* Hey!

Welcome to my Github profile. A tiny corner on the internet you
somehow stumbled into!

I'm a physicist and worked on the search for 'solar axions' using
'helioscopes' (CAST) during my PhD thesis (axions are hypothetical
particles that help to solve a mathematical problem in physics, but
might be a dark matter candidate. Helioscopes are "telescopes" that
observe the Sun using a magnet instead of some kind of mirror).

In some way, I was lucky to be doing my PhD research in a group where
we always had too few people for too many research projects (sounds
familiar? 🤭). It meant I had to / could write all the analysis code
for my thesis work from scratch in whatever language I wanted.  Back
in 2016 I was generally a fan of Python, but was annoyed by its slow
performance if one wasn't careful. While shopping around for a
suitable language, I eventually stumbled on [[https://nim-lang.org][Nim]] and the rest is
history. 

I'm interested in coding especially in applications for scientific
computing and machine learning. Recently I've also been dabbling a bit
more on the cryptography side (mostly related to Ethereum).

Below is an overview of my work, split by different categories of
things I care about.

Unless otherwise specified, all code below is written in Nim.

** Physics research 🧑‍🔬🔭📡☀️

- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/phd][phd]] - The git repository of my PhD thesis. See
  https://phd.vindaar.de for the companion website to my thesis, which
  links to the publication and an (extended) HTML version.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/TimepixAnalysis][TimepixAnalysis]] - The main data analysis framework for my PhD
  thesis.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/xrayAttenuation][xrayAttenuation]] - A library for the calculation of X-ray
  interactions with matter (transmission, reflection, ...), including
  typical surface coatings used in modern X-ray optics.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/TrAXer][TrAXer]] - Interactive X-ray raytracer for the simulation of X-ray
  optics.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/mclimit][mclimit]] - Nim port of ROOT's ~TLimit~ class / Tom Junk's ~mclimit~ C
  code for confidence level calculations for searches with small
  statistics.

*** Libraries interfacing with common tools

- [[https://github.com/SciNim/NimBoltz][NimBoltz]] - A [[https://magboltz.web.cern.ch/magboltz/][Magboltz]] interfacer from Nim, which generates Magboltz
  input files for the user and can act as a Magboltz runner (running
  multiple processes in parallel). Magboltz is /the/ program to
  simulate transport of electrons in gaseous under the influence of
  electromagnetic fields (i.e. to calculate gas properties as used in
  gaseous detectors).
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/GarfieldNim][GarfieldNim]] - An (incomplete) Nim wrapper for [[https://garfieldpp.web.cern.ch/garfieldpp/][Garfield++]] (tool /
  library for the simulation of particle detectors commonly used for
  micropattern gaseous detectors).
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/mcpl][mcpl]] - A Nim wrapper for the [[https://mctools.github.io/mcpl/][mcpl]] (Monte Carlo Particle List) file
  format.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/horizonsAPI][horizonsAPI]] - A library to interface with JPL's [[https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/manual.html][Horizons API]] (for
  solar system orbital data).

** Scientific computing libraries 🔬🧮🔥

- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/ggplotnim][ggplotnim]] - A Nim plotting library heavily inspired by [[https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/][ggplot2]].
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/ginger][ginger]] - The backend library for ~ggplotnim~, which handles the
  actual rendering of ~ggplotnim~ plots to PDF, SVG, PNG targets
  (mainly via Cairo or TikZ).
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/Unchained][Unchained]] - A library for compile-time physical unit checking and
  conversions.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/Measuremancer][Measuremancer]] - A library for automatic error propagation of
  measurements with uncertainties.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/nimhdf5][nimhdf5]] - Nim bindings to the HDF5 library (similar to [[https://h5py.org][h5py]]).
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/rnim][rnim]] - A library to interface with the R programming language from
  Nim (similar to [[https://github.com/yglukhov/nimpy][nimpy]] or [[https://github.com/SciNim/nimjl][nimjl]]).
- [[https://github.com/mratsim/Arraymancer][Arraymancer]] - Co-maintainer of Arraymancer, Nim's most important
  tensor library (think numpy).
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/flambeau][Flambeau]] - Co-maintainer of Flambeau, our Nim wrapper of ~libtorch~,
  the C++ backend of PyTorch.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/nimnlopt][nimlopt]] - Nim wrapper of [[https://nlopt.readthedocs.io/][NLopt]], a non linear optimization library.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/nim-mpfit][nim-mpfit]] - Nim wrapper of [[https://www.physics.wisc.edu/~craigm/idl/cmpfit.html][cMPFIT]], a Levenberg-Marquardt least
  squares fitting library.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/impulse][impulse]] - Co-maintainer of ~impulse~, a signal processing library
  for Nim.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/scinim][scinim]] - Co-maintainer of ~scinim~, a general library for different
  aspects related to scientific computing in Nim. What might become an
  equivalent to [[https://scipy.org][scipy]] for Nim in the future.
  
** General purpose libraries 🖥️📄

- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/shell][shell]] - A mini DSL to execute processes from Nim, in the form of a
  shell-like DSL. Supports constructs like ~expect~.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/LatexDSL][LatexDSL]] - A DSL to generate LaTeX from Nim, which includes some
  compile-time checking, easy TeX c
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/cacheMe][cacheMe]] - A helper library to cache function calls over multiple
  program runs (intended for expensive, deterministic operations).
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/flatBuffers][flatBuffers]] - A library to save / load nested Nim object as flat
  binary files.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/forked][forked]] - Provides a simplified abstraction ~forked~ over [[https://github.com/c-blake/cligen][cligen's]]
  [[https://github.com/c-blake/cligen/blob/master/cligen/procpool.nim][procpool]] (multiprocessing). Multiprocess your for loops!
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/JsonSchemaValidator][JsonSchemaValidator]] - A JSON schema validation library.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/orgtables][orgtable]] - A (very early) library to produce Org mode tables from
  Nim data structures.

** Experimental ideas and hacks 🧪⚗️🌋

- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/NimJit][NimJit]] - Attempts to write a JIT compiler for Nim based on
  ~libgccjit~. Initial attempts based on semchecked Nim AST, current
  version based on NIR (Nim's current _highly experimental_ IR).
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/hotpatching][hotpatching]] - Fun hack to hotpatch a Nim function at runtime.

** Machine learning projects 📜🧠🤯📎

- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/llama2nim][llama2nim]] - A Nim port of Andrej Karpathy's [[https://github.com/karpathy/llama2.c][llama2.c]].
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/llm.nim][llm.nim]] - A Nim port of the CPU version of Andrej Karpathy's [[https://github.com/karpathy/llm.c][llm.c]].
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/TimepixAnalysis/blob/master/Analysis/ingrid/nn/train_ingrid.nim][train_ingrid.nim]] - The training code for the MLP used for data
  classification as part of my PhD thesis (based on Flambeau / libtorch).
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/QuasarContANN][QuasarContANN]] - Work from 2014 on using MLPs and CNNs for Quasar
  spectra predictions (prediction of the spectra in the Ly-α forest)
  using Theano.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/runtimeGrad][runtimeGrad]] - A library for 3 different automatic differentiation
  implementations (Wengert list, dual numbers & complex step
  derivative).
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/abyss][abyss]] - A very experimental attempt at a [[https://fluxml.ai/Zygote.jl/][Zygote.jl]] like
  source-to-source, reverse mode automatic differentiation library for
  Nim.
- [[https://github.com/SciNim/astGrad][astGrad]] - A compile-time symbolic differentiation library to
  differentiate (math based) Nim code based on its AST.
- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/NeuralNetworkLiveDemo][NeuralNetworkLiveDemo]] - Demo (part of a talk) of training a simple
  MLP on MNIST with a browser based live interface into the training
  progress.

** Other languages

- [[https://github.com/Vindaar/expressionEval][expressionEval]] - A C++, header only, math expression evaluator
  library, intended to be used as part of a [[https://root.cern.ch][ROOT]] based C++ framework
  (but never was).