Joshua Fan

Interests

Note: this is somewhat outdated. I'm still excited about these things, but see my CV for more recent information.

Computer science, programming

As you might have expected from my major, computer science is a subject that I am extremely passionate about. First of all, the results of computer science have penetrated so many aspects of modern life. With computer science, we can now instantly find the fastest route to get to a destination using (say) Google Maps, access unprecedented amounts of knowledge quickly over the Internet, and instantaneously communicate with others online. (Needless to say, there are countless other examples.) In addition to these numerous applications, however, I find the concepts of computer science to be immensely interesting and beautiful in their own right.

Within computer science, I am very interested in machine learning, algorithms, and statistical data science. As a caveat, I have not taken advanced courses in some of these topics, so my understanding is very incomplete. However, the algorithms and probabilistic approaches I have encountered so far (such as the Viterbi algorithm, Bayesian networks, the EM algorithm, etc.) are conceptually very interesting to me, and I enjoy learning them for their own sake. Being a TA for CSE 312 has also enhanced my passion for probability and statistics, as well as their use in fields such as randomized algorithms.

I am also extremely fascinated by the numerous applications of such techniques. In particular, computational biology is a very impactful application area. Computational biology has the potential to help us better understand the human genome and gene expression, improve cancer treatment, and positively influence lives in many more ways; these are all possibilities I am excited about. Natural language processing is also a fascinating application area that combines beautiful algorithmic techniques (such as dynamic programming) with crucial real-world applications, such as speech recognition, machine translation, and processing queries for search engines.

Computer programming is also something I enjoy. Even though debugging can certainly be painful at times, I find learning new technologies and the general sense of problem-solving inherent within programming to be very fun and rewarding. Currently, I am strongest with high-level languages such as Java, C#, and Python, but I am always enthusiastic about learning different things as well.

Transport

I have something of an obsession with transportation networks. Whether it's buses, railways, planes, or whatever, a well-designed transport network (such as one with an intricately-designed pulse network) can be very beautiful to me. Of course, such a network has clear positive impacts on people's lives, and public transportation in particular can be very beneficial for the environment, public health, and mobility. During my spare time, I enjoy re-designing a transport network for a real location. I also like to follow transport issues; some of my favorite blogs include Seattle Transit Blog for analysis of transport issues in Seattle, and Human Transit for an interesting explanation of fundamental transit planning principles applied around the world.

Geography and maps

I have been fascinated by geography and maps since a very young age. I've always loved learning about different places, and maps can be a great way to do that. To me, maps can be both beautiful and interesting--check out Strange Maps blog or the Transit Maps blog for some maps that I greatly enjoy. In addition, the broader field of geography is extremely interesting to me. There are so many intriguing spatial patterns out there that intersect with numerous fields, such as economics and political science. The field of geography has also been greatly influenced by the unprecedented amount of data and computational tools available in our era; GIS software, databases, and statistical techniques have contributed to many interesting findings in modern geographic research. I find this to be fascinating, especially since this ties my interests of computer science and geography together.