diff --git a/about_me.md b/about_me.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7adec8b --- /dev/null +++ b/about_me.md @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ +--- +title: About me +displaytitle: '$ whoami' +showtitle: true + +--- + +I'm Tito, alias "tauroh". I'm a high school student living in Pavia, Italy. I +was born in 2004. I have many more interests than I'm able to pursue and I still +have to decide what to do after high school. Unless I undergo a sudden change in +personality and hobbies, it will be something science-related. I'm quite a geek; +I'm into maths and pretty much everything that has to do with computers. I used +to play the piano regularly until last year but I don't have enough free time to +study music seriously right now. + +## Maths + +I have been fascinated by maths since I was a child, and my parents taught me +where the elegance that some people (like them, and like me) see in mathematics +really resides. Abstraction and formal logic are in my opinion the most advanced +capabilities of the human mind -- the latest that evolution gave us from a +biological perspective. When you get to really appreciate maths, you discover a +brand new world. Unfortunately, that's something that school is not able to +teach -- that's why many people still think that maths is made of formulas, +exercises and grades. + +As you might have understood, I like pure mathematics, and specifically the most +abstract and foundational aspects, often related to logic and philosophy: +[category theory][ct], [abstract algebra][abstract-algebra], [type +theory][type-theory], [model structures][simplicial-sets]... Problem is, you're +supposed to study a lot of undergraduate mathematics before proceeding with this +areas. I haven't done that (yet); my mathematical background is fragile and +therefore my knowledge is quite fragmented. I would like to study maths with a +more consistent approach. Hopefully, that's what I will do after high school. + +I spent some time studying [Categorical Quantum Mechanics][cqm], a mathematical +setting for quantum physics in dagger-compact categories (such as the one of +finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces and linear maps) originally introduced by +Abramsky and Coecke. It has some interesting foundational implications on +operational postulates and diagrammatics for physics. I also wanted to know +whether I had really understood how does a proof checker work -- so I put the +two things together! I wrote a partial formalization of these categorical +structures in [Coq][coq]. The sources can be found [on my GitHub][titos-catqm] +(it uses @jwiegley's [category theory library][coq-ct]). + +I have taken part in the Italian [Mathematical Olympiad][olimate] with my school +since my first year here. However, training and competitions are fun only with a +team -- I perform much better in the team olympiad, and I don't really put the +required effort and training in the individual competitions. + +The [nLab][nLab] is a nice play to get lost in during cold winter nights with a +cup of tea. + +## Computer science + +Mathematics is hard: it's something I still haven't been able to get around. CS +and programming are easier and that's why I spend a considerable amount of hours +a day playing with my computer. Before examining my interests, I have to stress +that I really happen to hate frontend development and weakly typed programming +languages. This website doesn't depend on 50KB-sized DOM-diffing JavaScript +frameworks and it never will. + +My approach to computer science is dual. Just like in mathematics, I like +abstract and theoretical areas of CS: functional programming, +dependently-typed[^rec] [proof assistants][agda], type theory (again!)... On the +other hand, I want to understand how things work at the lowest level and I'm +often busy reversing some crappy x86 ASM code or studying network security and +operating systems internals. + +#### Functional programming and theoretical CS + +[Haskell][hs] is an awesome language and [GHC][ghc] is an astonishingly +well-engineered piece of software. Functional programming in general has some +inherently interesting properties related to pure mathematics and +logics[^curry-howard-lambek]. Apart from theoretical and academic topics, I'm +interested in the implementation of call-by-need referentially transparent +functional languages and I'm currently studying the Haskell RTS and the STG +machine (mostly during boring school classes). The GHC codebase is quite hard to +read for a newcomer, and I'm still looking for a mentor! Sometimes I hang out on +`#haskell-it` on `libera.chat`, the IRC channel of [Haskell-ITA][haskell-ita]. + +#### Hacking and cybersecurity + +My low-level geek soul sometimes needs to take a break from lambda-calculi and +theoretical CS and gets involved into hacking competitions called [CTFs][ctf]. I +am part of [Tower of Hanoi][toh], the CTF and hacking team from Politecnico di +Milano (although I'm not a student there). Staying up all night looking at +disassemblies and memory dumps has some kind of inherently mystical meaning, and +it's also good fun. + +People from ToH were the first to introduce me to offensive cybersecurity during +the [CyberChallenge.IT 2021][cyberchallenge] project. I also take part in the +Italian [Cybersecurity Olympiad][olicyber], which targets high-school students. +I got the second place at the finals in 2021. + +Apart from my technical interests, hacking history is an interesting topic on +its own, and the underground scene that started to fade away a few years before +I was born had a deep impact on technology as people use and know it today -- +and also on our economy and our society. If this is eye-catching to you, Bruce +Sterling's [The Hacker Crackdown][the-hacker-crackdown] is a good read. + +[^rec]: Did you know that mathematical induction and recursive functions are + basically the same thing? +[^curry-howard-lambek]: Such as the [Curry-Howard-Lambek + isomorphism](https://wiki.haskell.org/Curry-Howard-Lambek_correspondence)! + +[abstract-algebra]: +[agda]: +[coq-ct]: +[coq]: +[cqm]: +[ct]: "i.e. abstract nonsense" +[ctf]: +[cyberchallenge]: +[ghc]: +[haskell-ita]: +[hs]: +[nLab]: +[olicyber]: +[olimate]: +[simplicial-sets]: +[the-hacker-crackdown]: +[titos-catqm]: +[toh]: +[type-theory]: + +[comment]: # vim: ts=2:sts=2:sw=2:et:nojoinspaces:tw=80 diff --git a/index.html b/index.html index d39ec1b..2f754a9 100644 --- a/index.html +++ b/index.html @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ on in the forecoming years. I like maths, computers, classical piano, swimming, electric guitars, hiking, and a lot of other things that I'd be glad to share with someone else. + Read more about me.

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