Eldar Hasanov

Hi! I’m Eldar — a software systems engineer currently pursuing my Master’s in Advanced Computing (Security & Reliability) at Imperial College London, where I explore distributed systems. Previously, I earned my B.A. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where I focused on systems, theory, and security, while also contributing to teaching, research, and the development of educational technology infrastructure.

My current research at Imperial focuses on distributed training network infrastructure, specifically for LLMs. I am currently completing my thesis in efficient networking for Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models under Prof. Marios Kogias, while also collaborating with NVIDIA Research.

At UC Berkeley’s CS Ed R&D Group (under Prof. Dan Garcia), I was a project lead and developer of the instructor dashboard and other core components of GradeView - a cloud-native learning management system (LMS) platform, deployed in CS10 at Berkeley.

I’m also an open-source contributor to PrairieLearn and the creator of two tools for interactive graph assessments: Graph Construction User Interface (GCUI) and Interactive Graph Assessment Tool (IGAT).

I was also an NLP Research Assistant working on LLMs as a summer researcher at Information Sciences Institute of USC, and an ML Research Assistant for NASA’s Stardust Mission group at the Space Sciences Laboratory.

In the US, I worked as a software engineer with Silicon Valley startups, building dynamic Ethereum NFT music shareables at Anthems Inc. and a full-stack music analytics platform at 1PR. I’ve also competed in 15+ hackathons (including CalHacks, TreeHacks, and SFHacks), often placing or earning honorable mentions.

I’m from Baku, Azerbaijan. Since high school I’ve lived in Oxford, the Bay Area, and—now—London. That journey across cultures has shaped not only how I think as an engineer, but also how I see education, global issues, and people.