✦ Research Scientist · AI Creator · Builder

AI from the lab
to real life

I'm a Senior Staff Research Scientist with a PhD from UIUC. By day I build AI systems at scale. Outside the lab I make YouTube videos on practical AI, share book and course notes on Medium, and explore how to raise my little one in an AI-powered world.

▶ Watch on YouTube Read on Medium
🎓 PhD · UIUC · 🔬 Sr. Staff Research Scientist · 📍 Chicago, IL
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YouTube Videos AI tools, automation & project builds
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AI for Parenting Raising & educating kids with AI
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Books & Courses Notes & reflections on Medium

What I cover

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AI & Automation

Practical AI tools and workflows — grounded in real research experience, translated for everyday use.

YouTube · Medium
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Project Builds

Step-by-step projects using AI to simplify life — budgets, routines, research assistants, custom programs and more.

YouTube
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AI for Parenting

Using AI to educate and inspire your little one — from learning tools to age-appropriate technology exploration.

New & Growing
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Book Notes

Distilled takeaways from the books I read — insights that actually changed how I think and act.

Medium
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Course Reviews

Honest notes on online courses I've taken — what was worth it, what I still use, and what I'd skip.

Medium
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Thoughts on AI

Essays on where AI is heading and what it means for everyday life — from someone who builds it professionally.

Medium

Latest Videos

All videos →
Build a Personal AI Assistant
Project Build
Build a Personal AI Assistant in 20 Minutes
Top AI Tools I Use Every Day
AI Tools
Top 5 AI Tools I Actually Use Every Day
Teaching My Toddler with AI
AI Parenting
How I'm Using AI to Teach My Toddler

✎ Replace these with your actual video titles and YouTube links.

Recent Writing

All articles →
01
What I Learned After Using ChatGPT for 6 Months Straight Medium · 5 min read
AI
02
My Notes on "The Coming Wave" by Mustafa Suleyman Medium · 8 min read
Book
03
Raising a Curious Kid in the Age of AI Medium · 6 min read
Parenting
04
I Automated My Morning Routine — Here's What Happened Medium · 4 min read
Project
05
Review: Andrew Ng's "AI for Everyone" Course Medium · 5 min read
Course

✎ Replace these with your actual Medium article titles and links.

Hey, I'm Zhelin 👋

I'm a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Epsilon, Publicis Groupe in Chicago, where I design and ship AI-powered bidding and optimization systems running across thousands of ad campaigns — improving client revenue, reach, and efficiency at scale.

I hold a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, an MS in Applied Mathematics, and an MS in Mechanical Engineering — all from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). My doctoral research on optimal control earned a Best Paper Award (top 9 of 504 submissions). I also served as an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor at UIUC, mentoring graduate students and publishing on control theory and robotic applications.

This site is where I step out of the lab and share what I'm learning, building, and thinking about — from hands-on AI projects you can actually use, to books that shifted how I see the world, to raising my little one with curiosity and intention in an AI-shaped future.

PhD
Mechanical Eng., UIUC
2×MS
Applied Math & Mech. Eng.
🏆
Best Paper Award
📹 YouTube — @zzzhelin_chen → ✏️ Medium Articles → 💼 LinkedIn — zhelin-chen → 💌 [email protected] →