer

FIRST Robotics Team 179 · West Palm Beach, FL

Nov 2021 - May 2025
  • Led software development for the #1-ranked FRC robotics team in Florida, programming both human-operated controls and autonomous, computer vision navigation systems to complete mechanically complex arena tasks.
  • Won first place in nine national competitions and achieved ranked placement in four international events over four consecutive years.
PythonOpenCVJavaEmbedded Systems

Research & Projects

Publications

Research poster on urban forest inventory detection presented at the University of Florida AI Symposium
Preprint · Accepted, ACM SIGSPATIAL 2026

Zero-Shot & Semi-Supervised Learning with Noisy Labels for Scalable Urban Tree Mapping

  • Built an annotation-free deep learning pipeline that maps individual urban trees from 57,000+ high-resolution (7.5 cm RGB-NIR) aerial images, using zero-shot detections as training labels and reaching ~80% average precision in sparse urban areas.
  • Improved tree detection accuracy by 58% by engineering a noisy-label distillation framework with a YOLO26 backbone, outperforming 10 competing methods, including semi-supervised and field-leading detectors (RF-DETR, Faster R-CNN, RetinaNet).
View acceptance announcement →
3D reconstruction of a neuron with mitochondria highlighted
Preprint · bioRxiv

Mitochondria Structurally Remodel Near Synapses to Fuel the Sustained Energy Demands of Plasticity

  • Designed and implemented a Python-based neuron analyzer in silico to examine mitochondrial responses to synaptic plasticity by generating spherical sampling regions at dendritic spine bases and computing surface and volumetric metrics within each sphere across thousands of spines, dendrites, and neurons.
  • Built custom algorithms for neuron skeletonization, spine base localization, spatial clustering, and Boolean mesh intersections, enabling automated quantification of mitochondrial width and volume from filtered mesh data.
Read the preprint on bioRxiv →

Leadership

Beyond the lab

Founder & President

The Society for Future Programmers · Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Oct 2023 - Apr 2025
  • Started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on motivating young teenagers to acquire programming and developer skills for their future careers, raising $10000+ in donations and grants from renowned institutions.
  • Successfully organized two regional coding competitions for high school students, drawing over 250 participants from 11 schools, while coordinating with two dozen volunteers and staff.
$10K+ Raised in donations & grants
250+ High schoolers reached
11 Partner schools across Florida
24 Volunteers & staff coordinated
Team ManagementCoordinationPublic SpeakingOrganizational Skills

Education

B.S., Computer Science and Mathematics

University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Aug 2025 - May 2028 (accelerated 3-year track) · Gainesville, FL · 3.8 GPA

Coursework

Graduate Database Systems, Data Structures & Algorithms, Computational Linear Algebra, Complex Variables, Differential Equations, Engineering Statistics, Discrete Mathematics, Calculus III, Sets & Logic, Advanced Programming Fundamentals, Computer Organization, Network Technologies

Honors

  • AI Scholars Award

    Competitive UF undergraduate research stipend

  • University Scholars Program

    UF's premier undergraduate research scholarship

Skills

Toolkit

ML & Data

PyTorchTensorFlowYOLOComputer VisionOpenCVRex-OmniPandasNumPyK-means ClusteringAlgorithm Design

Languages

PythonC++JavaSQL

Tools

GitGitHubLinuxDockerAWSJiraCopilot APINVIDIA JetsonRaspberry PiEmbedded Systems