I'll be honest though. This is just a random blob of various ideas and thoughts 😂.
Mental health and startups. For some, this might be a complete first time seeing these two words together in one sentence. For my year and a half of startups, frankly not a single person in the industry really mentioned it to me at all. Not a single investor call asked how I was doing, well beyond the pleasantries and the beginnings of conversation...
But what about robotics? What about the software ecosystem around robotics? For most people, the major move forward has been the Robot Operating System (ROS). It’s enabled more people to utilize other people’s code by creating drivers and systems that have already been prebuilt.
Let’s take a look at this first backtester, a vectorized one. First, what is a vectorized backtest? The best way is to prescribe an example. Let’s say I wanted to build a trading algorithm that looked at two moving averages and identified when they crossed (hmmm...sounds like the golden cross)...
Trading algorithms are awesome. They’re automated, streamlined, and if made well, can generate amazing profits. Fundamentally, a trading algorithm is a set of rules or logic that takes in pieces of data to ultimately make a decision about when to buy and when to sell specific assets, or universe of assets: a very, very well-crafted function to that takes in input, and determines a set of trading signals (buying and selling).
Metrics surround us. Whether you’re building the next big thing and need to measure customer churn, retention rates, etc. you will always need numbers to really back it up.
It's common knowledge that time flies. Ask any adult and I'm sure you'll get the "Oh yeah, back when I was about your age", or "Ahh, when I was younger, I did this or I did that", memories and snapshots saved into our neural hard drives.
It's been almost a year since COVID-19 swept over the entire world. Not many expected it. America disregarded it. Yet the months ensuing would turn this world almost upside down, though I suppose "inside-out" is more appropriate considering that we're all confined to our homes. I remember going to class on the last in-school day of my senior year. It was fairly normal, research in the morning, lunch at around 11:30 on the senior patio with friends, and physics to close it out. At 2:40pm, the announcement went off saying that we all were going to be sent home. A whirlwind of events continued. Now I won't bore you with all the details about how the pandemic started because we've all read the news, heard the stories, and feel the frustration. We all just want to feel "normal" again, whatever that really looked like or means.
As some may know, I just recently went to South Africa for a two week missions trip in Capetown. There we worked with two primary townships: Langa and Gughletu. Despite being a rather short trip of only two weeks, those two weeks truly turned my view of the world a whole 180 degrees. I hope to be able to discuss some of the lessons and memories gained from that trip here. Unfortunately, I cannot post any pictures of the children that we worked for their personal safety. But I hope the words written here can tell the same story as the pictures would.
It has been approximately one year since the creation of a blog. And we are back to the event that started it all: the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. A science fair is a place where the brightest minds from around the world come and present novel and advanced research. It's a place where ideas have run rampant and some of the most well-known scientists have attended and placed. This year in Phoenix was no different. Despite the pestering heat and the sometimes dull afternoons in the hotel, Phoenix was far from a normal science fair. Indeed, it came with surprises in both awards and in friends.
This blog post is a little different. Rather than talk about a major event in my life, I want to highlight something that is not only important to me, but to many other students and individuals out there. Standardized testing produces angst, but also reaps joy and happiness when results come back. But are they truly worth it?
Everybody dreams of doing something that changes the world. It's built into our human nature a desire to make our mark, our legacy upon the world and the community of which we are a part of. Today, I want to tell you about a legacy, a dream that I have started and built from scratch. From a whiteboard, to pitching it at the National TSA Conference and winning best idea in the nation. From a dream, to getting the name trademarked. From an idea, a problem, to Alpha Launch. This is my story of Biblink: From Idea to Alpha.
A couple days back, I received a letter from a friend. The letter contained one of the most thoughtful messages that I myself have ever received. Since the day that I opened the letter, I've contemplated the concept of friendship and the impact that each one of my friends has had on my life. The memories that were made at dances, late-night bonfires, trips to cities, hikes, and beautiful night-sky river walks. The times that I have had with friends are the times that I will forever cherish. Friendships shape the lives of each one of us. They shape our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions; they shape our dreams and aspirations.
Think Beyond. That was the motto of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair of 2018 (May 12-18), of which I was blessed to be able to attend.