Intro
As spring break comes to an end, I will take some time to reflect on the past winter quarter and set some goals for spring and summer. Overall, the winter quarter is a lot busier and more fulfilling than fall, and I’ve done a better job in both thriving academically and expanding my social connections.
School
I took 5 classes in the winter: a lower-div CS class, three lower-div math classes, and an upper-div course on deep learning and neural network. While the three math classes are pretty easy, the CS class actually posed some challenges towards the end (mainly due to my initial lack of effort and time spent in that class), but it should be under control. The most difficult one is unsurprisingly the deep learning class due to the number of pre-requisites that I skipped. For the first few weeks, I was haunted by matrix calculus, probabilistic distributions, linear algebra, and the overall rigor of the material. Thankfully, I was able to catch up relatively quickly and did well on the midterm and final project. Looking back, I’m glad that I embraced the challenge and took the course: I grew familiar with some of the most important neural network concepts and became semi-proficient in deep learning frameworks like PyTorch; more importantly, it opened the door to opportunities that I otherwise wouldn’t have - namely, getting into my current research lab and being able to take ECE 239AS, a grad class on advanced deep learning and neural network.
I’m taking 5 classes again in the spring, but they are even more difficult: CS 33, Psych 10 (Introduction to Psychology), Math 115AH (upper-div Linear Algebra), ECE 102 (Signal Processing), and ECE 239AS (Advanced Deep Learning and Neural Network). Although this makes up a very challenging schedule (can’t skip lectures anymore!), I’m very excited about the content of these courses. I will need to manage my time better (start projects earlier!) and focus more deeply during study time. That being said, I might end up dropping Psych 10 if it turns out to be too difficult to manage all 5 classes and my research project, and maintaining a reasonable social life.
Research
I worked as a computer science intern at the Interconnected and Integrated Bioengineering Lab (I2BL) in the winter quarter. Being my first time working in research lab, I was very excited to see what I could contribute. After two weeks of training with other interns (mostly learning about the Ferrobot project that the lab is working on), I began working with the computer science team that consists of Hongchang, Shawn, Parnian, and me. As senior members of the team, Hongchang and Shawn quickly introduced the goal of our team: developing an automated testing platform for Ferrobot researchers to design experiments with ease. Under the guidance of Shawn and Hongchang, Parnian and I were able to learn quickly and started contributing to the project; we made a lot of solid progress, adding many cool functionalities to the platform.
However, I became skeptical of the project and whether it really aligns with my research goals as the quarter progressed. Firstly, while the project may sounds fancy, it’s in reality mostly web development - which I’m not against by any means, but it’s not the most intellectually stimulating task either. More importantly, I began doubting the significance of the project to our lab - even Kiarash, the PhD student that our team worked with, admitted that our work wasn’t really publishable research, but rather just an adjunct side-project that would, in the very best case, save some time for the researchers that are currently designing experiments manually.
That being said, I still see this experience as very valuable, and I don’t regret joining the lab at all. Shawn, Hongchang, and Parnian are all super nice people, and I learned a lot by working with them. It also gave me a taste of working in a research lab, and certainly made it less intimidating for me to reach out to professors and research opportunities.
In spring, I will work with Zhouxing, a super cracked PhD student in Professor Hsieh’s Computational Machine Learning Lab. From what I’ve seen so far, my new work is going to be a lot more independent and self-driven. The more time and effort I spent on the project, the more I will get out of it.
I’m very grateful for this opportunity and I’m glad that I’m able to achieve one of my new year resolution of “getting into an AI research lab”. Next goal: publish a paper this year :)
Social
I met some more amazing friends through basketball in the winter. For spring, I’m going to play for two basketball IM teams, and I hope to get know everyone even better :D
I also found the ICPC officer community to be really nice, and I love how everyone just hangs out at E6 for fun :)
For spring, my goal is to meet more diverse friends - different interests, majors, gender (cough cough), etc. I also hope to travel more - can’t live in LA for a year and not go anywhere right? The tentative plan is to visit one new place every week, and here are some ideas: the Getty Center, Griffith observatory, Little Tokyo, K-Town, C-Town, hiking trails. Send me a message if you are interested in joining!
Misc. Opportunities
I went to Treehacks, a Stanford Hackathon, with Jonathan in February. Despite the 7-hour bus rides and horrible sleeping conditions, I enjoyed the experience. I learned that (1) I’m pretty bad at software engineering (2) there’re many highly motivated and skilled college students out there that I can learn from (3) there’s a very strong startup culture at Stanford that’s somewhat lacking at UCLA (4) many great startup ideas come from identifying a problem in a niche area, which often requires expertise in that area (importance of interdisciplinary studies!). I plan on attending Treehacks next year - send me a message if you have any cool project ideas!
For spring, I hope to:
- Play a bigger role in helping/improving ICPC. Currently, I’m leading the training track after talking to William, and I have some preliminary ideas on improving attendance.
- Look into AI Safety’s Alignment Research Team (ART).