What I'm doing now

Updated October 24th, 2024, from the land Down Under. 🦘

My Master of Philosophy has started.

On October 1st, I started my Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Computer Science at the University of Queensland. I'm still in the process of fully defining my research topic but it will be about Large Language Models (LLMs) and Information Retrieval.

What happened recently

Before starting the MPhil, I spent 6 months as a Research Assistant at UQ. I contributed to three academic papers (first author on one). They're currently under review, so fingers crossed the reviewers have had their coffee.

I also built a web app that visualizes persuasion techniques in political ads from the 2022 Australian Federal Election. It's like a BS detector, but for politics. Check it out here. It's built with React.JS and Next.JS and deployed on AWS Lambda.

What I'm Enjoying

For the past month, I've been hitting the gym regularly. The good news: I feel more energetic, less stressed and sleep better. The bad news: I can no longer use "I'm too tired" as an excuse to avoid social gatherings. If you're thinking of joining the gym, check out this fitness wiki curated by r/fitness.

Switching to Linux

After years of Windows, I finally made the switch to Linux. For 7 months now, I've been running Debian on my Lenovo Yoga Pro 7. It's been great, aside from the occasional moment when I feel like I'm defusing a bomb while configuring something. If you are interested in my linux setup (apps and extensions I use) check out this post I wrote.

Soon I'll probably switch to a MacBook provided by the university so stay tuned for that!

Let's Chat!

Got a project idea? Drop me a line! 📧 Email: stephen.civelli@gmail.com