Hi, I’m Itsi.
I am an AI/ML guy from Sydney, Australia and live in San Francisco, USA.
My main interests are in how we get to a vegan world, and having a good time.
Things I work on
I have worked in the Alt Protein space, running data science at Climax Foods; where I ran our collaboration to reformulate Plant Based Mini Babybel, among other project; and with the Sustainable Protein Action Lab.
My current projects are as an AI Engineer at CloudTrucks, leading the implementation of our flagship AI product, along with Couchers.org, a nonprofit I co-founded to replace Couchsurfing, and being the Editor-in-Chief of VILF, a comprehensive vegan companion to San Francisco.
My background is in Statistics and Machine Learning. I started my career in Quantitative Research at Akuna Capital, a high-frequency trading firm. I completed my thesis for a master’s degree in mathematics and statistics at the Univeristy of Melbourne under the supervision of Professor Peter Taylor; focusing on developing a new machine learning method for inferring the topology of the Bitcoin P2P network, a task which has a significant impact on the pseudonymity properties of the cryptocurrency.
Other things
Music
I have played the violin for over 20 years. I play with San Francisco Civic Music, and sometimes the Awesome Orchestra and a string quartet.
I am very into 20th century classical music. I have taken several courses in music theory and have previously composed pieces for chamber groups. For an intro to 20th century music, check out this playlist.
Food
I have eaten a lot. And I have a lot of opinions. I run VILF.org, a definitive vegan guide to SF. And the associated VILF blog.
I’m a big fan of cooking. I frequently organize home-cooked dinners and outings with my friends. My three favorite vegetables are eggplant, cauliflower and cucumber. Please check out my 🍲 Recipes.
Travel
I’ve gone to a whole bunch of places! I like to collect carpets in every country I travel to. Through travel, I discovered couch surfing, which later led me to co-founding Couchers.org.