About
Hi, I’m Itsi! I’m a data scientist, applied mathematician, and project coordinator from Sydney, Australia. I live in San Francisco, USA.
My current projects are in applying data science to vegan food development, along with running 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.
Previously, I worked as a quantitative researcher for Akuna Capital, designed classes for an optimization module for students at the Melbourne Business School, and completed my research for a master’s degree in mathematics and statistics at the University of Melbourne under supervision of Professor Peter Taylor; focussing 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. I have made the thesis available here.
Please get in contact with me if you’d like to discuss potential projects or consulting.
Hobbies
I have played the violin for over 20 years. In recent years, I played with the Engineering Music Society at the University of Melbourne as a first violin in its orchestra, and occasionally in a string quartet. I have taken several courses in music theory and have composed some pieces for chamber groups. I love and know too much about classical music of the 20th century. For an intro to 20th century music, check out this playlist.
I am a big fan of live comedy. I also have an award for writing sketch comedy. In 2019 I landed an artist pass for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and got to see 37 shows over four weeks. Please do not hesitate to ask me for recommendations.
I like to take off time to travel when it’s possible, usually spending at least a month in a given country. Some favourite places of mine have been Georgia, Mexico, and Egypt.
I’m a big fan of cooking and eating. I frequently organise home-cooked dinners and outings with my friends. My three favourite vegetables are eggplant, capsicum and cucumber. Please check out my recipes.