who i am

my name's faisal and i am a pretty cool person. i'm headed towards a triple major in computer science, physics, and mathematics at the university of toronto. i know a "triple major" sounds excessive but i am extremely fascinated by all three of these fields and i love learning in general. in other words, i am kind of a nerd. i'm also the president of the physics club at my university.

to tell you the truth, i decided to go into computer science on a whim as i was applying to university. initially, i was just interested in physics, but i decided to take some comp sci courses as well to see where it would go. i ended up realizing that i love computer science, and have been learning new things at a rapid speed ever since.

then in second year i decided to take a few math major courses, encouraged by my friends, and also realized how cool math was. i especially learned how relevant math is in both physics and computer science, and just in everything in general. hence, i am now triple majoring. but that's all i'll say about school in this section, i'll leave the rest for later. i'm going to focus more on describing my personality now.

if there was only one single character trait i could describe myself with, it would be hardworking. i don't think anyone is inherently a genius, or born talented. i believe that people reach that level because of passion and effort. this belief is the reason why i have been constantly pushing myself to try harder and harder at everything in life. i truly believe that if i try hard enough for long enough, i can make a lasting change on the world, and that is what i strive to do.

it is my goal to change the world. and while words roam free in every corner of a crevice, i will one day prove mine with actions. i hope to create new technologies that further humanity towards a more sustainable and peaceful future. ah, to be naive. but i will persist. not for the sake of fame or money, and not really even for humanity itself. rather, i want to do this just to prove to myself that i can. that's it.

as you can tell, i am very ambitious. but i am not yet anything near the person i strive to be. all i can say in confidence is that i try my absolute best every single day, in everything i do. i hope to one day come back to this place after achieving my goals and read these words again. good luck future me.

interests and hobbies

programming in general: i really enjoy using code to solve complex problems, especially low level ones. i love GPU programming and my favorite language is either C, C++, or CUDA. i love developing any kind of software and getting it to work, especially in a team. while i enjoy things like leetcoding, DSA, and algorithm design, i find myself more drawn to working on the underlying structure that supports it all. being able to understand a problem from multiple perspectives is what i find most satisfying. it's cool if i understand algorithmic concepts like dynamic programming or how fibonacci heaps manage to have O(1) amortized insertion, but when I also begin considering optimizations through data access patterns, architectural design, and anything else down to the absolute bare minimum of it—hell, i've spent hours on exploring the physics behind different forms of binary data, diving all the way to the quantum level—that is what really gets me going.

GPU programming: my fascination with GPU programming stems from its perfect blend of parallel computing, hardware optimization, and raw computational power. there's something incredibly satisfying about designing algorithms that can harness thousands of cores simultaneously, carefully managing memory hierarchies across shared memory, texture memory, and global memory to achieve peak performance. i love diving into the intricacies of warp scheduling, coalesced memory access, and occupancy optimization—it's like solving a complex puzzle where every small decision can have massive performance implications. CUDA programming especially appeals to me because it requires understanding both the theoretical aspects of parallel algorithms and the practical limitations of the hardware. whether it's implementing complex reduction algorithms, optimizing matrix operations, or developing custom kernels for scientific computing, the challenge of balancing thread divergence, memory bandwidth, and computational throughput never ceases to excite me. what really draws me in is how GPU programming forces you to completely rethink traditional sequential algorithms, breaking them down and restructuring them to exploit massive parallelism.

physics and math: so far, i've talked about changing the world a lot, but i am equally passionate about first understanding it. math is the language of the universe and physics is the story which describes it. as such, i am extremely interested in both subjects. in physics, i am particularly fascinated with quantum mechanics and relativity, though my interest extends to classical mechanics, electromagnetism, aerodynamics, and astrophysics as well. in math, i am interested in everything really. i have yet to find a topic in math that does not make me want to learn more. though, some specific fields that come to mind are real analysis, topology, chaos theory, abstract algebra, and all levels of calculus. i love constructing and dismantling mathematical proofs just as much as i love to code.

quantum computing: quantum computing and quantum information science is in fact what i want to one day pursue studying at graduate level, perhaps with a mix of machine learning. i am extremely interested in how quantum computers utilize superconductors and qubits to work and complete particular tasks much faster than conventional computers. i believe that quantum computers are key to the future of technology and will one day be made as accessible as the computers we have today. as such, coding with quantum computers may become one of the most prominent fields in computer science in the near future. i want to utilize my knowledge of both computer science and physics to one day help make advances in this field.

deep learning: artificial intelligence has always captivated me from a young age. funny enough, the more you learn, the more you realize that ML is just a bunch of math and stats. but then again if you really think about it, what isn't? as someone who loves both coding and math, studying deep learning algorithms extremely fascinates me. we all know the world is gonna be totally changed by AI, blah, blah. what i desire is to be at the front of that. as many others have said, the potential for AI is truly limitless. i want to one day develop my own unique algorithms for training AI that help change the world.

millennium problems: i have been fascinated with the millennium prize problems for the past few years now, and i spend a fair amount of time researching them whenever i can. i know it's laughable, but i want to one day solve them. it is one of the goals of my life. as a physicist, i am particularly interested in the navier-stokes equations, which governs the flow of fluids. i am truly grateful to exist in a time where these problems remain unsolved.

piano and guitar: this entire time i have been talking about academic things such as coding, physics, and math, but there is actually more to me than that (surprise). i briefly played the piano for a few months a while ago and have started to pick it up again recently. i've never actually played the guitar but i am planning on buying one soon. though i'm not sure what instrument i think is cooler between the two, i really want to play and get good at both of them. sadly i dont have free to spare during university since i have a lot of courses to take as i am triple majoring. but whenever i do get any free time, i'll either be playing the piano or the guitar. i also have a hidden passion for singing. i'll go all out during karaoke with any song i like, but i have never really tried actually practicing. also people have told me i sound tone-deaf lol.

martial arts: i absolutely love martial arts and have always wanted to consistently take lessons for muay thai somewhere. i've went to a few trial sessions before, but other than that all i have done is practice in my garage or backyard watching videos online lol. funny story: the first time i went to a muay thai trial session they accidentally put me in the advanced section. i felt like fainting the entire time (just from punching a bag). i also want to learn brazilian jiu-jitsu for grappling after i learn muay thai for striking. once i save a decent amount of money i plan on finding a good muay thai gym. contact me if you know any good places :)

cooking and food: i actually cook a lot too, and am a big foodie. during university i get too busy to cook often, but i still cook a little now and then if i feel like it. my most cooked dish is probably fried rice. my favorite food is either spicey chicken dumplings or lasagna. i also love seafood, but i've only really had fish and shrimp. the kinds of fish i've had include salmon, cod, haddock, basa, and of course tuna. i actually have a decently large list of foods i need to try. i've never had sushi! or crab, or lobster. when it comes to deserts, my favorite thing is probably mango ice cream. my mom makes it really good at home with real mangos. i love mangos in general, they're my favorite fruit. lastly, my favorite drink is easily coconut water. you either hate it or love it (you better love it). nothing is as refreshing as a long can of ice cold coconut water on a hot summer day. must have pulp.

i love cats: not much to say here but it is extremely important. i love cats.

music i like

i could have put this in interests/hobbies but i felt like it deserved a whole category of its own. to be honest i never really cared much for music until i was 15, when i started finding the kind of songs i really liked.

to me, the thing about music is that it is the ultimate encapsulation of emotions. music can portray feelings in their most raw and true form. even though i think plain words are the most effective way of communication generally, there are emotions you cannot express as deeply as you can with music.

anyways, i always struggle to list the genres i listen to because there are so many and i forget, so i will list them here!

• pop-punk
• post-hardcore
• emo
• punk-rock
• indie-rock
• alt-rock
• rnb
• jpop

to be honest, i wouldn't be able to explain each individual genre to you. i always end up mixing them up. anyways i listed them in descending order, starting with what i listen to the most (according to the bands i listen to).

my favorite band is pierce the veil! in second place, it would probably be good kid, then anarbor. other great artists i love are waterparks, the rare occassions, palaye royale, nirvana, sleeping with sirens, arctic monkeys, idkhbtfm, mcr, corpse, and joji. definitely check them out :). if you're curious let me know and i can give you my spotify! i have all the songs i listen to thrown together in one playlist.

it's hard to say what my favorite song is really. i have quite a few i like. but if i were to have to choose just one, i would probably say emergency contact by pierce the veil. check out my playlist if you wanna know more. follow my spotify plz

my life plan

as i've mentioned already, my life goal is to change the world for the better with technology. my current life plan is divided into 4 stages:

1. undergrad studies: i have four main goals during this stage. my first goal is to attain good co-op experience, whether it's single term internships or extensive year long positions (or longer). my second goal is to learn a lot from all my courses and graduate with a high gpa. so far my current cumulative gpa is 3.91/4.0 which is quite good. i want to raise this even further and graduate with a 3.95+ gpa. my third goal is gain a lot of research experience, and publish a lot of papers in fields such as quantum computing, machine learning, and chaos theory, or any other specific fields within comp sci, physics, or math really. my last goal is to create strong networks with professors and employers. all my previous goals will help me in doing so. if you've been reading this far and are interested in my skills as a researcher or employee, please contact me!
2. after undergrad: i hope to be employed by a company immediately after completing my bachelor's degree. during this time i will simply be focused on working dilligently within the company that hires me and contributing my best everyday. this step will probably happen simultaneous with my next step. really depends whatever opportunity i am given first.
3. grad studies: i am not really sure when i want to pursue graduate studies, but i plan to eventually. if i am able to get into a dream university right out of undergrad, then i would definitely take that chance. during this time, i would ideally like to continue working as well, so i will probably graduate slowly. i would preferably like to skip a master's and jump right into a phd for quantum information science or machine learning, but i know this will be very hard to pull off. the thing is, i plan on going to MIT for my graduate studies, which isn't exactly going to be the easiest thing to pull off. it all depends on how well i perform during my undergraduate years at university of toronto. not just my gpa, but also doing a lot of research, publishing papers, making connections with professors, and other things beyond courses.
4. after grad: at this point, i'd want to take my career to the next level. i would try meeting all my end game goals of life here. i would spend a lot of time researching quantum computing, or machine learning, or maybe even some other fields within computer science, physics, or math. i want to revolutionize quantum computers and propel a huge advance in human technology. if i had made a good position for myself a company then i would ideally stay there while also working on my research at the same time depending on how it goes. perhaps i will even teach as a professor at one point. one thing is for sure; this stage is the most uncertain part of my life. i am not sure how things will be at this point, but i have faith in myself to never stop trying my best to reach my goals, if nothing else.

courses i've taken

note: this section is out of date by over a year. i'll update it later.

i'll update this section as i go through university. here, i'll be briefly talking about how i found each course and the academic decisions i made.

first year, cgpa: 3.91

second year, cgpa: pending