Hi! My name is Alex, and I am awful at introductions. I'm here to write bad code and make bad music, and I'm all out of bad music.

I have a BSc in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics, and am currently doing an Honours in Computer Science at UCT.

I'm driven by my curiosity, and work best when thrown into the deep end. I love working on anything that forces me to grow and learn new things.

• 🗒️ Languages: Experience with Python, Java, JS, C++, Overwatch Workshop Code, Scratch, and even a bit of Assembly (garden-variety MIPS/RISC). Yes, I was also surprised to discover that the first-person shooter game Overwatch has its own custom programming language built in for creating custom game rules. Yes, I am embarassingly adept at it.
• Experience with 🤖 Machine Learning, specifically neural networks and reinforcement learning. As a mathematician, I am fascinated by the maths that makes neural networks tick, to the point that in my 2nd year of undergrad I created my own proof-of-concept neural network entirely from scratch using only 3Blue1Brown's video series on the topic as a reference. Unfortunately it was written entirely in Java, and so I never actually got it to train on any datasets larger than about 100 entries because it took ages to train. Maybe one day I'll make the code public if you promise not to laugh. I took a course in Machine Learning in 3rd year in which I learned how to actually make neural networks that work, as well as learning a lot about reinforcement learning.

🎵 - I enjoy making music that will never see the light of day. I am a big fan of synthwave and chillsynth and like making beep boops on my computer. I sometimes compose music for games and game jams, which you can find here.

🤓 - My favourite shape is the rhombicosidodecahedron! Shoutout to Mrs Carletti for introducing me to this brilliant polyhedron in Grade 10. It truly did change my life.