Blog
More updates and pictures from Zurich (through mid-March)
March 12, 2023
I've now been in Zurich for just over a month, and I've been traveling around Switzerland on the weekends. This blog post is also a photo dump, with even less context than last time. All photos have been scaled down to make the page load faster. Delete "resized/" from the image link to view the full image.
Final week of German class
On the final day of German class, we went to the Lindt chocolate factory.
Then we went on a boat tour around Lake Zurich.
Uetliberg
That weekend I hiked the Uetliberg mountain near Zurich with some friends …
Some updates and pictures from my first week in Switzerland
February 12, 2023
Classes don't start until next week, so I've been exploring Zurich for the past week. This blog post is roughly a photo dump, with little bits of context. All photos have been scaled down to make the page load faster. Delete "resized/" from the image link to view the full image.
I arrived in Zurich last Friday (the 3rd) in the morning. I met a fellow exchange student (from Australia) in the airport, and we took a train to downtown Zurich and walked around for a little bit with our suitcases. My apartment move-in was at noon, so I took …
En route to Zurich!
February 02, 2023
After a quick layover at Washington Dulles, I'm officially in the air and on my way -- the overseas/overnight flight to Zurich lifted off just moments ago!
Constitutional Design: Plan II Junior Seminar
January 20, 2023
This past semester, I took "Constitutional Design," an excellent Plan II Junior Seminar taught by Professor Zachary Elkins. In the course, we explored the professor's various research interests. To borrow from my final paper,
Prior to each class, we read a relevant book chapter, journal paper, or article and composed a short reaction response.
Our final assignment was to compile our responses into a report,
The Stars at Night / A Walk in the Park
December 12, 2022
The Grand Canyon
I sat down in my tent at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, listened to the sounds around me, and looked upwards. Through the roof of my tent, I saw hundreds of stars shining brightly in the night sky. The contrast was striking: each star was distinct, each star crisply stood out from the black backdrop. I found it all to be incredible, and I quickly began to realize that I had experienced my first taste of the beauty of the Grand Canyon.
The idea of my dad and me hiking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim first …
How I Fixed Mopac and Why It Had It Coming / The Importance of Bug Reports
November 05, 2022
One underrated habit I've picked up is informing people when problems arise in systems they maintain. I think I've acquired this habit from being a software developer, where there is a culture (at least in the free and open-source software world) of filing bug reports.
I believe this is an effective way to contribute to the community because it puts system maintainers in direct contact with their users, allowing maintainers to efficiently diagnose and resolve problems that may be common to the entire userbase.
I'll give two examples from the past few weeks.
UT Austin Prereq Portal
First is the …
The Summer in Review: Part 2
October 02, 2022
Link to Part 1.
Trip to Boston
After working for another week, I traveled with my family to Boston during the last week of June. We stayed in Boston (south of the Charles) and spent most of our time walking or biking around Cambridge. I was working during this trip, but the three-hour time difference enabled me to spend time with my family during the day and then work in the evening (starting at 16:00 EDT or later). We stayed within walking distance of the BPL Central Library in Copley Square, which turned out to be a convenient place …
A one-year retrospective of my first research project
September 15, 2022
I just added a page on my research to this website!
In accordance with this theme, I just wrote a little bit about my first project in the Quantum Circuits Group -- keep reading!
Overview
I designed a voltage divider and low-pass filter circuit which delivers constant current to a magnetic coil while also dissipating any noise. I was simultaneously taking the circuit theory course, so it was a great learning experience to actually be modeling/simulating/building my own (more complicated) RC filter while we were learning about (less complicated) RC filters in class.
Design space exploration
The first part of …
The Summer in Review: Part 1
September 06, 2022
As the fall semester ramps up, I wanted to make a post about what I did this summer. Without too much more of a preamble, here we go (part 1 -- I forgot that my writing tends to go long, so breaking it up seems logical).
Relaxation + Errands
After finishing my electromagnetic engineering final (on a Wednesday), my mom picked me up, I loaded the car, and we drove home from Austin to San Antonio. I spent the rest of that week relaxing, driving my sister to her activities, and running miscellaneous errands (this is the best way to …
Star Trek Movies, ranked
July 02, 2022
- Star Trek Beyond
- Star Trek: First Contact
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
- Star Trek (2009)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Star Trek Into …
I'm a pretty big Star Trek fan. I've seen every movie (many of them several times) and almost every episode (I skipped some from Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Voyager that looked uninteresting or received bad reviews, and I'm still watching Star Trek: The Animated Series). And whenever I'm watching, I repeatedly pause to reference Memory: Alpha (the online Star Trek wiki/encyclopedia) for details on characters, locations, and other important information.