Kien Pham · portfolio
RC glider on the meadow at UC Santa Cruz
Mechanical engineer · builder · racer

Kien Pham

Find the limiting factor. Trim time against a measurement. Six projects and initiatives, from CUDA kernels to RC fan cars to reverse osmosis water technology. The footage behind this page is my own POV, and it moves with the scroll.

↓ scroll to drive · karting POV → FPV midway
01 · GPU kernels · ML systems

FlashAttention, from scratch

Seventeen CUDA kernels across four GPU architectures, T4 to NVIDIA's flagship B300. A roofline model names the limiting factor before any code; every claim is measured, and the honest misses are on the record.

17
CUDA kernels
4
architectures
8–16×
vs SDPA
Open project →
02 · Senior project · aerodynamics

Modeling RC Fan Cars

The Brabham BT46B F1 fan car, recreated at RC scale. A 3D-printed vacuum tray seals the underbody while a fan pulls air out: ~5 lb of measured static downforce, roughly the car's own weight.

~5 lb
static downforce
+50%
corner speed
−10%
straight-line
Open project →
03 · Environmental engineering · Concord, MA

Multispectral mapping of Concord's wetlands

A Green Seed Fund project: automated biweekly DJI Mavic 3M surveys over 25+ acres of wetlands. The imagery surfaced sulfate-driven weed growth, traced to a river running 4× typical lead and sulfate levels.

$5,000+
seed funding
25+
acres mapped
4×
sulfate anomaly
Open project →
04 · ML research · UC Santa Cruz SIP

Sconce: end-to-end model compression

An AutoML package that prunes and quantizes deep networks with minimal human intervention. Across six CNNs: 72–75% less memory, 84–94% fewer parameters, 2.8× faster inference on CUDA.

84–94%
params removed
2.8×
faster inference
6
CNNs tested
Open project →
05 · STEM outreach · Da Nang & Ben Tre, Vietnam

Bridging STEM disparities in rural Vietnam

Robotics and English at FPT Hope School in Da Nang; reverse osmosis water technology and solar-powered builds at Vinh Hoa Elementary in Ben Tre. Hands-on projects, taught in person, growing every summer.

50+
students (2026)
$1,000+
raised for water
20+
scholarships
Open project →
06 · Flight · UC Santa Cruz & Da Nang

RC gliders & FPV quads

Co-led the SIP RC Plane Club at UC Santa Cruz: 40+ members, crowdfunded gliders, flight testing on the meadow. The FPV quads I tune in BetaFlight shot the footage flying behind this card.

40+
club members
10+ hrs
flight time
QAV-S 2 · Pavo20
quad rigs
Open project →
About

From the racing line, at every scale

I grew up in Ho Chi Minh City and race go karts competitively. The opening footage is my own POV. On a track I find the corner that costs me time, discover different ways to approach it, and trim. I apply the same method to GPU kernels, model compression, drone surveys, a fan car, and classrooms in rural Vietnam.

This fall I start at Tufts University: mechanical engineering with a computer science minor, headed for robotics and automation.

Kien Pham
Kien Pham
now
Tufts University · Class of 2030
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, CS minor planned
30.340s
11th of 8,329 fastest laps · Infinity Racing, HCMC
41.174s
Top-30 fastest time · R1 Indoor Karting, Rhode Island
robotics · automation
the direction for graduate work, four years out
Contact

Let's build fast things

Open to internships and collaborations across ML systems, robotics, and hands-on engineering.

Email me GitHub LinkedIn
Kien Pham · every number on this site is a measured figure