CV

My curriculum vitae

Basics

Name
Daniel Gaytán-Villarreal
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Website

Education

2023 - PRESENT
Doctor of Philosophy, Physics
Carnegie Mellon University
  • Relevant Coursework: 11-768 AI Agents, 10-723 Generative AI, 36-700 Probabilistic & Mathematical Statistics, 10-701 Introduction to Machine Learning, 33-765 Statistical Mechanics
  • Activities: STEM Teaching Assistant, Mentoring Undergrads for Research Projects
2017 - 2021
Bachelor of Science, Physics
University of Sonora
  • Relevant Coursework: Machine Learning, Probability and Statistics, Computational Physics

Research & Professional Experience

AUGUST 2023 - PRESENT
Graduate Research Assistant
CMU Experimental Particle Physics Group
  • Development of Graph Neural Networks (GNN) and Transformers for the reconstruction of particles in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCal) at CERN.
  • Design and training of Machine Learning (ML) models for 4-Top searches at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
JULY 2024
Research Assistant
CERN
  • Collaborated with an international research team on a physics analysis to measure the top quark mass using the latest data from CERN's LHC, resulting in a field-leading precision result.
  • Awarded 1st place out of 12 teams for the Best Physics Analysis Project.
MAY 2024 - AUGUST 2024
Research Assistant
Fermi National Laboratory
  • Directed the development of physical metrics through data analysis & data science applied with Python & C++ to measure the effectiveness of a GNN to simulate a particle detector.
  • Led training efforts of a GNN that resulted in an energy resolution performance increase of 25%.
APRIL 2022 - JULY 2023
Artificial Intelligence & Data Consultant
Deloitte
  • Provided insights to stakeholders through data analysis and data science that led to an improvement in understanding of consumer behavior.
  • Migrated SQL queries from Google Cloud to Azure that led to an improvement of 31% in performance.
  • Designed & trained ML models for classification problems that resulted in better understanding of consumer patterns.

Selected Projects & Publications

GNN-based end-to-end reconstruction in the CMS Phase 2 High-Granularity Calorimeter
CMS Detector Performance Summary — CDS 2962594
  • First application of a one-pass, fully ML-based imaging calorimeter reconstruction to the latest full CMS HGCal simulation, using a GNN that groups calorimeter hits by their originating particle.
  • Developed physics-inspired metrics for algorithm performance evaluation and benchmarking.
Real-Time Detection of Charge Jumps in Superconducting Qubits with a Convolutional Neural Network
Fermi National Laboratory — arXiv:2607.14293
  • First author; designed a dilated causal convolutional neural network for online charge-jump detection, deployed in-the-loop on the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit (QICK) platform.
  • Translated the model to FPGA firmware via hls4ml, reaching a 6.19 µs per-inference latency while matching the detection efficiency of the established offline χ² algorithm with no per-qubit tuning.

Talks

SEPTEMBER 2026
Real-Time Detection of Charge Jumps in Superconducting Qubits with a Convolutional Neural Network
Fast Machine Learning for Science 2026, UC San Diego
Presented an online charge-jump detector for superconducting qubits, deployed in-the-loop on FPGA firmware via hls4ml.
AUGUST 2026
Real-Time Plasma State Estimation via FPGA-Accelerated Quantized Recurrent Probabilistic Neural Networks
Fast Machine Learning for Science 2026, UC San Diego
Presented a quantized recurrent probabilistic neural network deployed on FPGA as an online state estimator for real-time tokamak control, meeting plasma control system latency requirements.
AUGUST 2026
Fast Machine Learning for Experimental Physics
Department of Physics Research, University of Sonora
Invited seminar on real-time machine learning solutions for quantum computing and nuclear fusion experiments.
JULY 2026
Search for Production of Four Top Quarks in the All-Hadronic Final State
2026 Meeting of the Division of Particles & Fields, American Physical Society
Presented a search for four top quark production in the all-hadronic final state using 200 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data collected by CMS during Run 2 and Run 3 of the LHC.
MAY 2026
GNN-based end-to-end reconstruction in the CMS Phase 2 High-Granularity Calorimeter
28th Conference on Computing in High Energy Physics (CHEP)
Presented the first application of a one-pass, fully ML-based imaging calorimeter reconstruction to the latest full CMS HGCal simulation.

Scholarships, Grants & Awards

APRIL 2026
Sonora Internacional Scholarship
Government of the State of Sonora
Selective scholarship granted by the government of the state of Sonora, México to outstanding Sonoran students pursuing graduate studies abroad.
APRIL 2026
URA Visiting Scholar Award
Universities Research Association
Monetary research grant to fund research at Fermi National Lab; awarded to develop MaskFormers for particle reconstruction at the CMS experiment at CERN.
APRIL 2026
Mellon College of Science Graduate Conference Travel Award
Carnegie Mellon University
Travel award granted to present research at the 28th Conference on Computing in High Energy Physics (CHEP) in Bangkok, Thailand.
MARCH 2026
LHC Physics Center Guests & Visitors Program
Fermi National Laboratory
Monetary research grant for CMS scientists that collaborate with other LHC Physics Center users on projects that advance, enrich, & impact the interests of the CMS experiment from a hardware and/or software perspective; granted to continue the development of MaskFormers for particle reconstruction at the CMS experiment at CERN.
OCTOBER 2025
URA Visiting Scholar Award
Universities Research Association
Monetary research grant to fund research at Fermi National Lab; awarded to collaborate with Fermilab scientists on the development of GNNs and Transformer models for particle reconstruction at the CMS experiment at CERN.
MAY - AUGUST 2024
Summer 2024 LHC Physics Center Guests & Visitors Program
Fermi National Laboratory
Monetary research grant for CMS scientists that collaborate with other LHC Physics Center users on projects that advance, enrich, & impact the interests of the CMS experiment from a hardware and/or software perspective.
MAY 2022
XVII Read Science for All 2020/2021
Economic Culture Fund
Honorable Mention granted in the essay category for the work titled "The ambivalent ignorance in the arts and sciences"; national writing competition to promote the vocation for science and technology among Mexico's youth.
JULY - DECEMBER 2021
CONACyT Research Grant
National Commission for Science and Technology
Monetary research grant for collaborating in the research project "Study of heavy quark production in high multiplicity pp and pPb collisions in the CMS experiment at the LHC", led by Phd Lizardo Valencia at the University of Sonora.
AUGUST 2017 - DECEMBER 2021
Telmex-Telcel Foundation Scholarship
Telmex-Telcel Foundation
Financial and equipment aid for outstanding Mexican undergraduate students.

Schools, Workshops & Certifications

AUGUST 2026
IAIFI Summer School
NSF Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions
Selective summer school on the intersection of AI and fundamental physics; lectures and hands-on tutorials on symbolic regression, diffusion models, computer vision and simulation-based inference, followed by a collaborative hackathon project.
JULY 2025
Advanced Artificial Intelligence for Precision High Energy Physics
Lake Como School for Advanced Studies
Hands-on training on cutting edge machine learning methods in HEP by combining extensive advanced courses with extended tutorial sessions, organized by various CERN-affiliated institutions.
JANUARY 2025
Future Faculty Program
Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University
Program designed to form graduate students with the necessary pedagogy skills needed to become a successful faculty, equipping them with the conceptual & technological tools required to thrive in the XXIst century classroom.
JULY 2024
CMS Machine Learning Hackathon
Fermi National Laboratory
Machine Learning Hackathon held by Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment scientists aimed to design robust and interpretable machine learning algorithms for anomaly detection, as well as provide fast, resource efficient & highly automated tools for data monitoring and validation.
JUNE 2024
CMS Data Analysis School
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Data Analysis School held by Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) scientists designed to help CMS physicists from across the collaboration to learn about CMS data analysis and enable them to participate in significant ways in any physics analysis, including cutting-edge measurements and future discoveries; awarded Best Analysis for Best Student-led Analysis.

Leadership & Scientific Outreach

JANUARY 2026
Physics Facilitator @ LPC CMS DAS 2026
Fermi National Laboratory
Facilitated the Missing Transverse Momentum session and helped lead a short analysis project for B* → TW searches; introduced graduate students to the CMS Software used for physics analyses in the collaboration.
AUGUST 2025
How AI is Helping Us Find New Physics
Astronomy on Tap
Scientific outreach event aimed to promote and share the latest advancements in Astronomy and High Energy Physics to the general public; presented and explained examples of the latest AI applications in particle physics.
NOVEMBER 2022
Physicists Outside of Academia: My Experience in the Data Industry
Department of Physics, University of Sonora
Presentation given to physics undergrads about my experience in the data industry as a physicist, focusing on my technical preparation, my job-hunting process and my work experience.
OCTOBER 2022
Scientific Childhood Day 2022
Department of Physics, University of Sonora
Scientific outreach event aimed to promote and inspire scientific curiosity on children; presented and explained a variety of physics experiments to elementary school children.
MAY 2022
Data Science Applications in Particle Physics
IX Sonora State Congress of Natural and Exact Sciences
Scientific outreach presentation about the various data science applications in experimental HEP to undergrads of the University of Sonora and the general public.

Skills & Interests

Programming
Python, R, SQL, C++, Apache Spark, Octave, Mathematica, FORTRAN90
Frameworks
Pandas, NumPy, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, Git, Bash, Apptainer, Singularity
Visualization
Jupyter Notebooks, Google Colab, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Cloud
AWS, Databricks, Snowflake, Google Cloud
Languages
Spanish, French
Interests
Literature, creative writing, boxing, weight lifting