hello, i am nico!

My technical interests center around big data systems, distributed computing, and statistical analysis. I'm particularly drawn to solving the hard systems questions that enable data science at scale. Recently, I've been exploring Game Theory—it's genuinely fascinating. What continues to captivate me is understanding how systems interact beneath the surface, the hidden infrastructure behind what users experience.

Thankfully, I do exist beyond coursework and Computer Science! I enjoy reading fantasy novels and historical texts, tabletop RPGs, strategy games (Paradox games, Total War, ArmA), drawing and cartography, and long-distance running around Madison.

Feel free to email me for any reason :)

studies

I am a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, double majoring in Computer Sciences and Data Science. I spend most of my time hanging out in the Undergraduate Projects Lab on campus with my friends.

Here is a list of some of my favorite classes:

• Game Theory, Learning and Optimization* (Manolis Vlatakis)
• Data Exploration, Cleaning, and Integration for Data Science* (AnHai Doan)
• Theory of Multi-agent Machine Learning* (Manolis Vlatakis)
• Introduction to Operating Systems (Michael Swift)
• Database Management Systems: Design and Implementation (AnHai Doan)
• Introduction to Big Data Systems (Tyler Caraza-Harter)

If you'd like to link back to my site, feel free to use my 88x31 button. These little graphics are a nostalgic nod to the early web when personal sites would exchange link buttons as a simple way to discover new corners of the internet.

colophon

A colophon is a brief statement that appears at the end of a book, providing information about its production. I got the idea from Andrew, and while I don't believe I will do as great a job as he did with his, here is my best shot:

There's a running joke among my friends that I go through many websites. This one will hopefully stand the test of time. I've had a lot of fun writing salm.dev #5 using only HTML/CSS with a build.sh script, Pandoc, and post templates for the blog. I have enjoyed that I have to figure things out rather than getting features out of the box, as it forces me to really consider what I actually want.

The site is intentionally minimal, with no JavaScript except for conditional loading of MathJax on blog posts that require LaTeX rendering (a necessary concession). Content is processed from Markdown files using Pandoc, creating a static site that's lightweight and fast. While I might run into challenges down the road, the simplicity of the system makes maintenance straightforward.

To further optimize performance, I've implemented a few techniques: CSS is inlined to eliminate render-blocking resources, images below the viewport use lazy loading, and Cloudflare handles aggressive caching of static assets.

This is officially my last site rewrite before focusing on "real projects." For those interested, the website source is available here.