a blog about research, art and life 💋

my work ethic | pinned post

Think I’ve kind of learned that the more authentic and genuine it is, the better it will work for you.

December 16, 2023

Tchaikovsky's Swan Coda from the Appendix

I’m graduating tmrw :) For this coda chapter, I really want to play this music for myself: Vivacious tempo, sparkling technique, bursting with joy, somewhat hidden, and adds a little bit obsession over details and perfection — this piece really best summarize my undergrad journey. What piece would you choose as your graduation day bgm?

June 23, 2025

Approximation Algorithm for RMAB

The paper “Approximation Algorithms for Restless Bandit Problems” by Guha, Munagala, Shi (2009) designed a $2 + \epsilon$-approximation algorithm for a special class of RMAB (“Feedback MAB”, and generalized to “Monotone MAB”). The algorithm is fundamentally different to the classical Whittle Index. The paper’s analysis uses a duality-based algorithmic technique—it is vastly different compared with Weber (1988)’s proof for RMAB’s asymptotic optimality, hence the $2 + \epsilon$ approximation outcome doesn’t requires asymptotic....

June 22, 2025

Gattaca (1997), and Schubert's Impromptu No.3

There’s no gene for the human spirit. — Gattaca (1997) Vincent Freeman is born into a genetically engineered society but conceived naturally, deemed ‘in-valid’ due to a heart condition. Determined to defy his genetic fate and reach space, Vincent assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, a former elite athlete, to join Gattaca’s space program. Gattaca is the stunning directorial debut of Andrew Niccol, who also wrote The Truman Show (1998)....

June 21, 2025

Cool Paper | Sparse Stochastic Bandits

The visible world is no longer a reality and the unseen world no longer a dream (Kandinsky)

June 20, 2025

MAB UCB1 No-Regret Proof

This is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

June 19, 2025

Barcarolle Battle | Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Offenbach

Evoking the rush of water, the stroke of oars and the motion of the ocean, the Barcarolle was a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers (the word comes from “Barca” meaning “boat”). Characterised by a rocking rhythm, suggestive of the movement of the gondola, a Barcarolle is usually of moderate tempo scored in compound time (often 6/8, 9/8 or 12/8). The genre has been used by many composers to great expressive effect....

June 18, 2025

Bandits with Switching Cost

Multi-armed bandits with switching costs are a special case of the restless-bandit model. Setup Consider the infinite-horizon, discounted MAB problem with finite state space $\mathcal S$, binary action set ${0,1}$ per arm ($1$ = pull, $0$ = idle), discount factor $0\le\beta<1$, arms evolve only when pulled (i.e. “static” when $a_i=0$), per-pull reward $r_i(s)$. We now add two costs for each arm $i$: switch-in cost $c_i$: paid (once) whenever we switch to arm $i$,...

June 17, 2025

How music at work can fine-tune your research

Are you listening to anything the last time you read/wrote a paper? Sounds of science: how music at work can fine-tune your research Nature | https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00984-4 Researchers describe how listening to music at work can boost (or hamper) productivity, and share the tunes that keep them focused. TLDR: music cheers you up—almost like a mental massage, dopamine boosters. So it makes tedious, repetitive work less unenjoyable. But music also takes up the brain’s processing power, especially for people with musical training....

June 16, 2025

RMAB Survey | Niño-Mora 2023

“The literature on the RMABP, whether on its theoretical, algorithmic, or application aspects, is currently vast to the point where it is virtually infeasible for researchers to keep up to date with the latest advances in the field.” True. Markovian Restless Bandits and Index Policies: A Review JosĂ© Niño-Mora | Mathematics, 2023 The review is organized as follows. Section 2 surveys the antecedents to the RMABP, in particular, the classic MABP and the Gittins index policy....

June 15, 2025