Algorithms

In this third series on graph search algorithms, I use simulated annealing to find solutions to the traveling salesman problem.

This is the second set of a series of graph search algorithms I will examine. Here, two informed graph search methods– Uniform Cost Search and A star– will be described and programmed. The algorithms are demonstrated on two different weighted undirected graphs and to find the optimal path on a maze-like map.

This is the first set of a series of graph search algorithms that I will examine. I describe breadth first search and depth first search and implement them to find paths between cities and solutions to mazes.

I modified the standard Gerchberg-Saxton (GS) phase-retrieval algorithm to return more information than traditional beam-characterization methods given the same data. Other members of my lab group used the algorithm to analyze their laser beams containing orbital angular momentum (OAM), which resulted in a publication in Science Magazine.

Applied Math

Master’s thesis on using data transformations to understand precursors leading up to large solar flares.

In this project, we used Lindenmayer systems (L-systems) to model the fractal-like branching structure of different plant species.

A collection of Applied Math projects I have done throughout my undergraduate career at CU Boulder. These collaborative projects vary in topic and complexity. (Ex: Foraging Patterns in Ants, Modeling Disease Epidemics with Markov Chains)

I find the solution to a problem found in an XKCD comic involving raptors attacking a human. The goal was to find the optimal action for a human who is surrounded by three raptors positioned in an equilateral triangle. The problem appears in an XKCD comic at https://xkcd.com/135/.

Engineering

I built a concert ukulele from raw materials! The top is redwood, the neck is walnut and redwood, and the sides and back are Indian rosewood.

This black bear was digitally modeled in Rhinoceros6 as a Non-Uniform Rational Basis Spline (NURBS) object, a smooth object created using mathematically accurate representations of curves. The object was then converted into a triangular mesh object, unrolled, and modified before it was laser cut out of cardboard and assembled.

I co-led a team of 6 students to design and build a payload for a high-altitude weather balloon to study the flux of cosmic rays throughout the atmosphere. The image above was taken by a GoPro onboard our payload!

Machine Learning

A collection of some natural language processing projects I have done using Pytorch. Many of these projects were done collaboratively and summarized using Jupyter Notebooks.

I augmented solar magnetogram data using generative adversarial networks (GANs) to provide more data for solar flare prediction models.

Science Writing

In this essay, I examine the ethics of Artificial Intelligence as it pertains to the spread of misinformation.

In this essay, I summarize Clark Glymour’s arguments against Bayesian inference as a foundation for scientific inference from his book “Theory and Evidence”, written in 1980.

In this essay, I argue that the years from the death of Copernicus in 1543 to the death of Isaac Newton in 1727 was, in fact, a Scientific Revolution.

Climbing

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I helped developed a new bouldering area with some friends. This is a video I made of one of the most exciting and fun climbs we discovered called “Thy Holy Arete”.