About Me

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Physics with a minor in Economics

September 2018 - June 2022
GPA: 4.8

Computer Science

With every passing day it feels more to me like we are living in a technological renaissance. Computer science is advancing all over the board incredibly quickly. Computers are being used as a tool to solve some of the most pressing problems which have ever faced humanity. I am majoring in computer science at MIT, however I would describe myself more as a full stack developer or a data scientist than a true computer scientist. These are the things which I have a true passion for: I like to build things. What I mean is that I like designing systems from front to back then developing them; understanding as much about the project as I can. The systems which I enjoy most, however, are those leveraging mad data sets to realize outrageous results. The things which machine learning and artificial intelligence are doing these days inspire and confound me. I know that this is where I want to be.

Relavant Technologies Known

Physics

My entire life I have been curious about the world. This is the first subject I can say I was ever truly passionate about. Every time I take a physics class I have had my mind blown; I live in a constant state of surprise due to the complex and unintuitive nature of the universe we live in. It makes me feel very small but in an inspiring way! That moment when you truly 'get' something as unintuitive as relativity, maxwells equations, or essentially any concept within physics is among the most satisfying things in life.

Past just the romance of it, however, there is actually math behind it all. We can make accurate predictions about this absolutely insane and unintuitive world we live in. That blows my mind and fills me with hope for humanity. Almost everything we have today, and usually take for granted, is due to our tiny bubble of knowledge among the vast sea of mystery which is the universe! The possibilities are enticing.

Technical Courses Taken

Here are some relevant and interesting courses I have taken at MIT! This list is limited to the computer science, physics, and math classes I have taken.

Economics

and Consulting

I work with the MIT consulting group on a case each semester. I find it very valuable to interface with a wide variety of companies and get a feel for how they really work, on top of delving deep into a new subject.

Furthermore I am also captivated by the field of economics. As a physics major I have been exposed to many extremely interesting and complicated systems, and been pushed to rigorously analyze and characterize them. I love this; to step into a new world with its own rules, to explore and poke around, and to eventually form layers of understanding. One such system which captivates me most is the market, the enormous world depicting aggregate exchange and interaction.

Language

Languages I am familiar with

English - Fluent

English is the language I have spoken for most of my life.

Spanish - Fluent

Spanish is my native language and I speak it at home.

French - Fluent

I studied French for 5 years and lived a month in Grenoble, France, teaching physics.

Philosophy

I took part in the IB program in my high school, which greatly exposed me to Philosophy, History, and Literature. I took a class called "Theory of Knowledge" which was essentially a crash course of western philosophy and fell in love with it. From then on, I have spent countless hours reading, listening to podcasts, and thinking about the hugely varied ideas within philosophy.

In my opinion, to study philosophy is just to think about the nature of something.

History

One of my most time consuming hobbies is playing historical simulation video games; I have literally spent hundreds of hours on them (EU4, Victoria 2, Crusader Kings 2, HOI4, Civilization, Total War, etc). An upside of this is that I discovered a love for history in myself. While these simulators themselves to tend to teach history, they were also an impotus for me to continue my studies mostly through many more hours of youtube videos and wikipedia articles.

I am mostly interested in European history, and am fairly well studied in the periods from antiquity, the Roman Republic and empire, up until the Second World War.

Literature

I used to dislike literature when I was young, however I had the great luck of being exposed to it in a new light by awesome teachers. In 9th grade I had to do an extremely boring project on the Odyssey before I entered high school. When my teacher made us present it, however, we had to dress up as gods and heroes and act it out. I could almost see the stories I had read about, it was fun. And from there on I realized that every work of literature is so much more than just words on a page. Literature is storytelling, usually deep and enlightening, where authors use cool tricks of language to convey a huge range of really interesting ideas.

That moment when you 'get' a really deep metaphor is kind of perfect and usually very enlightening; whatever idea the author was trying to convey.

Favorite Books

• Foundation
  Isaac Asimov
• Frankenstein
  Mary Shelley
• Heart of Darkness
  Joseph Conrad
• The Republic
  Plato
• Hamlet
  Shakespeare

Favorite Podcasts

• Freaknomics
  Stephen Dubner
• Artificial Intelligence Podcast
  Lex Fridman
• Philosophize This
  Stephen West
• Overheard at National Geographic
  National Geographic
• Tech News and Money Briefings
  Wall Street Journal

Exploring

I love to explore. As a naturally curious person, there is something about seeings new things which hits a spot like nothing else does.

Hiking is possibly my favorite hobby - in my opinion nature has created some of the most beautiful and amazing things imaginable right here on our planet. The sense of wonder and amazement I get when seeing a faroff mountain peak, endless ocean, colorful jungle, or vast desert is a touch to the heart which really nothing else can provide. Then the act of hiking itself: hours of work, miles of trekking, sometimes a little painful; it's quite the journey. The effort it takes to reach that summit, however, only adds to the feeling of awe and accomplishment when the goal is reached.

More than just hiking, however, I also like to explore through different cities and cultures. When I travel to a new place I try to get the most out of it - I usually make my own walking tours through all the interesting sites I want to see. These tours are usually around 10-15 miles long per city, however I almost always end up getting sidetracked and seeing much more.

Favorite Hikes

• Mount Ida
  Rocky Mountain National Park
• Precipice
  Acadia National Park
• Old Rag Trail
  Shenandoah National Park
• Prégentil
  Parc des Écrins
• Mount Mitchell
  Mount Mitchell State Park

Activity

Something else which is important to me is health and fitness. I believe that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind and vice versa. One of the biggest struggles in my life is trying to balance a healthy lifestyle with the workload of MIT; but I believe that little by little it is becoming easier for me.

I spend about 8 hours a week at the gym and a couple more running, hiking, or doing other random sports with my friends. I used to play water polo in high school, and have a black belt in Shito-Ryu Karate. I also suck at soccer but would like to get better in the coming months.

Flying

My junior year of high school I started flight school at a private neighborhood airstrip near where I live. Flying is awesome - it's exciting, demanding, and beautiful; I loved it as a hobby. It is also really expensive, however. In high school I used to have my own small-scale tutoring business which I used to fully pay for my lessons, however I no longer had access to my clients so I sadly had to drop this hobby. I do still have a student pilot's lisence though, and definitely plan on continuing this passion later in life. My goal is to one day have my own private pilot's lisence and plane, so I can explore the world on my own terms with the people I love.

Photography

I have recently started studying photography and trying to take cool pictures from all my hikes and travels. I will eventually put a lot of them up online, but for now:

Storytelling

When I start watching a movie or playing a game I am oftentimes looking to get deeply involved in the world. I love watching lore videos on youtube, discussing random things about the world on forums, and trying to learn as much as possible about the world I was introduced to.

There are a few worlds I am very familiar with, such as Game of Thrones, Star Wars, the Elder Scrolls, and the Witcher - however for almost every piece of content I consume I am usually looking to get lost in the world.

Favorite Video Games

• Dark Souls I and II
  FromSoftware
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  CD Projeckt Red
• The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
  Bethesda Softworks
• Europa Universalis 4
  Paradox Interactive
• Knights of the Old Republic
  Bioware

Favorite Movies

• Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
  Irvin Kershner
• Jurassic Park
  Steven Spielberg
• Pulp Fiction
  Quentin Tarantino
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
  Steven Spielberg
• Apocalypse Now
  Francis Ford Coppola

Mental Math and Memorization

In the last few weeks I started reading these books to improve my memorization and mental math skills. I would highly recommend them! It is incredible what your brain is capable of with a little bit of practice.