Research Track
Research Interest: How LLMs handle self-referential processing — specifically whether the activation patterns during in-context reasoning bear any meaningful resemblance to what neuroscience describes as the Default Mode Network.
Academic Background
University of Toronto (St. George Campus) — Trinity College
Honours B.S. in Mathematics with High Distinction
Mathematics & Its Applications Specialist (Probability/Statistics)
September 2019 - June 2023
GPA: 3.6/4.0 | Dean's List: 2021, 2022, 2023
I completed a MAMBA state-space model with custom data pipelines, an independent implementation of GPT-2, and ResNet variants on CIFAR-10/100 — primarily as a way to understand architectures from the inside out rather than from the paper alone.
All source code is on GitHub.
Corporate Track
DoubleTrends
Front-End Developer (Freelance) | June 2025 – Present
End-to-end ownership of something that ships. Design, build, deploy, payments, DNS — the full surface area. Useful as a forcing function for the parts of web development that don't show up in tutorials.
Rexel Canada Electric Inc.
Product Data Specialist | June 2023 - May 2025
A real corporate job. The interesting part wasn't my work — it was learning what enterprise data infrastructure actually looks like when it's been accreting for decades. AS400 feeding into TIBCO feeding into Informatica feeding into SAP Hybris feeding into a webshop. Nobody fully understands the whole chain. You learn to work with that.
Deloitte Canada
Data Analyst (Co-op) | July 2021 - April 2022
Model validation rather than model building — which turns out to be a different skill. You're reading someone else's architecture and asking whether the assumptions hold against real data.
Outside of full-time roles, I've contributed to ML infrastructure for an early-stage algorithmic trading startup (Stoic AI), setting up cloud GPU training environments on RunPod using H100 instances.
Full work history is on LinkedIn.
Everything Personal
Travel & Life
I've been moving between countries most of my life — born in Beijing, grew up in Shanghai, spent my teens in Montreal, and did university in Toronto. At some point the airport stopped feeling like a destination.
In 2023 I did a cross-continental road trip through North America: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit.
That same summer I flew to Japan for a graduation trip.
In 2025 I did a solo trip to South America — Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro. My camera got robbed in Rio. Lost all the video footage. The photos survived.
Art & Music
I studied drawing, watercolor, oil painting, and charcoal for several years under the supervision of Georges Kalmetti in Montreal — starting from around age 12, across three different studios.
On the music side I'm entirely self-taught: piano, guitar, ukulele, thumb piano. Mostly pop. No sheet music, no theory exams. I have an electric piano and an electric guitar at home that I play occasionally and probably not well enough.
Outdoors
I got into skateboarding at 16 with a penny board and eventually worked through popsicle, cruiser, longboard, and dance board. Not actively skating anymore.
I climbed for a while — bouldering and free climbing, currently around 5.8 YDS. Also done skydiving once, which I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't.
Other things I've done at least once: canoe trip, flying a single-engine propeller plane, hiking Algonquin in peak fall.
Anime
I follow anime and related media.
Favorite anime: Steins;Gate, Hyouka, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
2nd President of UTACG
University of Toronto Anime Comic and Game
President (Nov 2021 - Jan 2023): Led an executive committee of 10, organized 14 events, generated $33000 in revenue, $2200 net profit. Produced a Lunar New Year Gala with 30 performers and ~200 spectators.
Gaming
I have a weak spot for space and city simulation — Dyson Sphere Program, Kerbal Space Program, Stellaris, Cities Skylines. The kind of games where you look up and three hours have passed.
Currently my main game is Arknights. For multiplayer I'll occasionally show up in League, VALORANT, Overwatch, Delta Force, or FFXIV depending on who's online.
Gaming Accounts