AI Training & STEM Evaluation

Teaching machines to reason about materials, energy & physics.

Materials Scientist and PhD researcher evaluating LLM reasoning, scientific accuracy, and RLHF workflows across Physics, Chemistry, and Mechanical Engineering — turning deep STEM expertise into higher-quality AI.

Portrait of Irfan Khan Irfan Khan · Sydney, NSW
10+
years in STEM research & engineering
100+
academic papers & books edited
4
AI eval platforms contributed to
PhD
Photovoltaics, UNSW Sydney
01

Where I add signal

LLM Evaluation

Scientific accuracy review

Assessing reasoning, factual correctness, and completeness in AI outputs across materials science, thermodynamics, and semiconductor physics.

RLHF & Rubrics

Benchmark & rubric design

Building expert annotations, evaluation rubrics, and reasoning benchmarks that lift model performance through human-feedback workflows.

Quality Assurance

Hallucination detection

Surfacing factual errors, reasoning gaps, and inconsistencies in complex STEM datasets to protect dataset integrity.

Prompt Engineering

Prompt & response authoring

Writing high-quality prompts and gold-standard answers that diversify training data and reduce model bias.

Domain Depth

Materials & energy science

Photovoltaics, nanotechnology, spectroscopy, and semiconductor materials backed by a decade of hands-on research.

Communication

Technical writing & editing

Translating dense engineering into precise, clear explanations suited to instructional and evaluation datasets.

02

Experience

Jun 2026 — Present · Remote

Materials Science STEM Expert

Mercor AI — Zion Project
  • Evaluate scientific accuracy, logical reasoning, and domain expertise of LLM outputs across materials science, physics, chemistry, and mechanical engineering.
  • Develop expert annotations, evaluation rubrics, and reasoning benchmarks that improve model performance through RLHF workflows.
  • Perform QA on complex STEM datasets — identifying factual inaccuracies, reasoning errors, and hallucinations in AI-generated content.
Apr 2022 — Present · Remote

Freelance AI Trainer & Data Labeller

Alignerr · Appen–CrowdGen · Outlier
  • Trained and evaluated LLMs on multi-domain tasks using structured rubrics for instruction following, factual accuracy, and reasoning depth.
  • Conducted side-by-side comparative evaluations, ranking outputs and writing detailed justifications and Golden Truth Final Answers.
  • Supported rubric calibration workflows for RLHF and continuous model fine-tuning. Tools: Labelbox, JSON editors.
Feb 2024 — Present · Sydney

PhD Candidate & Casual Academic

School of Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW Sydney
  • Research photovoltaic materials and quantum energy transfer using computational modelling for data interpretation and simulation.
  • Designed and taught physics and renewable-energy concepts to 100+ students — skills that translate directly to prompt instruction and rubric design.
Apr 2017 — Present · Remote

Freelance Writer & Technical Editor

Upwork & Independent
  • Edited 100+ academic papers and books in physics, materials science, and engineering using rubric-based evaluation frameworks.
  • Developed STEM training content and precise scientific explanations suited to LLM instructional datasets.
Oct 2020 — Jan 2024 · Lahore

Teaching & Research Assistant

Polymer & Process Engineering, UET Lahore
  • Authored and edited 3 research articles and 2 book chapters on advanced polymer technologies in top-tier journals.
  • Led workshops on chemistry, physics, and materials science, improving student understanding by 25%.
Sep 2014 — Aug 2018 · Pakistan

Assistant Manager

SUPARCO — Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission
  • Applied mechanical and chemical engineering principles to satellite component design across thermodynamics, heat transfer, and structural mechanics.
  • Ran FEA/CFD simulations (SolidWorks, ANSYS) and led material testing for multiple satellite subsystem prototypes.
03

Skills

AI, LLMs & Evaluation

LLM EvaluationRLHFPrompt EngineeringSFTChain-of-Thought EvalRubric-Based EvaluationBenchmark DevelopmentHallucination DetectionResponse RankingExpert AnnotationDataset AuditingFact VerificationSafety Evaluation

STEM & Engineering

Materials SciencePhysicsChemistryPhotovoltaicsSemiconductor PhysicsThin FilmsNanotechnologyThermodynamicsHeat TransferCFDFEAExperimental Design

Computing & Software

PythonNumPyPandasSciPyMatplotlibMATLABC/C++COMSOLANSYSSolidWorksJupyter

Writing & Communication

Scientific WritingTechnical EditingJournal Manuscript EditingPeer ReviewQ&A AuthoringDistractor DesignSTEM EducationCurriculum Development
04

Education & certifications

PhD, Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy Engineering
UNSW Sydney, Australia · 2024 – Present
MSc, Polymer & Process Engineering
UET Lahore, Pakistan · CGPA 3.83/4.00 · 2020 – 2022
Erasmus Mundus MSc, Membrane Engineering (EM3E-4SW)
Université de Montpellier, France & VSCHT Prague · 2018 – 2019
BSc, Materials Engineering
Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad · CGPA 3.43/4.00 · 2010 – 2014
Certificate IV in Training & Assessment (TAE40122)Sep 2024
PTE Academic — Score 90/90Jul 2023
LanguagesEN · UR · HI

Let's build more reliable AI.

Open to AI training, STEM evaluation, and RLHF roles. Reach out to talk about how deep domain expertise can raise your model's scientific reasoning.