AshleyLopez

Computer science and criminal justice at Northeastern — machine learning, data, and the policy side of both.

I was born and raised in Kentucky and came to Boston for school, mostly because I'd never lived in a city and wanted a different sense of what life could look like. I'm doing both majors on purpose: I care about policy and law, and I want to work in that sector. I'm a first-generation college student, and teaching is the thread through all of it. I tutor math and science here, and I teach back home at my church. When I'm not doing either, I'm at Taekwondo or on a trail. I'm bad at sitting still.

Boston, MA · Relocating to Lexington, KY · Available July 2027

Experience

Sept 2026 — now
Machine Learning Consultant
Tech Practicum Capstone, aerial imaging client · Boston, MA
  • Developing a semantic segmentation pipeline in Python to extract solar panel boundaries from airborne RGB imagery captured at variable altitude, across uneven terrain and changing seasons.
  • Assembling and validating a training set from 400+ partially annotated aerial images, and prototyping model-assisted annotation to generate examples for defect classes too rare to show up in production data.
  • Presenting findings, data quality limitations, and technical tradeoffs directly to the client's Director of R&D.
Jan — Jul 2026
Data Engineer Co-op
Vertex Pharmaceuticals · Boston, MA
  • Designed and automated two end-to-end data pipelines across JMP, Statistica, and Spotfire, collapsing a 15-step manual workflow into a single repeatable run for the manufacturing analytics team.
  • Structured and queried manufacturing datasets in Snowflake, letting five analysts pull batch data without engineering support.
  • Worked with manufacturing scientists to turn analytical requirements into production workflows, documenting each one so it stayed in use after the co-op ended.
May — Jul 2025
Technology Analyst Intern
Department of Criminal Justice Training · Richmond, KY
  • Managed and audited facial recognition input data supporting statewide law enforcement training.
  • Served as Google Workspace administrator, standardizing account provisioning across 20 classrooms and improving data accessibility for training programs.
  • Built recurring reporting processes that cut manual requests and shortened setup time for new training cohorts.
Aug — Dec 2024
IT / AV Specialist Co-op
Northeastern University · Boston, MA
  • Diagnosed hardware and software failures across every College of Media Arts classroom using system logs and technical diagnostics, coordinating upgrades with engineering staff to improve reliability.
2021 — now
Secretary
Lopez Building and Remodeling · Remote
  • Organize project data, estimates, and invoicing for the family business using digital tracking and communication tools.
  • Develop online customer acquisition through Google Business and social campaigns.

Projects

Nov — Dec 2025
Online Bookstore Database System
SQL
  • Architected a fully normalized (3NF) relational database modeling books, editions, authors, publishers, and sales transactions.
  • Wrote multi-table joins and aggregations to evaluate sales performance and pricing strategy across several dimensions.
Feb — Apr 2025
Movie Revenue Prediction
Python · machine learning
  • Built a model to predict box office revenue from real-world film datasets, comparing feature sets and evaluating where the model's estimates broke down.
Aug — Dec 2024
Retraining AI with Trusted Data
Python · Break Through Tech AI
  • Preprocessed 60,000+ applicant records with TF-IDF vectorization and feature engineering to retrain a classification model on a trusted data subset.
  • Evaluated model behavior through correlation analysis and metric visualizations, surfacing the features driving unreliable predictions.
Oct — Dec 2023
Reversi
Java
  • Designed and implemented GUI gameplay on an MVC architecture for modular, testable logic.
  • Collaborated on feature development using object-oriented and list-based structures.

Skills & tools

Languages

  • Python
  • SQL
  • Java
  • TypeScript
  • C++
  • R
  • Racket
  • LaTeX

Machine learning & computer vision

  • PyTorch
  • scikit-learn
  • pandas
  • NumPy
  • Image segmentation
  • Feature engineering
  • Model evaluation
  • TF-IDF
  • Data preprocessing
  • Matplotlib
  • Seaborn

Data & tools

  • Snowflake
  • Docker
  • Git & GitHub
  • Streamlit
  • Elasticsearch
  • Jupyter
  • Colab
  • Linear
  • Jira
  • Spotfire
  • JMP
  • Statistica
  • Microsoft Office

Outside of that

  • FIFA World Cup 2026

    Volunteering with the media operations team, using data science to support coverage.

  • Teaching

    Math and science tutor, and I teach back home at my church. I use performance data to track how my students are actually doing.

  • Northeastern Taekwondo

    Training and competing with the university club.

  • EV Kids Tutor

    Weekly tutoring for kids in the neighborhood around campus.

  • Women in Tech & Boston Cares

    Community and volunteer work across the city.

  • Hiking

    Anything that gets me outside and moving, ideally somewhere with a view at the end.

Education

2022 — 2027
BS, Computer Science and Criminal Justice
Northeastern University, Khoury College · Boston, MA

Minor in Management Information Systems. GPA 3.62. Expected May 2027.

Coursework in machine learning, information retrieval, algorithms and data, and data management in business.

Honors: Huntington 100 · Dean's List · Ujima Scholarship · Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Summer 2024
Machine Learning Foundations certificate
Cornell University · Break Through Tech AI

Huntington 100

Northeastern's Huntington 100 recognizes undergraduates entering their final year whose work reflects the university's mission and values. I was named to the 2026 cohort.