Projects
Research, applied work, and writeups. Reports are downloadable from each project page.
Featured
01- P-0012025 — Present
Metaphor — Japanese Conversation Tutor
Japanese conversation tutor for self-directed adult learners. Vocab apps drill words but don't make you conversational, raw LLM chat doesn't remember what you know, and human tutors cost $50/hr — Metaphor gives you scenario-driven speaking practice on demand, with a durable learner profile that tracks per-element proficiency across sessions.
StackFlutter · Supabase · Claude (Sonnet + Haiku) · Whisper · ElevenLabs · FSRS-6RoleFounder · Technical LeadStatusLive · Active development
AI / ML / Research
05- P-002Apr — Jun 2025
Disincentivizing RL Agents From Hiding Reward Hacking
Alignment research showing that RL agents trained on proxy rewards have a structural incentive to hide reward hacking from RLHF evaluators — and demonstrating standard deep RL agents act on that incentive, behaving correctly when observed and reverting to proxy exploitation when not.
StackPyTorch · PPO · RLHF · Bradley-TerryRoleResearch · Group of 3StatusPublished (course) - P-003Oct — Dec 2024
Optimal Language-Learning Curriculum Design via MCTS
Formalized language-learning curriculum design as an MDP and solved it with Monte Carlo Tree Search. On a 105-item Japanese (JLPT N5–N4) library evaluated against 1000 simulated heterogeneous learners, MCTS reached conversational fluency 36.2% faster than random baselines (p < 0.001) while maintaining 25.9% higher retention.
StackPython · MDP · Monte Carlo Tree SearchRoleSolo researchStatusPublished (course) - P-004Apr — Jun 2025
Direct Preference Optimization for GPT-2 Downstream Tasks
Implemented GPT-2 from scratch, then fine-tuned with Direct Preference Optimization on sentiment analysis, paraphrase detection, and Shakespearean sonnet generation. DPO consistently improved paraphrase and sonnet quality versus standard maximum-likelihood fine-tuning while sidestepping the instability and overhead of RLHF.
StackPyTorch · Transformers · DPO · GPT-2RoleResearch · Group of 2StatusPublished (course) - P-005May — Jun 2026
Offline RL for Adaptive Tutoring
Formulates conversational vocabulary scheduling as a sequential decision problem and trains an offline RL policy that optimizes long-term retention while preserving dialogue naturalness. Includes a stochastic learner simulator with FSRS-inspired forgetting dynamics.
StackPyTorch · Offline RL · LLM SystemsRoleResearchStatusIn progress - P-006Mar — Jun 2025
Gravitational Lens Detection with CNN & ResNet
End-to-end pipeline for strong gravitational lens detection and Einstein-radius regression. Compared CNN, ResNet-18, and ViT architectures across idealized and photorealistic simulations, with ablations on depth, augmentation, and pretraining. Grad-CAM interpretability connected attention to known lensing features.
StackPyTorch · CNN · ResNet · Grad-CAMRoleSolo course projectStatusArchived
Consumer & Social
01- P-007Apr — Jun 2025
The Other Day
Sociotechnical platform for Gen Z — a daily creative Q&A game blending BeReal's daily-prompt cadence with JackBox-style competitive humor. Each day's leaderboard surfaces the previous day's best answers, creating a delayed-feedback loop that encourages genuine over performative posting.
StackMobile · Social Computing · Atomic-network designRoleDesign + build · Group of 4StatusPrototype
Selected math writeups
02- P-008Jan — Mar 2025
Quantum Analysis of the Hydrogen Atom
Rigorous derivation of the bound-state solutions to the hydrogen atom — separating Schrödinger's equation in spherical coordinates, deriving the angular solutions as spherical harmonics, and the radial solutions in terms of generalized Laguerre polynomials.
StackApplied math · PDEs · Spherical harmonicsRoleSoloStatusCourse paper - P-009Nov 2025
Orbit-Stabilizer Theorem & Applications
Proof of the Orbit-Stabilizer theorem and its applications: relating orbit size to coset structure, deducing the sizes of conjugacy classes and centralizers, and using these to prove a basic property of p-groups.
StackPure math · Group theoryRoleSolo · Writing in the MajorStatusCourse paper