Nayeema Nonta

PhD Student, Management Science and Engineering

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

• Cumulative GPA: 93.25
• Research areas: AI model security, safeguard preservation, safety benchmarking, data- and compute-efficient training.
• Supervisor: Prof. Sirisha Rambhatla.

Bachelor of Applied Science in Management Engineering (Honours, Co-op) with Computing Option (Distinction)

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

Research Assistant - Machine Learning

University of Waterloo | Critical ML Lab

• Developed SAGE, an ongoing research project on safer low-resource LLM fine-tuning using refusal-geometry-aware activation editing (2 ICLR workshop papers); currently extending it with adaptive refusal geometry.
• Co-author on SubTrack++ (NeurIPS '25), a memory- and time-efficient full-parameter LLM training method via gradient subspace tracking; implemented method components and additional baselines, ran ablation studies, and scalability analysis.
• Conducted research on AI adoption barriers in clinical and healthcare settings in collaboration with Waterloo Regional Health Network; abstract presented at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Forum.

Research Assistant - Network Optimization

University of Waterloo | Prof. Fatma Gzara

• Developed exact algorithms for an NP-hard constrained shortest path problem on DAGs, cyclic graphs, and SINR-based maps, to optimize UAV path cost while maintaining minimum signal strength to base towers.
• Benchmarked algorithms against a MILP formulation solved with Gurobi, achieving 17.87x average speedup and up to 206.33x faster runtime on highly constrained large instances.

CPI Graduate Student Conference

Poster and spotlight talk

• Presented Safety-Aware Gated Editing (SAGE): Refusal-Orthogonal Activation Editing for Safe Low-Resource Adaptation at the 2nd Annual Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute Graduate Student Conference.

Machine Learning Software Developer Intern

CoreAVI

Innovation Catalyst Intern (Rapid App Development)

Nuclear Promise X

System Administrator Intern

CoreAVI

Business Systems Intern

Nissan

IT Solution Specialist Intern

Sentia

Digital Retention Analyst Intern

University of Waterloo

Reviewer, ICLR 2026 Workshops

International Conference on Learning Representations

• Reviewed submissions for Scaling Post-training for LLMs and Catch, Adapt, Operate: Monitoring Models Under Drift workshops.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Director

Women in Engineering, University of Waterloo

• Served as the main point of contact for 14 companies for the WiE Grad career fair; coordinated event communications including logistics, schedules, and booth details.
• Coordinated planning and partner communications for collaboration with the Canadian charity Help a Girl Out, including logistics for a panel and period-product collection drive.

IISE Canadian Conference at Polytechnique Montreal

University of Waterloo representative

• Represented the University of Waterloo among industry professionals and peers to exchange ideas and expand professional connections.

Engineering Ambassador, Orientation Leader, and Orientation Director

University of Waterloo Engineering

• Managed a team of 10 leaders to organize events and ensure an engaging and safe experience for 1,800 students.
• Represented Management Engineering at campus events and engaged with prospective students to provide insights about the program.

Community Impact Initiatives Leader

Nuclear Promise X

• Led fundraising campaign and hosted charity auction, raising $6,200 for Turkey-Syria earthquake relief.

Mentor for First-Year Engineering Students

University of Waterloo

• Mentored first-year students and offered support to help them navigate their academic and campus experience.

Electric Plane Data Visualization and Predictive Analytics

Capstone project with Prof. Mehrdad Pirnia and WISA

• Designed a data analysis and predictive analytics solution to improve management of the Pipistrel Velis Electro, the world's first type-certified electric plane; awarded $4,200 across two awards.
• Built a PostgreSQL ETL pipeline to merge flight and local weather data for analyzing Canadian weather impacts on electric aircraft energy efficiency.

Teaching Assistant

University of Waterloo, Management Science and Engineering

• MSE 436: Decision Support System (May 2026-Present).
• MSE 433: Applications of Management Engineering; MSE 131: Work Design and Facilities Planning (Jan 2026-Apr 2026).
• MSE 302: Engineering Design Methods (Sep 2025-Dec 2025).