Hi there! I'm Alex, a software engineer at Indicio PBC, with a strong foundation in physics,
mathematics, and politics from my alma mater, Willamette University. My academic journey included
diverse research topics, such as predicting spiral galaxy inclinations using machine learning models,
exploring isometric fixing numbers of graphs, and addressing the poverty-to-prison pipeline in Oregon.
In my professional life, I've had the privilege of contributing to open-source projects, including
building the aries-akrida repository for the Government of British Columbia and helping build and maintain Aries Cloud Agent Python (ACA-Py).
I'm excited to continue expanding my skills in software development and exploring new opportunities
in astronomy, cosmology, and beyond. See more of my work here.
While you're here, I sincerely send you warm welcomes to my website!
Please excuse the mess, since I'm working on developing this in my
free time.
Check out my
blog for a deeper dive into
some of my recent projects!
We present an estimate of the bulk flow in a volume of radii
150−200h−1 Mpc using the minimum variance (MV)
method with data from the CosmicFlows-4 (CF4) catalog. The addition
of new data in the CF4 has resulted in an increase in the estimate
of the bulk flow in a sphere of radius 150h−1 Mpc
relative to the CosmicFlows-3 (CF3). This bulk flow has less than a
0.03% chance of occurring in the Standard Cosmological Model (ΛCDM)
with cosmic microwave background derived parameters. Given that the
CF4 is deeper than the CF3, we were able to use the CF4 to
accurately estimate the bulk flow on scales of 200h−1
Mpc (equivalent to 266 Mpc for Hubble constant
H0=75 km/s/Mpc) for the first time. This bulk flow is in even greater
tension with the Standard Model, having less than 0.003% probability
of occurring. To estimate the bulk flow accurately, we introduce a
novel method to calculate distances and velocities from distance
moduli that is unbiased and accurate at all distances. Our results
are completely independent of the value of H0.
The distances to galaxies have been immensely useful in
understanding and analyzing the structure of the Universe. One of
the main ways of measuring distances is the Tully-Fisher method,
which relates a spiral galaxy’s brightness to how fast its stars are
orbiting. However, the Tully-Fisher method requires precise
knowledge of the inclination angle—or the tilt—of a spiral galaxy
relative to the line of sight. Although some inclinations can be
estimated based on the apparent ellipticity of a galaxy’s image,
this method is not effective in a large number of cases. The
objective of this project is to use machine learning to
automatically determine the inclination of spiral galaxies provided
their images (ideally in both colorful and black-and-white formats).
For training our models, we will be using artificial data from
simulations. We present our predictions for the inclinations both of
images of real spiral galaxies as well as of a set of simulated
images of known inclinations.
Poverty is a key driver and predictor of justice system involvement
and incarceration. Addressing the criminalization of poverty in
Oregon must be made a higher priority for the legislature. We have
identified four systems that contribute to disproportionately
burdening low-to-no income people. In public transportation,
low-income people face financial barriers in the form of transit
fares that inhibit their ability to access the public service. In
Oregon’s cash bail system, low-to-no income people remain
incarcerated while their wealthy counterparts are able to pay for
their release. The state’s court fines and fees system burdens
low-to-no income people with a myriad of harsh consequences
including ever growing court debt. In Oregon’s child support system,
child support orders are far too often out of date—not reflecting
the accurate income of noncustodial parents—resulting in fiscal
obligations to pay off accumulating arrears than the support of
children. Justice system involvement not only negatively impacts
low-to-no income people more than their higher income counterparts,
but has a broader and intergenerational impact compounding
intergenerational familial effects. In order to ameliorate the
impacts of these systems, we evaluated several alternatives and
provide a set of four concrete recommendations to the legislature
and relevant stakeholders. The following policy package is aimed at
eliminating or reducing fares, cash bail, court fines and fees, and
unrealistic and overly punitive child support payments for low-to-no
income people.
The fixing number of a graph is the minimum number of vertices
needed to be held to take away all possible symmetries. Consider a
square: a square has four vertices, can be rotated by multiples of
90 degrees, reflected vertically, horizontally, or across either of
its diagonals. If we fix one of its points—so it cannot be sent to
any other vertex—we remove all of the square’s symmetries except
across one of its diagonals. Thus, by fixing another node, we fix
the graph. Research in the past has investigated fixing numbers over
families of graphs. Our research considers these same graphs as
geometric objects and determines the fixing number of these objects
in 2, 3, and higher dimensions. In particular, our paper presents a
different version of the fixing number–the geometric fixing number
of a graph—and proves the fixing number for all arbitrary graphs in
1, 2, and 3 dimensions, as well as for paths, unions of paths,
cycles, and complete graphs.
Websites
In my free time, I like building out websites!
Currently, I am learning more advanced libraries to make more aesthetically pleasing and immerseive websites, so I spend most of my time playing with projects than actually creating websites for clients (mainly, because they take a lot longer). However, if you're in need of a website, please feel free to reach out, and I'm sure we can work something out! Here's my contact information!
Otherwise, here's some example client work I have done!
Constructed data pipeline to (a) query (SQL) spiral galactic images and retrieve such images and then (b) clean, sanitize, filter such images to calculate their galactic inclination angles
PostgreSQL, Docker, React, WebGL, Google Cloud, AWS, Ubuntu, Git
Elements
Text
This is bold and this is strong. This is
italic and this is emphasized. This is
superscript text and this is subscript text.
This is underlined and this is code:
for (;;) { ... }. Finally,
this is a link.
Heading Level 2
Heading Level 3
Heading Level 4
Heading Level 5
Heading Level 6
Blockquote
Fringilla nisl. Donec accumsan interdum nisi, quis tincidunt felis
sagittis eget tempus euismod. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in
faucibus vestibulum. Blandit adipiscing eu felis iaculis volutpat
ac adipiscing accumsan faucibus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in
faucibus lorem ipsum dolor sit amet nullam adipiscing eu felis.
Preformatted
i = 0;
while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
print 'Iteration ' + i;
deck.shuffle();
i++;
}
print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';
