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Laura Chrobak
Laura Chrobak
00:43

Laura Chrobak

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Monterey, CA USA

"It’s so important to learn about what you like but equally important to learn about what you don’t like."

Career Roadmap

Laura's work combines: Technology, Environment & Nature, and Problem Solving

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Day In The Life

MLOps Research Engineer

I develop AI and computer vision tools that help scientists explore, understand, and protect the ocean.

03:15

Day In The Life Of An MLOps Research Engineer

My Day to Day

I spend a lot of my day on the computer, curating underwater data and training and evaluating computer vision models. I collaborate with citizen scientists, expert taxonomists, scientists, and other data and ML engineers to bring different perspectives together. A big part of my work is making sure our models operate reliably so scientists can use them to study the ocean and answer questions that matter.

Skills & Education

Advice for getting started

Math is always a good place to start if you're wanting to do engineering. A strong foundation in applied mathematics has fueled my career. For a role like mine, I recommend learning computer vision and software engineering. In my role, Python has been my primary focus, but learning a plethora of coding languages is helpful. I also encourage everyone to take an AI ethics class in order to keep these tools human-centric.

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Mechanical Engineering

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Graduate Degree

    Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

    University of Michigan

Learn more about different paths to this career

Life & Career Milestones

My path in life has been direct

  • 1.

    Growing up, I knew I loved math but I wasn’t sure where it could take me, so my career became a process of discovery.

  • 2.

    I studied mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where applied math, fluids, and hydrodynamics began shaping the technical foundation of my career.

  • 3.

    Scuba diving, fieldwork, and oceanography courses opened my eyes to a whole new world and showed me I could connect engineering with the ocean.

  • 4.

    I pursued a master’s in robotics at the University of Michigan, where underwater perception research led me from mechanical engineering into software and computer vision.

  • 5.

    After graduating, I got a job as a research engineer at X, the Moonshot Factory, which gave me space to stay curious and learn across disciplines.

  • 6.

    Today, I develop machine learning tools with FathomNet at MBARI, helping scientists explore ocean imagery at scale and work toward better understanding and protecting our oceans.

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