Ilan Breines
Computer Science @ UMich
Leveraging data and AI to drive business decisions.
Building intelligent systems that connect insights to outcomes.
Transforming complex problems into elegant computational solutions.
Experience
Artificial Intelligence Intern
Gain Life Boston, MA
June 2024 – August 2024
Developed an automated insurance response system using Llama LLM with a vector-based RAG architecture, integrating location-specific context for complex scenarios and reducing wait times by over 50% through fine-tuned models aligned with industry standards.
Co-Founder
Derail Media, LLC New York, NY
March 2023 – June 2024
Led operations for a rapidly growing social media startup that reached 1B+ monthly views and 10M+ followers in just 8 months. Implemented data-driven content strategies through A/B testing and built a scalable content pipeline managing a 30-person team producing 60 videos daily.
Data Science Intern
Yale University New Haven, CT
May 2023 – August 2023
Implemented species conservation prioritization workflows using Python and Gurobi optimization frameworks, while developing data processing pipelines and visualization tools to evaluate conservation datasets and scenarios.
Data Science Intern
State of Place Boston, MA
May 2022 - December 2022
Built data pipelines processing geospatial data for 200+ urban design features enabling predictive modeling, and migrated legacy SPSS statistical models to vectorized NumPy/Pandas implementations for improved efficiency.
Finance Summer Intern
BlackRock, inc. San Francisco, CA
June 2021 – August 2021
Analyzed S&P 500 companies' externality ratings to develop comprehensive sustainability impact assessments, constructed model portfolios for three client archetypes balancing ESG metrics with risk-return profiles, and presented findings to senior leadership.
Education
University of Michigan
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Minor in Philosophy
Graduating May 2025
Activities: Student AI Lab (VP External), MIDAS Student Leadership Board, Michigan Hackers Quant Team
Select Coursework: Data Structures & Algorithms, Practical Data Science, Web Systems, Software Engineering
Projects
Distributed Search Engine
Python, Flask, SQLite, Hadoop, REST API, Git
Built a distributed search engine with an inverted index MapReduce pipeline for tokenizing and indexing Wikipedia pages, implementing a multi-threaded REST API with tf-idf and PageRank relevancy scoring, and creating a dynamic search UI with Flask and SQLite.
Multi-Factor Portfolio Optimizer
Python, Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, Git
Engineered a systematic portfolio optimization engine that integrates momentum, value, and quality factors for stock selection, implements efficient frontier calculation using quadratic optimization, and visualizes factor exposures, risk decomposition, and backtest performance metrics.
Electoral Poll Dashboard
React, JavaScript, Python, Flask, Pandas, SQLite, Git
Created an interactive poll visualization dashboard using React and Recharts with dynamic filtering and scatter plots, backed by a Flask REST API for efficient poll data processing and complex multi-parameter queries, utilizing React hooks for state management and real-time updates.
Skills
Languages
Frameworks & Infrastructure
Data & Machine Learning
Interests
Avid Tahoe snowboarder, amateur but aspiring golfer, international backpacking enthusiast, Warriors fanatic