Complex Systems, Optimization, and Cognitive Science: A Summer Well Spent

Recap (7/30/26 - 9/3/26) See the repo here Prologue During my 8-week long summer research program at Ohio State, my work with the Cognitive Systems Engineering Lab introduced me to the field of cognitive science. Although my initial research interest was in the study of complex systems using computer science, I’ve realized that computational cognitive science may be even more interesting. Since I had over two months between the end of my program and the start of my first semester at UCSB, I thought I would take the opportunity to familiarize myself with some of the topics I either have had in the back of my mind for months, or became curious about during my time at OSU. ...

September 3, 2026

Leveraging Passion

Introduction A simple hobby of mine got me a summer-long paid research position with free travel and housing at an R1 university as a second-year undergraduate. The hobby? Lifting weights. This wasn’t some sort of fitness or kinesiology internship either, and my lifting isn’t particularly impressive (quite the opposite, actually). In fact, I doubt the faculty involved in the decision to recruit me were even aware of my interest in health and fitness. I was recruited to collaborate on cognitive systems research and contribute using my experience in computer science. ...

June 19, 2026