Code Projects

	Linaia-Agon [code]
	Iannis Xenakis's musical piece Linaia-Agon consists of 4 zero-sum games.
	The games correspond to a mythical duel between Linus and Apollo.
	Moves in each game matrix correspond to a musical note or passage.
	A natural question is: what are Linus's odds of winning? (Hint: very low.) By simulating many duels (under various parameters), we can answer it.

	Rbitrage
<>.<>	Trading $1 to euros and back: get $1. Many currencies: can get over $1.
	This program finds maximum profits from misaligned exchange rates.
	Currencies are a graph, edges are exchange rates – use graph algorithms. Shortest path algorithm (Bellman-Ford) finds negative cycles in O(n3) time.

	A Rose for Emily [code] [blog]
	Constraint solving in Prolog to analyze non-linear timeslines in stories.
	Faulkner's story contains various events, plus inter-temporal references.
	Encode these as equations: if A happened 6 years before B, then A+6=B.
	The constraint solver shows which orderings of events are consistent. This method formally shows a story's virtuality, or simplex of meaning.

	Mapping Poverty [slides]
	Hour-long lecture on using neural networks in development economics.
	Explains neural nets for economists, by analogies with OLS regression.
	Surveys research at MIT using convolutional neural nets to estimate GDP.
	Shows how satellite images can proxy for GDP in countries without data. Plan to use in research (based on my thesis) on China's poverty counties.

	Genetic Algorithms and Taxes [survey]
	Genetic algorithms solve problems by computational Darwinism.
	Solutions ‘compete’ with each other, judged by a fitness function.
	Over generations, candidate solutions evolve toward an optimum.
	Good for problems where data is unavailable—like tax evasion.

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