Caltech

Netflix Competition (CS156b)

If the Netflix competition was one in which we competed to see how many consecutive episodes of Netflix originals we can watch in one sitting, I'd be a touch competitor. Unfortunately, that is not the case for CS156b. The class is about machine learning and is revolved around the Netflix competition. Basically, we are given 15GBs of data of users, movies, rating times and ratings. We have to create models that train on this data to predict future ratings for... Read more →

Building a Function Generator (EE90)

EE90 is a project class. Every year the theme is different. Two years ago it was to build a mouse trap. This year, it is to build an analogue function generator. There are minimum requirements that we have to achieve, like generating three types of waves: sine, triangle and square. We also needed to achieve a certain frequency range and have an adjustable amplitude. The rest of the design is flexible. This can include wave modulation, DC/phase offsets, or even... Read more →

Design-er? I Have to For a Final Grade!

Hello hello party people! I designed my dream house. Or at least, I guess I did. So, with that great expectation, let’s talk about my English 110 final portfolio. The culmination of all the work that I did throughout the term. My teacher, dear teacher, recommended that I stick with the black pen on white paper aesthetic that I had maintained through several projects this term. Little did she know the angsty route of poetry and mis-mashed phrases that form... Read more →

The 80s Called: They Want Their Hairstyle Back

It’s that time of the year again. The one glorious night in June where for once everyone seems calm, at least in the department of Geological and Planetary sciences (GPS). That’s right, it was Zilchbrau 2019, and the theme?? The 80s. Zilchbrau is an annual party held by our GPS department to celebrate undergraduate and graduate achievement, in addition to just providing a nice venue for us to relax and take a Friday night off before finals. Of course, for... Read more →

Cooking Final: 3/42

It’s the beginning of the end (for now): the last round of finals that I’m going to take at Caltech before I leave the country for 6 months. I’ve officially finished my first class for the semester: cooking! I took cooking this term so that I could TA it in the future and I had a complete blast. The final was no different. The cooking final is structured like a reality cooking competition, only on a much smaller scale. Our... Read more →

Huntington Gardens with H132

This past weekend, our Humanistic Ecology class had a field trip to the Huntington Gardens. Our professor, Dan Lewis, also works as a curator there and has access to its incredible archives. Although the class is about the impact of humans on ecosystems, the field trip was more of an opportunity to learn about the development of ideas in ecology, and to gush over the important manuscripts. We started off the day looking at printing blocks made of lime stone.... Read more →

Watercolor Workshop by the Visual Cultures Program

This past Saturday, the Caltech Visual Culture program invited a guest instructor for a watercolor workshop. There was a lottery for the workshop as it was in high demand and the art house is too small to fit everyone who wanted to attend. Although I did not get the lottery at first, I was able to get off the waitlist. The workshop began with a technical component, where we learned the wet on dry and the wet on wet techniques.... Read more →

Watts the Matter?

Fasten your seatbelts, attach your climbing harness to your jetpack, it’s time for FIELD TRIP 2019 EDITION! But Andrew, you say, you aren’t in any geology classes this term. And you’re right. This was something special. Something unique. Something just odd enough to be beautiful: an English field trip. English field trips are different. It’s not about going out and collecting samples, or getting long, painful lectures about rocks. Instead it’s about getting out and exploring the world, placing your... Read more →

Pershing Square!

Hello hello people! I present to you a wonderful photograph of The Palace in DTLA! But wait a second! That’s not the title of this post! This post is supposed to be about Pershing Square! And it is – I took a late-night trip to Pershing Square to explore and take photos. Yet again, this is a wonderful byproduct of my class English 180 – a mixed architecture/English class. And today I started doing some research for my architect presentation:... Read more →

Really Low-Key Weekend

Greetings from midterms week! Or really midterms weekend – I only have two but the first one is due on Tuesday which means that it’s a Monday night problem. Somehow this weekend I’ve managed to predominantly stay in bed, and yet I’ve still been extremely productive. How’s that you ask? Well, I had a lot of reading to do this weekend. Specifically, a 600-page book, 20 pages of old English, and 40 pages of a fairly enjoyable architectural text about... Read more →