Umbrella design
Systems instincts taken too far
Venkat Arun
Assistant Professor, Computer Science · UT Austin
Blog
Ideas, experiments, and essays
A collection of small investigations, technical curiosities, and thoughts about the world.
Research 2 posts Technical ideas, research notes, and works in progress.
Philosophy 2 posts Essays about society, language, and how we make sense of the world.
Fun ideas 3 posts Small experiments and unexpected ways to look at everyday things.
Humor 2 posts Pieces written mainly for amusement.
All posts
Scottish Sheep
FM instincts taken too far
Let's make paperclips!
Would a civilization devoted to making paperclips necessarily be empty—or would intelligence, culture, evolution, and conflict emerge along the way?
Performance Verification and Synthesis
Using nondeterministic models, program verification, and synthesis to design resource-allocation controllers with provable performance guarantees.
"Solving" Congestion Control
A systematic approach to congestion control based on nondeterministic network models and automated reasoning.
India's Language Problem
English proficiency remains a gatekeeper to opportunity in India. Machine translation may offer the most practical way to weaken that barrier.
Is Water Really Zero-Calorie?
Dilute water can save the body energy. A thermodynamic view of thirst, kidneys, desert rats, and why some drinks dehydrate us.
How to Tie Your Shoelaces
Is one way of tying shoelaces genuinely more reliable? A small, blinded experiment suggests that it is.
Biasing a Coin
Can the way a coin is tossed bias its result? A small 2015 experiment produced a surprisingly strong effect that still needs replication.