> echo "Welcome $(whoami)"
Hopefully you find what you're looking for.


$ cat about

Hey, I'm Amy.
I've always wanted a nickname but unfortunately it doesn't get any shorter.

I'm currently living the west coast aesthetic dream in Seattle as a 4th-year PhD student at UW CSE, advised by Adriana Schulz and Zachary Tatlock. My formative years were my undergraduate at UBC; secretly I still miss the dry Edmonton sun.

Chiefly, I work on applying programming languages ideas to create tools for computational design and fabrication workflows. My main interest is tools that push the boundaries of machine knitting, making it possible to create surprising objects in interesting ways.

 a picture of me looking out into the hills of Burnaby


$ more research

Computational Illusion Knitting SIGGRAPH 2024
 
  • Amy Zhu, Yuxuan Mei, Benjamin Jones, Zachary Tatlock, Adriana Schulz
  • How do we understand and build upon illusion knitting to enable never-before-seen illusions?
  • Paper | Video | Talk imminent
     
 
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How Can Large Language Models Help Humans in Design And Manufacturing? HDSR 2024
 
  • Liane Makatura, Michael Foshey, Bohan Wang, Felix Hähnlein, Pingchuan Ma, Bolei Deng, Megan Tjandrasuwita, Andrew Spielberg, Crystal Owens, Peter Yichen Chen, Allan Zhao, Amy Zhu, Wil Norton, Edward Gu, Joshua Jacob, Yifei Li, Adriana Schulz, Wojciech Matusik
  • How can large language models help humans in design and manufacturing?
  • Paper
     
 
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Equality Saturation Theory Exploration à la Carte OOPSLA 2023
 
  • Anjali Pal, Brett Saiki, Ryan Tjoa, Cynthia Richey, Amy Zhu, Oliver Flatt, Max Willsey, Zachary Tatlock, Chandrakana Nandi
  • How can we control the rule inference process within equality saturation?
  • Project page
     
 
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Exploring Self-Embedded Knitting Programs with Twine ICFP FARM 2023
 
  • Amy Zhu, Adriana Schulz, Zachary Tatlock
  • Could knitting programs embed their own instructions?
  • Paper | Talk
     
 
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Co-Optimization of Design and Fabrication Plans for Carpentry ACM TOG 2022
 
  • Haisen Zhao, Max Willsey, Amy Zhu, Chandrakana Nandi, Zachary Tatlock, Justin Solomon, Adriana Schulz
  • We might be able to find better fabrication plans considering different design changes -- how can we explore the joint space of design and fabrication plans?
  • Project page
     
 
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Rewrite Rule Inference Using Equality Saturation OOPSLA 2021
 
  • Chandrakana Nandi, Max Willsey, Amy Zhu, Yisu Remy Wang, Brett Saiki, Adam Anderson, Adriana Schulz, Dan Grossman, Zachary Tatlock
  • Can we automatically synthesize rewrite rulesets with equality saturation and some advanced sampling?
  • Project page
     
 
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Concise Read-Only Specifications for Better Synthesis of Programs with Pointers ESOP 2020
 
  • Andreea Costea, Amy Zhu, Nadia Polikarpova, Ilya Sergey
  • How can we indicate that some objects are to be readonly in synthetic separation logic?
  • Paper
     
 
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$ jobs

Mutation Testing for Distributed Systems UBC NSS Lab May 2018 - Jan 2019
 
  • • Worked under Dr. Ivan Beschastnikh to understand the application of mutation testing in the context of distributed systems
  • • Conventionally speaking, mutation testing means verifying the quality of your test suite by seeding errors into the system and running tests to see how many detected the mutation
  • • It is unclear how to apply mutation testing to distributed systems given the interaction of multiple nodes and deliberate fault tolerance
  • • Wrote a testing framework in Go and ran preliminary evaluations
Software Engineering Intern FuseMail September 2017 - April 2018
 
  • • Worked as a dev intern on the backend of a website portal that handles email security.
  • • I really enjoyed the casual-yet-focused and distraction-free atmosphere at work (and all the mechanical keyboard users)
  • • We use with Linux (Ubuntu 16.04), Git (BitBucket), JIRA, Crucible. SQL, nginx, node, memcached and redis, NSQ. Microservices
  • • Learned that if you want to be a sysadmin, (1) have a data plan (2) pay your internet bills
  • • Official resident poster designer
Undergraduate Academic Assistant UBC Extended Learning May 2017 - August 2017
 
  • • Developed code examples and comprehension questions in TypeScript, Java, and BSL (teaching subset of Racket) for a 6-part software engineering edX online course open to the public as part of a MicroMasters
  • • One of my favourite parts was grading student submissions and seeing the creative ways they would spice up their assignments, as well as answering thoughtful questions on our discussion forum
  • • We really had to focus on what would be a cohesive, scaffolded, yet substantial approach to this series as it entailed bringing learners from very diverse experience levels together to the level of someone ready to begin a masters program
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant UBC Computer Science September 2016 - May 2017
 
  • • Interacted with students, other teaching assistants, and professors to deliver a comprehensive learning experience for an introductory computer course
  • • One of the comments on my evaluation forms that really resonated was "she made me feel really smart whenever I left the lab." I think encouraging students to feel capable and inspire them to explore computer science is a worthwhile goal
  • • Between grading exams, grading assignments, TAing in lecture, conducting labs, running supplementary tutorials, and holding office hours, labs were definitely the most fun. You get to see a diverse range of students and once you come up with a good analogy for a tough concept, you can use it over and over again and seem terribly clever!


$ tail -f volunteerism.log

President UBC CSSS May 2019 - May 2020
 
  • • General overlording
Vice-President External UBC CSSS May 2018 - May 2019
 
  • • The meaningful crux of the job is organizing UBC's Technical Career Fair, which connects over 50 companies and 2000 students. We want to help expose both parties to cool work and great talent, as well as let students get a taste of what kinds of interesting sectors there are in the industry
  • • I got to coordinate slash vibe with some really cool people from other great clubs around campus, like the Cognitive Systems Society, Engineering Physics Student Association, and the UBC branch of IEEE, as well as my own fantastic minions within the CSSS
  • • I also coordinated external vendors and interested companies, and make sure everyone gets to the right place at the right time! This meant sending lots of emails, putting together documents, and coordinating marketing materials
Hackathon Mentor HearMeHack | UBC ECESS September 26, 2017
 
  • • Workshop and floor mentor for a learning hackathon centered around giving concrete experience to beginner programmers
  • • It's really fascinating hearing the diverse interests of different students and what they're excited to learn!
  • • Ran workshops on HTML/CSS/JS (where I focused mainly on JS) and code style/languages
nwHacks Logistics Coordinator nwHacks 2017 April 2016 - May 2017
 
  • • Logistics coordinator for a 600-person, weekend-long collegiate hackathon at the University of British Columbia
  • • Booked venues, catering, and other odds and ends like security detail
  • • Managed setup, scheduling, mentor/sponsor greeting, participant needs, and other site logistics
  • • I love staying up all night for these things, and hackathons have such a great vibe
Brand and Development Manager Agora Cafe September 2016 - May 2017
 
  • • A laid-back creative position where I designed branding and marketing materials for a volunteer-run, sustainable, low-cost, vegetarian cafe on campus run by mostly Land and Food Systems students
  • • An amazing opportunity where I met some absolutely wonderful people who were always uplifting. They are so positive, forgiving, warm, and fun - the other executives, the volunteers, and the customers
  • • Cooked entrees and soups, baked goods throughout the day, served coffee and tea, made sandwiches to-order, washed dishes, and so on. Led volunteers and dealt with any major issues throughout



$ ping amy.zhu

I know reaching out first is pretty hard, but I assure you, every email is a delight. I check my inbox every twenty minutes (if only for fabric sales or shipping updates).

       

$ ps u | grep hobbies

The part that I care about the most.




I'm reading:
  • Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time
Next:
  • Ivan Goncharov: Oblomov
  • Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire
  • Yevgeny Zamyatin: We
Over the past few years, I've gotten into writing my own murder mystery dinner parties, UW-themed virtual escape rooms, drawing and embroidering PLSE versions of designer handbags, sewing historical clothing, disassembling and repaining my Switch Lite (to perhaps ill effect), learning how to build my own subitism burner for incense appreciation, making incense (especially rolled), partaking in poetry circles, trying to type on a steno keyboard, weaving on my four-shaft table loom, and learning to facet gemstones (I share an Ultratec V2 with my boyfriend). More projects to come.
I like paper and pencil, or oil paints.
If you're really interested for some reason, here's my deviantArt... at your own risk.
vertical black sesame cake & matcha whipped cream
orangeflower madeleines
juniper and lavender meringues
apricot and lavender sourdough with walnuts
natural rainbow 5-layer chiffon cake with fruit (chinese bakery cake) - raspberry, carrot juice, pandan, butterfly pea, blackberry, stabilized whipped cream
earl grey cupcakes with lavender italian meringue buttercream and royal icing-decorated tulip/leaf sugar cookies
idea: black sesame sable cookies with bitter matcha white chocolate chunks
For more ideas check this pinterest cake board I have
I like small knitting projects, scarves, and dpns. But next I want to knit one of the sweater patterns from Brooklyn Tweed! Most recently made three (3) ripple bralettes! PLEASE, please, let's talk about knitting; I love knitting. Here's my Ravelry!
I'm also really into garment making and would love to take a tailoring course. I've made blouses, tons of skirts and a few dresses, a romper or two, a jumpsuit, a yukata.
And I've recently gotten into weaving. I have a 4-shaft table loom and a bunch of cool boat shuttles from a local market in Luang Prabang!