[[intersectionality|identity]] is a strange and often difficult concept. I currently find myself alive, in love, and grateful; the rest is detail. I have come from one hill to another: from (beaver hill house) amiskwacîwâskahikan ([[Plains Cree]]) to (the great hills) muhsachuweesut ([[Wampanoag]]). Good people, good fortune, and curiosity have brought me to a PhD in [[computer science]] at [[2007 Harvard SEAS]] as a [[Kempner graduate fellow]] with [Prof. Kiante Brantley](https://xkianteb.github.io). I ask: - How do [[large language model]]s acquire language? - How do [[language acquisition|humans acquire language]]? - How does [[reinforcement learning]] or more broadly [[sequential decision making]] play into language acquisition? - How can we model [[culture|cultural]] factors in [[language acquisition]]? I also find myself wondering: - How do the [[1980LakoffJohnsonMetaphorsWeLive|metaphors we live by]] define [[meaning]] or [[truth]]? - How do [[deep learning]] algorithms (including those) [[represent|learn "meaningful" representations]]? - How do plants and [[animal communication|animals communicate]]? - d'où venons-nous ? que sommes-nous ? où allons-nous ? - How to speak [[English]] / [[Chinese]] / [[German]] / [[French]] / [[Amharic]] and other [[human language]]s? - How do we foster [[second language|heritage language ownership]]? I recently received an AB in Statistics and Computer Science from [[1636 Harvard]] where I had the honour of living in [[1970 Currier house]]. I wrote [an introduction to reinforcement learning](https://rlbook.adzc.ai), which I hope will prove useful to future students of RL, over three years of course assistantship under and advising from [Prof. Lucas Janson](https://lucasjanson.fas.harvard.edu) and [Prof. Sham Kakade](https://shamulent.github.io). # socials - https://adzc.ai - https://github.com/adzcai - https://twitter.com/adzcai - [Anonymous Feedback](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScABEzSMDQ95Kwdp-zyuFqdeXcW85cDV8wBF_0NOcLQFPfuzg/viewform?usp=sf_link) - adzcai at g dot harvard dot edu - [[resume.pdf]] # [[onomasiology]] `a` is for Alex (my English name). `dz` is for 大真 *dàzhēn* (my Chinese name), which I prefer to [[translate]] as "great truth". `c` stands for 蔡 (not vegetable).