about

About Chris Shi (Hongyi Shi) — an undergraduate studying mathematics and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), writing on biodefense, interpretability, optimal transport, robotics, and automation.

About Chris Shi

I’m Chris Shi (Chinese name Hongyi Shi), an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) studying mathematics and computer engineering in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This site is my personal homepage and blog. I write about the infrastructure and mathematics of intelligence — biodefense, interpretability, and automation — under the banner of my Substack, ultrastructure.

Research interests

I’m interested in the geometry and hardware of thinking: the idea that there may be a single class of intelligent algorithms — an “intelligence equation” — of which the phenomena we observe are special cases. Concretely, that means:

  • Optimal transport and high-dimensional geometry
  • Mechanistic interpretability of learning systems
  • Biodefense and resilient infrastructure
  • Non-classical computers and automation of research
  • Robotics — for fun, I work on animating robots (think Disney, but in real life)

Education

  • Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) — Mathematics & Computer Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA

Elsewhere

Contact

Reach me at chrisshi [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu.