Perplexity Tech Talk & Coding Contest, 9/1

Perplexity Tech Talk & Coding Contest
Tues, 9/1
5:00 - 7:30pm
DSAI 1069

Title: Systems Engineering Toward Frontier Intelligence

Abstract: AI progress has been driven by a steady march of new modelsand infrastructure primitives. Yet these building blocks of AI are fractally complex and exhibit increasingly jagged capabilities. Unlocking frontier intelligence demands a new breed of systems engineering, one focused on orchestrating these atomic components to achieve outcomes that no single component could reach alone. Members of Perplexity's technical team will present their latest work in orchestration, persistence, memory, and other areas toward building intelligent systems for the world's most discerning users.

Speakers: Jerry Ma and Peter Jin

Jerry Ma serves as Deputy CTO at Perplexity, where he oversees core R&D initiatives to build frontier intelligence systems for the world's mostdiscerning users. He concurrently serves as VP Global Affairs, overseeing Perplexity's public policy and government relations. Prior to Perplexity, Jerryworked in AI labs, startups, U.S. policymaking, and law enforcement.

Jerry's research has been published at ICML, ICLR, IEEE S&P, and otherleading venues. He is the recipient of the U.S. Presidential Rank Award and the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America medal. Jerry holds an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Peter Jin is a Member of Technical Staff on Perplexity's Acceleration team, building AI agents, infrastructure, and tooling to empower teams across Perplexity to ship better and faster. Peter graduated from Purdue in 2025 and pursued graduate studies at UIUC before joining Perplexity in early 2026.

Perplexity is hiring exceptional Purdue students for Member of Technical Staff positions in 2026-2027. Talented technologists with any of the following interests are invited to apply:

● Applied research (agent harnesses, orchestration, continual learning, RL environments, and more)
● Full-stack, backend, and platform engineering across Perplexity’s product portfolio
● AI infrastructure (agent runtimes, cloud infra, model training/inference systems, and more)
● Any other technical field relevant to building frontier intelligence systems

Roles are fluid at Perplexity. Our team is laser-focused on advancing the AI frontier and building category-defining products. Perplexity’s most impactful team members routinely contribute across areas to make this happen.
Perplexity’s new grads enjoy base salaries of over $200,000, along with generous equity and benefits.
Although our focus is on students in their final year of study, those interested in taking an indefinite leave of absence starting within the next year are also welcome to apply.

Tech Talk & Coding Contest: September 1 (5:00-7:30 PM; DSAI 1069)
Prizes include Perplexity Max, API Platform credits, and automatic fi nal-round interviews!
On-Campus Interviews: September 2-3
Apply at pplx.ai/2026Purdue (OCI deadline: August 31)