01.01.2025
tldr: made cloth piano, fired guns, Goa, squash nationals, lifted weights, Tesla, GPU research, Green Day, space computers, lots of TA-ing, thanksgiving in Ohio, rare cricket W, graduated.
2024 was eventful. Some highlights:
- Made a cloth piano. Inhaled too much solder. Shorted a few microcontrollers. Wired.
- First time shooting (s/o Sashreek). Almost burnt my finger on an AK. Recoil is no joke. Fired.
- Goa. First family vacation in years. Great food. Morning walks. Sunrises by the beach. Coasted.
- Squash nationals in Philly. #7 club team in the country. Caught up with some Contrary friends. Hurt my elbow. Retired.
- Lifted weights to replace squash (s/o Nathan, Ani). Domino’s is a suboptimal protein source. Cardio to follow in 2025. Calloused.
- Another summer at Tesla. Lived in a garage. Made pixels load faster. Biked a lot. Hackathons, museums, hikes. Newfound appreciation for bridges (and their makers). Supercharged.
- Research on GPU optimisations for LLMs/DBs. Accepted to VLDB 2025. Accelerated.
- Green Day concert with the group chat. Annual excursion to Detroit. Holidayed.
- Worked on edge AI spacecomputers at Aethero. Radiation testing is incredibly cool. Launched.
- TA-ed more than I studied in the fall. Helped revamp Michigan’s digital logic course. Taught grad computer architecture. Doomscrolled Piazza. Clocked.
- Drove to Cleveland for Thanksgiving (s/o Mustafa, Mukundh). Visited a dog beach next to a massive sewage outlet. Whiffed.
- Watched the Indian Cricket Team (finally) win something. Stumped.
- Last two sems at Michigan. Graduated.
A year’s only as good as the people it’s spent with. Mine has been fantastic—grateful for friends, family, and mentors who made it so.
A lot changed for the better in 2024, as it did in 2023. But, like last Jan, I am most thankful for what remained the same. Ultimately, that’s what makes life worthwhile.
Here’s to more of the same and the different in 2025.
01.02.2025
Edit: my sister was upset about not being mentioned, unlike 2023. Hi Ananya.