Vivian Hir

CS and Biology at MIT

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

About

I am an MEng student at MIT interested in conducting computational research in a biological context. I am excited to learn more about machine learning and data science's applications to solving medical problems, from drug discovery to cancer transcriptomics. Besides the life sciences, I am curious to learn more about applying data science in other fields and industries. Outside academics, I am active in student journalism and education outreach.

Experience

  • Summer Researcher at Universitätsmedizin Essen
    Jun 2026 - Present · 2 mos

    Training and evaluating sparse autoencoders for histopathology foundation models

  • The Tech (MIT) (3 yrs 6 mos)
    • Senior Editor
      Feb 2026 - Present · 6 mos

      Advise editors in the managing board, editor-at-large

    • News Editor
      Feb 2025 - Jan 2026 · 1 yr

      - Wrote 180+ articles to date across many departments (News, Arts, Campus Life) - Reported on MIT administration, student life, academics, and metro news

    • Executive Editor
      Feb 2024 - Jan 2025 · 1 yr

      Assisted the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief with administrative, logistical, and editing duties

  • Student Researcher at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
    Feb 2024 - May 2026 · 2 yrs 4 mos

    Use various Python libraries to conduct computational/statistical analysis and data visualization on over 1,300 whole slide images across 5 different cancers to map the tumor spatial assembly in GI cancer.

  • Data Rich Experimentation Intern at Merck
    Jun 2025 - Aug 2025 · 3 mos

    Pretrained and fine tuned machine learning model to improve codon optimization for enhanced protein production, expanded the model’s dataset by adding critical organisms

  • In Silico Modeling Intern at Amgen
    Jun 2024 - Aug 2024 · 3 mos

    Derived equations, wrote methods/unit tests in Python to increase the accuracy of Amgen’s simulation library for predicting product yield in bioreactors