This is my space for collecting some interesting projects I have worked on. Enjoy -
AI Alignment Fundamentals Course
I am currently working through the blue dot impact course on AI Alignment
Blue Dot Impact AI Alignment. In this course we are exposed to a wide variety of AI alignment techniques, ideas, and research approaches. We are invited
during the last third to complete a research project to add to the AI Alignment community. I will be keeping notes on this page about this process.
I have also been engaging a local chat group on some high level questions about AI Alignment Philosophy and will be including those prompts here as well.
AI Unlearning
There is significant research into AI alignment at the fine-tuning stage. Several techniques attempt to make LLMs forget, or unlearn harmful
knowledge that the base model acquired in the training phase on bulk internet data. We try to make it "unlearn" how to make a bomb, or how to
make a nerve-agent for example. Is this wise? Don't we want LLMs to have harmful knowledge so that they can recognize it, as it comes up in
prompts? Does this have parallels for human knowledge? Is there "harmful knowledge" that we should try to unlearn as a society?
Blender Con 2024
I was fortunate to have my talk selected for Blender Con 2024. I expected to have just a 20 minute talk but I was slotted for a live 50-minute walkthrough of some of the projects that appear on this page.
I began with a walkthrough of the geometry nodes approach to modeling parametric surfaces, then demonstrated how to use modifiers and scripting to model the 3D dodecahedron moon.
All 12 moon .stl files are available under a Creative Commons license at Printables.com.
Ideal Gas Simulation
My daughter was studying the states of matter in her science class and she had a fairly good grasp of the molecular (non-quantum) mental model of matter and how it translates
to the physical properties of the material in different states. She, however had a bit of trouble with visualizing why an ideal gas will take the shape of its container. After much
explaining, pretending we were molecules and dancing around, and throwing fruit off the walls and ceiling of the kitchen, we decided to have chatgpt help us visualize this in
a web simulation. The simulation was written in threejs and can be found at Ideal Gas Simulation
Dodecahedron Moon
This is a 3D printed design of the moon (real topography from
NASA Moon Kit) broken
into the curved hexagonal faces of a dodecahedron. The whole design is held together by
force-fit magnets. The full 12 STL files will be posted soon at Printables.
Frequency Difference
An exploration of the intersection of quadrics. Frequency difference (doppler difference) from a location to two different moving sensors
can be modeled as two intersecting cones with related cone angles. Set to the music of Hans Zimmer, it can be quite mesmerizing.
CGI Sandbox
An exploration of CGI with drone footage. So far done only with Blender motion tracking. Hopefully evolving over the coming months. Drone footage courtesy of my buddy Greg.
Intersecting Hyperboloids
A visualization of two intersecting hyperboloids with one of their foci shared. It is interesting to note that the intersection pencil will always intersect the plane formed by the three foci at a right angle.
Time Difference Visualization
A visualization of a time difference surface made in Blender.
Alexa-Enabled Maze Solving Robot
Alexa Enabled Maze Solving Robot - An entry into a contest to link Amazon Alexa Gadgets to Lego Mindstorms. I made a robot that you gave instructions to via Alexa to help it solve a Lego maze.
