theoretical cs student :)
I'm a theoretical CS student in Singapore. I like problems that look simple at first but aren't. Right now that mostly means computational complexity and cryptography — figuring out what makes problems hard, and then putting that hardness to work.
Mostly self-taught in the mathematics I like, I've earned theorems the slow way. Off-screen, I speak English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, I'm working on French, and Japanese and German are next.
Research project on b-Bit Minwise Hashing at SUTD.
My first proper research project, while still at NUS High. Analysed how variable set similarity, cardinality, and comparison bits affect estimator bias in b-Bit Minwise Hashing, and proposed a modification that corrects for an error term with negligible runtime and memory overhead. First time I saw what it actually looks like to push on a small piece of a problem until it gives.
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Student Researcher, SUTD (Jun 2019 – Feb 2020)
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AI Scientist intern at Pensees, working on computer vision models.
Designed and evaluated deep learning models for face recognition, face detection, and emotion recognition, deployed in real industrial settings. Spent time on the unglamorous bits — data collection, accuracy/speed tradeoffs, integrating with the rest of the system. A useful look at what applied ML actually involves once you're past the demo.
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AI Scientist Intern, Pensees Systems (Sep 2021 – Dec 2021)
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Two years of National Service. Off-keyboard, mostly.
Not much CS happened here, but the reading lists got long. Came out the other side ready to commit properly to the theoretical side of things.
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NSF (2022 – 2024)
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Matriculated at NUS. CS2040S, CS1101S, CS1231S — the year I figured out where my interest sits.
A+ in CS2040S (data structures and algorithms), A+ in CS1101S (programming methodology), A in CS1231S (discrete structures). Realised somewhere in the middle of CS1231 that the mathematical and theoretical side of CS is what I actually care about, more than software engineering. The rest of the degree has been shaped by that.
CS3230 and CS3231. Got properly into complexity theory and algorithmic analysis.
CS3230 (design and analysis of algorithms) and CS3231 (theory of computation) were the modules that did it. Complexity classes, reductions, what's hard and why — the questions stuck. This was when "theoretical CS" stopped being a vague label and started being a concrete set of things I wanted to keep working on.
TA'd CS2040S. Teaching DSA was more fun than I expected.
Tutoring students through CS2040S forced me to re-examine ideas I thought I understood. Explaining amortised analysis or why a particular invariant holds is a different skill from just doing the analysis — and it turned out to be one I enjoy. Probably the most consistently rewarding thing I did this year.
Currently at DSO, working on post-quantum cryptography.
Summer 2026 internship at DSO, doing research on post-quantum cryptography. Sitting squarely at the intersection of complexity theory and cryptography I've been pulling toward for a couple of years now. Always happy to talk about open problems, recommend a paper, or argue about whether P = NP.
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Research intern, DSO National Laboratories (Summer 2026)
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up for a
chat? :D
Always open to interesting conversations, whether about collaborations, opportunities, or just a good problem to chew on.