2024-2025 yearly summary

2025-06-16

I've turned 23.

This year was an interesting year, it was bittersweet. I went on to my master's program at Northwestern and moved to Evanston. I learned a lot, met new people, and encountered new adventures. However, the job market did not treat me well, so it ended on a slight down note.

mani_heap A tiny ice mani heap I made, against the backdrop of Lake Michigan's frozen crests, photographed by me

School and work

Northwestern is an amazing school. Going into the Computer Science program from my Informatics background means that I have a lot to learn. None of the courses that I have taken this year have been boring.

So far, some of my favorite courses include (sorted by time):

  • Comp_Sci 396 Declarative Programming For Game Development with Professor Ian Horswill
  • Comp_Sci 368 Programming Massively Parallel Processors with CUDA with Professor Nikos Hardavellas
  • Comp_Sci 497 Wireless and Mobile Health (mHealth) with Professor Nabil Alshurafa
  • Comp_sci 345 Distributed Systems with Professor Fabián Bustamante
  • Comp_Sci 396 Machine Learning and Sensing with Professor Karan Ahuja
  • Comp_Sci 446 Low-level Software Development with Professor Peter Dinda

I have noticed many differences between Northwestern and UW. One aspect is that professors are less willing to do hand-holding. With UW's Informatics courses, there were a lot more interactions with the professor during class time. Northwestern courses are far shorter, so most professors just ended up reading from the slides. Effective self-learning became much more imperative under the NW environment, so I received an ample dose of training on that regard.

In terms of AI

It would be dishonest if I said that I self-learned without AI. AI usage is prominent among the students, and I'm no exception. As somebody who does have a fear of raising questions to the professor during class time, AI did a tremendous job of clearing my confusion on the spot. This is especially helpful when you can't catch up to the professor after taking one blink that’s too long.

Besides questions, I used AI primarily to give me examples. The abstract concepts are often hard to grasp without solid examples, and LLM has some great ability to "translate" certain logic into different situational examples. These same principles work with translating code from one language to another. I had some old code written in Rust, and LLM was able to mirror a full python script with the exact functionalities within a minute.

However, with all the benefit that AI brings, I've decided to gradually reduce my AI usage in learning. Similar to how people lift weights at the gym, learning is a process of resistance training. Without resistance, one cannot learn, and so far AI has been doing an unfortunately amazing job at eliminating them.

I have also experienced a sense of deep despair. "Why should I learn whatever I'm learning when AI can do all this without me?" I often ask. Seeing AI's good performance increased my hopelessness for the future of human work. With how AI is going right now, being able to work will be a symbol of higher class and wealth, much like being a housewife, both are unsustainable unless you have a lot of money.

Work?

That is the question.

I hope I will do better next year.

AI did not replace programmers, AI replaced junior developers. Gone are the days when interns and junior devs could contribute by writing unit tests, now a better virtual junior dev will diligently work away at the first sign of a howler.

Life and relationship

I met a lot of new people at the new school. Chatted with most, worked with some, all have been good. I wish them good luck, and I hope they will shares some with me.

I learned how to Frisbee! From a bunch of PHDs! Frisbee is a fun sport, and I hope I can continue next year.

Northwestern have some of the best pool I've seen, and I got to swim thrice a week, so that was pure joy.

I did a year of long distance with Aileen. I hope we can carry on.

Personal achievement

  • Finished the first year of my master's
  • Learned extensively on ML, on device ML, distributed systems and lower level development.
  • Managed to secure my research project track for my degree on AR & ML
  • Potentially extending the CHERI-io class project to further research.
  • Helped out with Kellogg's Greater China's Business Conference.
  • Helped out with Chinese Student Association's various event.

Goals for next year

  • Successfully finding a decent job.
  • Successfully finishing my master's degree.
  • Keep swimming and frisbee-ing.
  • Have good sleep and good food. Don't sleep too late.

March on with your life, I say to me, be it the life of a king or cannon fodder.

See you next year!