Hi, I’m Aaron.

I build machine learning systems, from research to deployment.

I’m Ahmadreza Nia (Aaron), a Machine Learning Engineer at Milwaukee Tool and a final-year PhD candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My work spans custom ML model development, continual and federated learning, LLM systems and evaluation, and efficient deployment.

I work across algorithm design, model evaluation, sensor and time-series data, and embedded inference, connecting research ideas with working systems.

I’m advised by Prof. Klara Nahrstedt (Computer Science) and Prof. Chenhui Shao (Mechanical Engineering).

Latest updates

  1. My continual learning paper is accepted at CLEA, a NeurIPS 2026 workshop.

  2. Our few-shot continual learning and anomaly detection work is published in Machine Learning: Engineering.

  3. I joined Milwaukee Tool as a full-time Machine Learning Engineer, following my summer 2025 internship.

  4. Released LLM-ADAM, an evidence-grounded LLM agent framework.

Earlier updates
  1. Our multimodal trajectory prediction preprint is available.

  2. FDM-Bench is published in Manufacturing Letters, with a public benchmark.

  3. Received an NSF Travel Grant for the 53rd North American Manufacturing Research Conference.

  4. Illinois featured our WeldMon team and its Best Student Paper Award at IEEE UEMCON 2023.

Selected work

Research & projects

All publications
LLM-ADAM

LLM agents & tool use

An agent framework combining structured extraction, grounded references, and deterministic tools for evidence-based diagnosis.

Agent workflow: structured extraction, reference grounding, and tool-based analysis.

87.5% accuracy across 200 evaluated programs

FDM-Bench

LLM evaluation & benchmarking

An expert-reviewed benchmark testing language-model knowledge, reasoning, and program analysis against measurable outcomes.

Benchmark samples: normal prints and representative defect classes.

14 domain experts · Public benchmark

Offline site onboarding

Continual learning & anomaly detection

Adapting models to a new site after a federation goes offline, using limited unlabeled data to discover unfamiliar classes while preserving prior knowledge.

Offline onboarding: novelty detection, class discovery, and classifier expansion.

Accepted at CLEA · NeurIPS 2026 Workshop

FDG-CM

Federated learning & generalization

Distributed learning with shared representations and personalized models, evaluated on data from previously unseen domains.

Federated architecture: shared representations and task-specific model layers.

5.35–8.08 percentage-point gains on unseen domains

Papers & preprints

Publications

Google Scholar

2026

Accepted workshop paper

When the Cross-Silo Federation Goes Offline: Continual Learning for Site Onboarding with Limited Unlabeled Data

CLEA · NeurIPS 2026 Workshop

Onboards a new site after a federation goes offline, using limited unlabeled data to discover unfamiliar classes and adapt the model while retaining existing knowledge.

Method & results

Approach. Combines federated class-specific denoising autoencoders, reconstruction-based novelty detection, clustering, and selective classifier expansion. Compares local rehearsal, shared prototypes, and a combination of both.

Results. Evaluated on ultrasonic metal welding across five seeds. The dual-rehearsal variant achieves 88.9% mean accuracy on both old and new classes in the autonomous onboarding experiment. Results concern a controlled manufacturing study; prototype sharing and local rehearsal have different data-disclosure requirements.

Journal articleFirst author

Adaptive unknown fault detection and few-shot continual learning for condition monitoring in ultrasonic metal welding

Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Kuan-Chieh Lu, Klara Nahrstedt, Chenhui Shao

Machine Learning: Engineering

Detects faults outside a model’s known classes, groups unfamiliar examples, and learns new fault classes from a small labeled sample.

Method & results

Approach. Builds class-specific acceptance regions in a learned embedding, uses clustering to support labeling, and updates selected classifier layers while freezing most parameters.

Results. Reports 96% unknown-fault detection accuracy and up to 98% overall classification accuracy after a five-sample update in the single-new-class experiment. Only 9.2% of model parameters are trained during adaptation. The study assumes a consistent underlying process and sensor configuration.

PreprintFirst author

LLM-ADAM: A Generalizable LLM Agent Framework for Pre-Print Anomaly Detection in Additive Manufacturing

Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Chuhan Cai, Cameron Smith, Ruo-Syuan Mei, Shichen Li, Rajiv Malhotra, Klara Nahrstedt, Chenhui Shao

arXiv

Turns machine instructions into evidence for defect diagnosis through specialized LLM agents and deterministic analysis.

Method & results

Approach. An Extractor structures G-code parameters, a Reference agent grounds operating ranges in documentation, Python computes deviations, and a Judge diagnoses defects using the resulting evidence.

Results. The best configuration achieves 87.5% accuracy versus 59.5% for a single-LLM baseline on 200 G-code programs spanning two printers, two materials, and five classes. The reported results cover controlled program-level diagnosis.

Preprint

QoS-QoE Translation with Large Language Model

Yingjie Yu, Mingyuan Wu, Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Lingzhi Zhao, Kaizhuo Yan, Klara Nahrstedt

arXiv

Builds a source-grounded dataset of multimedia quality relationships and evaluates LLMs that translate between network performance and perceived user experience.

Method & results

Approach. Combines literature curation, structured relationship extraction, iterative evaluation, and supervised fine-tuning for bidirectional QoS–QoE prediction.

Results. Includes 1,026 relationship records and 8,107 derived chat instances. Evaluates continuous values and discrete labels, retaining source evidence and context for each relationship.

2025

Preprint

Multi-Modal Zero-Shot Prediction of Color Trajectories in Food Drying

Shichen Li, Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Chenhui Shao

arXiv

Fuses initial images with process settings to predict full color-change trajectories under unseen drying conditions, without condition-specific fine-tuning.

Method & results

Approach. Uses compact trajectory basis functions, image features, process parameters, and similarity-informed training-set selection.

Results. Validated on cookie and apple drying. For apples, the best multimodal configuration reaches RMSE 1.2865 versus 10.1517 for the reported baseline. Here, zero-shot refers to unseen combinations of drying conditions.

Journal articleFirst author

FDM-bench: a domain-specific benchmark for evaluating large language models in additive manufacturing

Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Adrian Jackson, Beitong Tian, Avi Stern, Hallie Gordon, Rajiv Malhotra, Klara Nahrstedt, Chenhui Shao

Manufacturing Letters

Benchmarks LLM manufacturing knowledge and G-code interpretation against expert-reviewed questions and real printing outcomes.

Method & results

Approach. Pairs 16 G-code programs and four printing classes with 30 free-response and 75 multiple-choice questions at three expertise levels. Fourteen domain experts review the evaluation material.

Results. Compares GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Llama models to expose gaps between general language competence and manufacturing-specific reasoning. The benchmark and evaluation code are public.

Conference paper

MachineStethoscope: A Smart and Cost-effective Machine Health Monitoring System

Beitong Tian, Yaohui Wang, Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Ragini Gupta, Robert Bruce Kaufman, Leah Espenhahn, Gianni Pezzarossi, Mauro Sardela, John Dallesasse, Klara Nahrstedt

IEEE MIPR

Uses inexpensive sensing and compression-based analysis to monitor equipment anomalies at the edge while reducing data storage and transmission.

Method & results

Approach. Converts high-rate sensor signals to spectrogram sequences and uses video compression behavior to identify changes in temporal regularity.

Results. Evaluated on real laboratory vacuum pumps and controlled failure sequences. The study detects eight real pump anomaly events and reduces the size of transmitted data by over 90% in the evaluated setup.

2024

Journal articleFirst author

Federated domain generalization for condition monitoring in ultrasonic metal welding

Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Yuquan Meng, Klara Nahrstedt, Chenhui Shao

Journal of Manufacturing Systems

Learns shared representations and personalized tasks across manufacturing sites, improving condition monitoring on unseen domains without pooling raw sensor data.

Method & results

Approach. Combines a shared base model, task-specific upper layers, group-wise aggregation, and regularization. Includes an edge–cloud implementation with Raspberry Pi clients and RabbitMQ.

Results. Reports gains of 5.35–8.08 percentage points over the compared federated baselines on unseen-domain tasks. FTL-TP is the earlier preprint of this work.

2023

Conference paper · Best Student Paper Award

WeldMon: A Cost-effective Ultrasonic Welding Machine Condition Monitoring System

Beitong Tian, Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Kuan-Chieh Lu, Yaohui Wang, Chenhui Shao, Klara Nahrstedt

IEEE UEMCON

Combines low-cost sensing, learned and engineered features, and data augmentation for autonomous welding-condition monitoring on a Raspberry Pi.

Method & results

Approach. Uses an audio ADC for high-rate acquisition, converts multimodal signals to image-like inputs, and combines CNN features with signal features for classification.

Results. The evaluated system costs as little as $120. The hybrid pipeline averages approximately 385 ms per processing cycle on a Raspberry Pi 4; performance is evaluated across tool and surface-condition tasks.

2022

Journal article

Classification of Activities of Daily Living Based on Grasp Dynamics Obtained from a Leap Motion Controller

Hajar Sharif, Ahmadreza Eslaminia, Pramod Chembrammel, Thenkurussi Kesavadas

Sensors

Recognizes daily-living activities using three-dimensional hand motion and grasp dynamics captured by a Leap Motion Controller.

Method & results

Approach. Transforms hand coordinates to remove gross movement, normalizes geometric features, and compares support vector machines with convolutional classifiers.

Results. Studies eight activities in eight healthy participants with five-fold cross-validation. The best reported activity-detection CNN reaches 99.88% accuracy and 97.3% macro recall; patient evaluation remains future work.

Journal article

A new scheme for the development of IMU-based activity recognition systems for telerehabilitation

Amin M. Nasrabadi, Ahmad R. Eslaminia, Parsa R. Bakhshayesh, Mehdi Ejtehadi, Laila Alibiglou, Saeed Behzadipour

Medical Engineering & Physics

Optimizes wearable sensor placement and signal features, then adapts activity-recognition models with a small amount of participant-specific data.

Method & results

Approach. Uses genetic search over sensors and signals, time/frequency/wavelet features, dimensionality reduction, and several classifiers. Healthy-participant data support the initial design.

Results. Evaluates 34 activities using nine healthy participants and two participants with Parkinson’s disease. The small patient cohort supports a preliminary adaptation study.

2019

Conference paper

Optimal Sensor Configuration for Activity Recognition during Whole-body Exercises

Amin M. Nasrabadi, Ahmad R. Eslaminia, Amir M. Soufi Enayati, Laila Alibiglou, Saeed Behzadipour

IEEE ICRoM

Searches sensor configurations and signal features for efficient recognition of whole-body rehabilitation exercises, with adaptation for new users.

Method & results

Approach. Uses genetic optimization over wearable IMU configurations and engineered signal features with a nearest-mean classifier.

Results. Evaluates 34 activities in nine healthy participants. The work establishes the sensor-selection and adaptation approach developed further in the 2022 journal article.

Articles & media

Industry & research

Experience

Industry experience

Milwaukee Tool

Brookfield, Wisconsin

Machine Learning Engineer

Full-time

Machine Learning Engineer Intern

Internship

Selected engineering work

$1M+
Potential annual bill-of-materials cost savings · pending deployment
~90%
Reduction in inference computation in evaluation
100%
Unsafe-event recall · 4% false-alarm rate in evaluation
  • Built an end-to-end unsafe-event detection pipeline, from sensor preprocessing and feature selection to Python and XGBoost benchmarking on Azure.
  • Optimized features and quantized models for embedded C++ inference under strict latency and memory constraints, with negligible performance loss in the evaluated implementation.
  • Prototyped model inference on STM32 microcontrollers and delivered live, on-tool demonstrations for cross-functional engineering teams.
  • Evaluated wireless connectivity and data throughput to inform infrastructure and data-collection decisions for connected jobsite devices.

Research experience

Jun 2022 — Present

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Research Assistant · CSL & MONET Research Group

Developing federated and continual learning methods, expert-reviewed LLM benchmarks, and tool-using agent systems. Research spans model generalization, data-efficient adaptation, and edge–cloud implementation.

May 2022 — Aug 2023

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Research Assistant · Automation & Digital Manufacturing Lab

Developed an edge ML pipeline for ultrasonic welding condition monitoring, combining signal processing, learned features, and data augmentation to address dataset shift.

Jun 2021 — Nov 2022

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Research Assistant · Health Care Engineering Systems Center

Built SVM and CNN activity-recognition models from hand-motion sensing and spatiotemporal features for daily-living and rehabilitation research.

Education

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

PhD · Mechanical Engineering

Data Science concentration

GPA 3.95 / 4.00

MS · Mechanical Engineering

GPA 3.93 / 4.00

Sharif University of Technology

BS · Mechanical Engineering

GPA 3.72 / 4.00

Technical expertise

Programming languages
Python, C++, Java, SQL, R, MATLAB
Machine learning libraries
PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, scikit-learn, XGBoost, TensorFlow Lite
Data, vision & visualization
NumPy, pandas, Spark, OpenCV, Seaborn, Grafana
Cloud & development tools
Azure, Git, Docker, Linux
Messaging & integration
MQTT, RabbitMQ, Pika, Node-RED
Engineering software
SolidWorks, CATIA, Abaqus, Fusion 360
Systems & hardware
STM32 microcontrollers, Raspberry Pi, Arduino; embedded inference, model quantization, IoT and edge–cloud systems

Instruction & research mentorship

Teaching & mentoring

Undergraduate research

Research mentorship

  • Mentored 5 undergraduate students across 3 research projects.
  • Research outputs include LLM-ADAM and FDM-Bench.

Graduate teaching assistant · UIUC

Computer-Aided Mfg Systems ME 451

Taught classes on software tools and their application in computer-aided manufacturing systems.

Graduate teaching assistant · UIUC

Mechanical Design I ME 370

Led laboratory sessions and supported hands-on design learning for more than 60 students.

National Center for Supercomputing Applications · UIUC

REU research mentor · FoDOMMaT

Mentored an undergraduate student in NCSA’s summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

The Future of Discovery: Training Students to Build and Apply Open Source Machine Learning Models and Tools.

Undergraduate instruction

Undergraduate teaching assistant

Supported instruction, problem-solving, and student learning across six courses.

Honors & academic service

Awards & service

  1. NSF Travel Grant

    53rd North American Manufacturing Research Conference

  2. UIUC Doctoral Fellowship

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  3. First-place team · Tanabar Competition

    Led a team to first place in the national student competition.

Peer review & scholarly service

Jun 2023 — Present
22
Completed reviews
8
Journals
2
Conference venues

Journal reviewing 15 reviews

  • Scientific Reports5
  • Frontiers in Manufacturing Technology2
  • Journal of Manufacturing Processes2
  • International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing2
  • IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering1
  • Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation1
  • Journal of Motor Learning and Development1
  • Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology1

Conference reviewing 7 reviews

  • ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC)5
  • North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC)2

Professional background

Résumé

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Opportunities & collaboration

Connect

For applied ML opportunities, industry research, or collaboration, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Research figure