Not yet RLOS Week 5

It’s not yet week 5

• However, we got the distributed node to run, which had to do with pointing it to the right docker image. In the meantime, I am working on getting the different nodes to process different files, as right now they are only processing one file. So that’s my task, which I’ll probably be working on tomorrow.
• I also attended Monte Carlo Methods meeting for Reinforcement Learning, and saw one of the persons from the MSR group present work this week, which was pretty cool.
• My schedule is going to continue to be pretty hectic, as I am presenting a poster and participating in a Probabalistic AI workshop this week from around 3am to noon-ish Monday through Friday of this week. And well, my work-day at my internship is from noon to 8pm. My MSR meetings are usually at 9am, but I can attend those without any problems.

ZK Proofs

• I started working on some stuff in ZK Proofs, and a lot of it is in Rust, so I guess I’ve also been brushing up on Rust by working on this. It’s gotten even better since the last time I really spent time in Rust, which is pretty amazing. Installation is a breeze now.
• My mentor gave me a couple papers to read, so I’m looking into that, and my first task is to replicate and understand some of the code used in a paper, and really understand what is going on. A Rustacean at Microsoft already eagerly self-volunteered if I need help with Rust stuff, and my mentor and my advisor can help me with the ZKSnark and cryptography stuff in general. So that’s pretty fantastic.

This week

• My blockchain fellowship continues, and we’re meeting up with some other mentors for my other cryptography fellowship, too.
• We’re finishing up a paper, and continuing to work on another, and I’m meeting with my long-term PL mentor.
• I’ve also been invited to this workshop for PhD students that runs over 6 weeks by a FAANG company in industry (I just ended a mentorship with someone from the research side of that company who invited me to their Montreal office, which I very much intend to take up the offer on when I can!), so I’ll be doing a bit of that, too. I also don’t want my current internship to think other companies are trying to poach me from under them (although this is generally kind of the case), so I always separate that time from my work hours, and give my best for my work hours. I have a couple other companies I haven’t gotten back to, also, and I feel bad, but I’ve really been swamped. I’ve also been asked to speak at two upcoming events next month (and of course, doing the poster presentation this week), and am working on planning for the co-chair work for ICLR 2022, as well as regular BAI work. So I’m so sorry if I’ve been a bit unresponsive to some people! I’m very fortunate in that I have a bit of a break for one of my engagements, but something else also came up, so my break was cut short. It’s a lot of juggling.

Generally

• I’ve been very happy at this internship so far, and at the Open Source MSR project. Both have been really great. It has made me think about what is possible in terms of my future, what I like doing, and the baseline for how I should be valued and treated, which I’ve been super appreciative of at the moment. It’s nice to feel valued.

And that’s it