About & experience

About

I'm Rining Wu, a PhD researcher working across AI and computational neuroscience at the University of Leeds and the University of Birmingham. My doctoral research studies how neurons respond to changing visual scenes, using deep learning to model information over time.

Alongside research, I have experience building protein-modelling platforms, internal AI applications and web services. My work combines machine learning with software engineering: turning models into tools that scientists and other users can run, and deploying the systems that support them.

Experience

Readline Intelligence

Research Fellow · Jun 2022–Present · Leeds, UK

  • Built and shipped a protein-modelling platform on Kubernetes, with a React interface and Python services, so wet-lab scientists could run models without developer assistance. Added isolated execution environments and GPU scheduling to support multiple users on shared hardware.
  • Built an ensemble framework for protein modelling using models including AlphaFold2 and ESM2, improved template-search workflows, and introduced distributed training. Built and deployed internal products with automated delivery pipelines.
  • Organised a three-person team to customise and deploy an internal large language model application, covering design, frontend and services. Integrated Jupyter tools into Kubernetes workflows to make algorithms easier for non-developers to use.
  • Supported the marketing team at trade shows through logistics coordination, on-site support and engagement with international attendees.

University of Leeds

Co-supervisor (Part-time) · Mar 2023–Present · Leeds, UK

  • Co-supervised undergraduate computer science students.

Guangzhou Fukonn Vanguard Co. LtdWeb Full-stack Engineer (Contract) · Nov 2020–Dec 2020 · Guangzhou, China

  • Built a WeChat mini-program to support sales-team interactions with exhibition visitors. Developed serverless services using an API gateway, event-driven compute, authorisation management and a NoSQL database.

Tianjin Daran Technology Co. LtdWeb Full-stack Engineer (Contract) · Dec 2019–Dec 2020 · Beijing, China

  • Implemented RESTful services for an intelligent servo robot application, including authentication, repeat-request handling, messaging and object storage. Deployed the services with Docker on Alibaba Cloud.
  • Built a Vue/TypeScript website and content management system with multilingual support, content delivery, server-side rendering and access management.

Beijing Yifei Technology Co. LtdWeb Full-Stack Engineer · Nov 2017–Nov 2019 · Beijing, China

  • Coordinated client requirements and project schedules, and organised a three-person team to establish GitLab delivery pipelines for outsourced projects.
  • Developed the company's marketing website and WeChat mini-program with ThinkPHP and Vue, including role-based access control and frontend state management.

Tianjin F-EYE UAV Technology Co. LtdWeb Front-end Engineer (Intern) · Mar 2017–Nov 2017 · Tianjin, China

  • Developed the company's website with ThinkPHP, jQuery and templates, and built the frontend for a drone applications community.

China Aviation navigation data Co. LtdSoftware Engineer (Intern) · Feb 2017–Mar 2017 · Beijing, China

  • Developed frontend functionality for a notice-information processing system using C# and WinForms, and generated statistical reports from an internal issue-tracking system.

Education

University of Leeds & University of Birmingham

PhD · Mar 2023–Present · Leeds, UK

Research in temporal visual encoding and time-based data at the Neural Computation Lab, connecting deep learning, visual encoding and computational neuroscience.

University of Leeds

MSc, Advanced Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) · Jan 2021–Mar 2022 · Leeds, UK

Passed with Distinction. Thesis: Double-link U-Net for Brain Tumour Segmentation.

Civil Aviation University of China

BSc, Computer Science · Sep 2013–Jun 2017 · Tianjin, China

Research

My co-authored work covers neural response prediction, protein solubility, industrial sensor data and medical navigation.

Recognition

  • 2025 — Team first prize. Our University of Birmingham team received first prize at the Closed Loop Neurotechnology Hackathon, hosted by Imperial College London. Event announcement
  • 2024 — Workshop poster. “Improving neuronal coding of dynamic visual scenes with foundation vision models” was accepted as an extended abstract for a poster at the Human-inspired Computer Vision Workshop at ECCV. Workshop programme

Tools & languages

  • Programming: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C++, Java and Shell.
  • Machine learning: PyTorch, Lightning, NumPy and pandas; distributed training, time-series modelling and generative models; protein models including AlphaFold2 and ESM2; vision models including DINOv2/v3 and I3D.
  • Infrastructure and delivery: Docker, Kubernetes, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, cloud deployment, and continuous integration and delivery with GitLab and GitHub Actions.
  • Development tools: Jupyter, VS Code, Git and Linux.
  • Languages: Fluent in English and Mandarin.

Find my work

Google Scholar · ORCID · GitHub · LinkedIn