About Me
I work primarily on problems at the intersection of robotics and reinforcement learning (RL). Currently, I’m working on multi-agent RL for cooperative control of multi-robot systems. I’m also interested in developing techniques for improving the sample efficiency of model-free RL, especially in the context of robot learning. Before starting the doctoral program at CU Boulder, I worked at a Denver-based startup applying techniques from the latest research in natural language processing to challenges in cybersecurity and legal informatics.
I spent the first two decades of my life in Singapore, but uprooted to the United States for college. In between these two places, I spent half a year living and studying in Russia following an edge-to-edge overland traversal of Europe. But I digress. Drawn to the mountains, I moved to Colorado after my graduation from Reed College. I’ve been here since.
Like almost everyone in Boulder, I enjoy running, hiking, snowboarding, and, well, bouldering.
education
Master of Science in Computer Science
Specialization in Machine Learning
I pursued my master's degree concurrently with full-time employment. I also satisfied the requirements for the specialization in interactive intelligence.
2013 - 2017
Reed College, Portland, OR, United States
Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics
Concentration in Computer Science
My senior thesis was titled "Algorithms for the Computation of Delaunay Triangulations", advised by Jim Fix. Somehow or other, I found myself completing all the required coursework for the physics major as well.
experience
Feb 2019 - Present
Boulder, CO, United States
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Colorado Boulder
I perform robotics research in the HIRO Group and mentor a few of the undergraduate students in the group.
Aug 2019 - Present
Boulder, CO, United States
Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Colorado Boulder
In Spring 2020, I was a TA for the senior capstone course (CSCI 4318), mentoring seven teams working on real-world projects. Previously, in Fall 2019, I was a TA for the introductory computer science course (CSCI 1300). In that course, I graded assignments and taught weekly recitations for a class of 48 students, in addition to holding weekly office hours.
Oct 2017 - Jan 2019
Denver, CO, United States
Machine Learning Engineer
Optfit LLC
I worked at a Denver-based startup, where I built scalable machine learning solutions leveraging cloud computing for problems in cybersecurity and legal informatics. I was also the project lead for NLP engineering, and held a Professional Data Engineer certification from Google Cloud.
Sep 2013 - May 2017
Portland, OR, United States
Operations Supervisor
Reed Research Reactor
As the Operations Supervisor, I was the most senior supervisor on staff at the research reactor. Before this appointment, I served as the Requalification Supervisor for a year. In this role, I was solely responsible for the facility requalification program which assured continued competence of facility staff in reactor operation. I was licensed as a Reactor Operator and a Senior Reactor Operator by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Apr 2011 - Dec 2012
Singapore
Battalion Deputy Manpower Officer, 1st Army Maintenance Base
Singapore Armed Forces
I was a Lieutenant in the Singapore Army. As the Deputy S1 of my battalion, I assisted the manpower officer in overseeing the manpower and HR matters of the battalion. Prior to this, I attended Officer Cadet School at the SAFTI Military Institute.
miscellanea
Nov 2019 - Present
Boulder, CO, United States
Graduate Student Mentor
McNair Scholars Program, University of Colorado Boulder
Apr 2020
Fort Collins, CO, United States
Grand Awards Judge
2020 Colorado Science & Engineering Fair (CSEF)
Jan 2019 - Apr 2019
Englewood, CO, United States
Teaching Volunteer
Microsoft Philanthropies TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools)
I taught AP Computer Science at Englewood High School twice a week.
publications
2020
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Las Vegas, NV, United States, October 25-29
International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS)
Auckland, New Zealand, May 9-13
2018
IEEE International Conference on Big Data
Seattle, WA, United States, December 10-15
Inline Detection of Domain Generation Algorithms with Context-Sensitive Word Embeddings
Joewie J. Koh, Barton Rhodes
2017
Reed College
Portland, OR, United States, May 15
Algorithms for the Computation of Delaunay Triangulations
Joewie J. Koh
B.A. Thesis
teaching
Summer 2020
University of Colorado Boulder
CSCI 7000 (Deep Reinforcement Learning and Robotics)
Graduate Student Staff
Spring 2020
University of Colorado Boulder
CSCI 4318 (Software Engineering Project 2)
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Fall 2019
University of Colorado Boulder
CSCI 1300 (Computer Science 1: Starting Computing)
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Fall 2015
Reed College
PHYS 331 (Advanced Laboratory I)
Teaching Assistant
2014 - 2017
Reed College
Lower-Division Physics and Statistics
Peer Tutor
service
Program Committee Member
- Human-Robot Interaction Pioneers Workshop — 2020
Journal Reviewer
- Cognitive Systems Research — 2019, 2020
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) — 2019
Conference Reviewer
- ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) — 2020
- IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) — 2020
Institutional Service
- Computer Science Departmental Action Team — 2019, 2020