Rina Buoy, Ph.D.

Professional Summary

A dedicated professional with extensive experience in applied machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. Proven expertise in Khmer natural language processing, text analytics, and OCR. Demonstrated leadership in both academic and industry settings, with a strong commitment to advancing research and mentoring emerging talents.

I am always open to collaboration on projects related to my current research fields. If you have an idea or project in mind, feel free to reach out—I would love to work together to create impactful solutions.

Current Positions

• Visiting Researcher, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
• Applied AI Researcher, Techo Startup Center (TSC)
• Adjunct Lecturer, American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP), Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) & CamTech University
• Advisory Board Member: Paragon International University (CS PhD Program), AI Farm Robotics, Federation of Cambodian Startups, Federation of Cambodian Students Abroad
• Research Fellow, AI Forum, Cambodia

Education

• Ph.D. in Intelligent Informatics, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan (2022–2024)
  Thesis: Innovative Techniques for Reduced-Complexity Text Recognition
• Master of IT Engineering, Royal University of Phnom Penh (2019–2021)
  Thesis: An End-to-End Khmer Optical Character Recognition using Sequence-to-Sequence with Attention
• M.Sc. in Geoscience, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia (2021–2022)
  Thesis: Seismic Fault Predictions using Deep Learning
• B.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering (Hons), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia (2008–2012)

Current Teaching Classes

1. Artificial Intelligence (AUPP - Spring Semester)
2. Machine Learning (CamTech)

Previous Courses Taught

• Practical Application in Machine Learning
  Bachelor and Master Classes at Royal University of Phnom Penh
• AI and Data Science Bootcamps
  American University
• Corporate Machine Learning Training Course
  Mengly J. Quach Education

Research Interests

1. Multimodal Search
2. Multilingual (Khmer) Machine Translation
3. Khmer Speech Recognition and Translation
4. Scene Text Recognition (Khmer)
5. Handwriting Recognition (Khmer)
6. Eye-Tracking and Document Reading
7. Document Layout Analysis and Recognition
8. Agentic Systems (Chatbots, Q&A Systems)
9. Document Mining

Skills & Competencies

• Natural Language Processing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Deep Learning
• Machine Learning
• Data Science
• Algorithms & Optimization
• Programming
• Leadership & Mentoring

Professional Certifications

• Data Scientist with Python Track – DataCamp
• Deep Learning Nano Degree – Udacity (2020)
• Leading Digitalization and Transformation of the Cambodian Economy – Stanford & AUPP (2021)
• Oxford Machine Learning Summer School (2022, 2023)

Projects

• CRONOS Project: CRONOS R&D program aims at advancement of Japan's information and communication technology through Grand Challenges.

Work Experience

• Technical Consultant
  ΣAngkor Computing — Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  📅 February 2019 – November 2020
  • Provided consulting in data science, algorithm development, machine learning, and petroleum engineering.
  • Led the LUMA traffic object detection system project in Phnom Penh.
  • Collaborated on 4D seismic integration (LEAP Energy) and tubing flow modeling (Invigour Energy, Malaysia).
• Algorithm Developer (Team Lead)
  Three60 Energy (Leap Energy Technology Ventures) — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  📅 September 2012 – January 2019
  • Led development of 'Apache' machine learning and analytics platform.
  • Developed core algorithms for POSEIDON platform: production allocation, smart decline curve analysis, and forecasting.
  • Directed LEAP-PETRONAS R&D on PreHM (pre-history matching) and advanced reservoir analytics.
  • Applied physics-guided AI and business intelligence to petroleum studies and consultancy projects.

Publications

• Finite Element Solution for a Coal-Bed Methane Reservoir Model Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 2017. Link
• Advanced Methods for Determining the Value of Information of Surveillance Data Acquisition Using Predictive Analytics SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, 2017. Link
• Locate the Remaining Oil (LTRO) and Predictive Analytics: Application for Development Decisions on Marmul GNR Field, The Sultanate of Oman AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, 2017.
• An End-to-End Khmer Optical Character Recognition Using Sequence-to-Sequence with Attention arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.10875, 2021. Link
• Khmer Text Classification Using Word Embedding and Neural Networks ONA 2021. Link
• Khmer Word Search: Challenges, Solutions, and Semantic-Aware Search ONA 2021. Link
• Khmer Printed Character Recognition Using Attention-Based Seq2Seq Network ISHE, 2022. Link
• Seismic Fault Prediction Using Deep Learning EraGet 2022.
• Toward a Low-Resource Non-Latin-Complete Baseline: An Exploration of Khmer Optical Character Recognition IEEE Access, 2023. Link
• Explainable Connectionist-Temporal-Classification-Based Scene Text Recognition Journal of Imaging, 2023. Link
• ViTSTR-Transducer: Cross-Attention-Free Vision Transformer Transducer for Scene Text Recognition Journal of Imaging, 2023. Link
• Language-Aware Non-Autoregressive Khmer Textline Recognition International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence 2024 (ICPRAI2024).
• Parstr: Partially Autoregressive Scene Text Recognition International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), 2024. Link
• Towards Reduced-Complexity Scene Text Recognition (RCSTR) through a Novel Salient Feature Selection International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), 2024. Link
• Khmer Spellchecking: A Holistic Approach Asean Conference on Emerging Technology 2025 (ACET 2024), 2024.

Awards

• 2008: Petronas Scholarship
• 2012: Vice-Chancellor Award (UTP)
• 2022: HEIP/RUPP PhD Scholarship
• 2022: High-Achiever Award (UTP)
• 2022: Cambodia Digital Award (R&D)
• 2023: OxML 2023's Kaggle Competition Winner

Upcoming Talks

• Khmer Spellchecking Software Development Experience
  Workshop organized by the National Council of Khmer Language, Royal Academy of Cambodia
• Toward a Khmer Foundation Model: The Role of Downstream Tasks and Community Contributions
  Workshop by the Cambodian Academy of Digital Technology

Previous Talks

Reviewer Experience

• ICDAR 2024
• ICDAR 2023
• International Journal of Computer Vision