Noema running local models and grounded retrieval across Mac and iPhone

NoemaAI founder and UCLA student in Los Angeles

I build private AI that runs on your hardware.

I'm Armin Stamate. I study Mathematics of Computation at UCLA and build Noema, Noema Atlas, and Noema 1.5 2B.

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Current workNoema 4.0

Education

Fall 2026 to Summer 2030

University of California, Los Angeles

I am pursuing a B.S. in Mathematics of Computation.

Los Angeles, California

Projects

Current product work.

Noema

Noema 4.0

A free, open-source AI assistant for Apple devices. It runs models, searches files, and uses tools locally.

I founded NoemaAI in July 2025, launched Noema 1 that September, and have continued developing the product through Noema 4.0 across local runtimes, private retrieval, model discovery, and tool use.

Role: Founder, Product engineering, Local inference
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro
Current release: Noema 4.0

website source app store

What I built

On-device document retrieval

Built private RAG for PDF, EPUB, text, and structured files, including OCR repair and retrieval recovery paths.

Local API and tool execution

Built an OpenAI-compatible local API, structured tool calling, offline Python, and voice input.

Runtime and memory systems

Integrated five local runtimes with device-aware memory admission, cache controls, and fit-aware model gating.

Cross-device and release engineering

Shipped cross-device inference, an 11-language native interface, and automated Apple build and release workflows.

Noema model library on Mac beside an iPhone running grounded retrieval — Local models and grounded retrieval in Noema.

Noema Atlas

Released July 2026

A desktop app for downloading, verifying, and sharing local AI model weights across multiple sources.

Atlas combines resumable multi-source transfers, content-addressed storage, signed manifests, and direct handoff to LM Studio and Ollama.

Role: Product engineering, Systems design
Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux
License: Apache 2.0

website source

What I built

BitTorrent transport

Built µTP and DHT transfers, discovery, concurrent downloading, seeding, and verified handoff into Atlas storage.

Iroh multi-peer fetching

Added striped downloads across multiple Iroh peers, live upload accounting, and fast peer-state invalidation.

Transfer control

Added live peers, upload ratios, recheck, sequential mode, queue priority, and scheduled bandwidth limits.

Signed releases

Built signed automatic updates and release paths for the native and Studio apps across desktop platforms.

Hugging FaceHTTPSIroh peersBitTorrent

Complete-file checkBLAKE3 + SHA-256

VerifiedLocal library

Eligible routes can contribute bytes. Atlas verifies the complete file before it enters the library.

Noema 1.5 2B

Released August 2026

An open-weight 2B model that improves strict instruction following and multi-turn consistency while using fewer thinking tokens.

I developed Noema 1.5 from the earlier Noema 2B checkpoint using restoration-aware on-policy distillation. The release improves strict instruction following and complete multi-turn responses while using fewer thinking tokens than stock Qwen3.5-2B in the paired final evaluation.

Role: Training design, Evaluation, Model release
Starting checkpoint: Noema 2B
Release: Open weights

model card gguf research note

IFEval strict

72.09+7.02 vs stock

Multi-IF complete

17.88+3.11 vs stock

HumanEval+

53.66+3.05 vs stock

Thinking tokens

−13.5%vs stock

Paired final results against stock Qwen3.5-2B. IFEval and complete Multi-IF gains were statistically significant; HumanEval+ was a favorable point estimate. GPQA-Diamond and IFBench scored below stock.

Work experience

Engineering, teaching, and public service.

July 2025 to Present

NoemaAI

Founder and engineer, NoemaAI

Founded NoemaAI; launched Noema 1 in September 2025 and led continuous development through the current Noema 4.0, integrating five on-device model runtimes, private document retrieval, tool calling, an OpenAI-compatible local API, voice input, and cross-device inference.

Los Angeles, California

website source

2023 to 2025

Young Coders Initiative

Vice president and instructor

Taught introductory programming to more than 50 under-resourced students and helped develop a Breakthrough Miami coding elective.

June to August 2025

Eileen Higgins mayoral campaign

Field team volunteer, Office of Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins

Served on the field team for ten weeks, canvassing Miami neighborhoods, phonebanking, identifying supporters, and answering residents' questions about the campaign platform.

Miami, Florida

city profile

March 2025

CSW69 delegation

Delegate, Mar Adentro de México A.C.

Participated with Mar Adentro de México A.C. during the sixty-ninth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters.

New York, New York

un session organization