What do you currently do?

I am a first-year PhD student in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UC San Diego, where I am advised by Prof. Dean Tullsen. Here are some other things I do:

I keep a semi-regular blog here.

Selected poetry:

I am currently investing a lot of time in reading. My most recent favorites are David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and Samantha Harvey’s Orbital.

I currently sing Tenor 2 in the La Jolla Symphony Chorus.

While I lived in Seattle, I sang in the Northwest Chamber Chorus for two seasons, and played five concerts as a second violin in the Redmond Tech Orchestra. I also served as the Choral Director for RTO’s Summer 2025 “Broadway Lights, Hollywood Nights” concert.

I am not currently involved in any theatre productions at the moment, but have done a number of things since graduating from MIT.

Position Organization Show Date
Stage Directions MIT MTA Holding Onto Her Words Spring 2026
Violin Next Act Groundhog Day Spring 2025
Vocal Direction (sub) Youth Theatre Northwest Seussical Spring 2025
Keys / Songwriter Pork-Filled Productions Instant Noodles Spring 2025
Keyboard 1 (sub) Village Theatre KIDSTAGE Mean Girls Winter 2024
Translator Wuming Theatre Club 《GOODBYE》(three short plays) Fall 2024

I’m not currently working on any side projects outside of my research in this space. However, I do love computer architecture and computer systems, and will talk to you about them forever.

Before I came to UCSD, I worked as a software engineer at Microsoft, where I worked on energy efficiency in the Windows kernel. During that time, I wrote a lot of C and thought a lot about CPU scheduling and core selection, particularly on heterogeneous architectures; I made substantial contributions to the design and implementation of a forthcoming ACPI specification, and I helped improve Windows scheduling behavior for a number of upcoming chips across multiple hardware vendors. I also worked on various other improvements to behaviors and policies in modern standby.

I am currently taking:

# Course
CSE290 Architecture Lunch (1 credit)
CSE291Y Building Secure Systems with Rust (4 credits)
CSE292 Faculty Research Seminar (1 credit)
CSE294 Systems Seminar (1 credit)
CSE299 Research (8 credits)

Walking

I love long walks. Like, super long walks. I got into “distance walking” during the pandemic, and though I don’t do it that often, when I do, I do it for a long time.

My longest one-day walks have been:

  • Kittery, ME to Cambridge, MA (around 63 mi., Fall 2024)
  • Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA (Boston Marathon route; 26.2 mi., Spring 2021)
  • Braintree Station to Riverside Station via Mattapan and Forest Hills stations (21 mi., Spring 2021)
  • Issaquah Transit Center to Lumen Field via downtown Bellevue trails (20-25 mi., Summer 2022)

In Summer 2026, I walked from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC, covering 135 miles over the course of five days (with two rest days.) The route consisted of:

  • Day 1: Seattle to Marysville (30.8 mi.)
  • Day 2: Marysville to Mt. Vernon (31.4 mi.)
  • Days 3, 4: Rest
  • Day 5: Mt. Vernon to Bellingham (25.0 mi.)
  • Day 6: Bellingham to Blaine (24.2 mi.)
  • Day 7: Blaine to Vancouver (25.2 mi.)

Bouldering

I have been bouldering somewhat consistently since summer 2024, during my MEng. My best climb thus far was a V5 at Edgeworks Bel-Red, but (with limited sampling across gyms) I generally climb around a V3 level.

Things That Are Kind Of Like Sports If You Squint

I do LearnedLeague, a competitive trivia league. I like puzzle hunts and have hunted with the same team (most recently named “Copy of Copy of Sheet1”) for the MIT Mystery Hunt since 2021.

I am trying to pick a sports team to be a fan of in each city that I’ve lived in thus far. Currently, my allegiances are as follows:

  • NBA: Boston Celtics
  • MLS: Seattle Sounders
  • MLB: ???
  • NHL: ???
  • NFL: ???

Ask me about…

  • …what there is to do in South Dakota
  • …why you should take organic chemistry in college
  • …why I bought once $500 worth of fortune cookies which all just said “unsubscribe”
  • …how hard, exactly, one should commit to a bit
  • …why the best lists contain no more than four bullet points