Hey! I'm Arunim

About Me

this picture looks quite dramatic, but i promise i dont take myself *that* seriously, its just a nice photo of me

Hello! I'm Arunim, a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying Physics, maybe some CS, Philosophy, and/or Math. I'm quite interested in effective altruism, in the sense of maximizing good/wellbeing while minimizing suffering. Current areas of interest: AI alignment, global poverty, climate adaptation, policy, and forecasting. As of now, these are quite broad, but I'll narrow them down soon. Generally aiming for utopia in the long run!

Outside of school, I absolutely love to practice sleight-of-hand, run moderately long distances, and test my creative limits at makerspaces (check out some of my favorite projects). My free time is most often devoted to these passions, as well as to reading Calvin and Hobbes or watching/reading the Adventures of Tintin. I also spend some time working to end sexual violence, as a member of ASAP at Penn.

Work Experience

Material Science Intern | Holy Grail (website)

Tackled modular direct air carbon capture device technology at a startup during seed round stage ($2.7M raised). Supported CEO and CTO to streamline and set up the laboratory, identified key materials with desired properties for testing, and secured specialized materials and precision lab equipment from suppliers.

Mentor | MakeX Palo Alto (website)

Volunteered as a mentor in a student-run makerspace, helping community members of all ages create projects of their choosing as well as keeping the space functioning as a whole. Taught interested middle and high school students how to design and fabricate with project based learning. Managed budget, outreach, and publicity, and mentored during open hours.

Paid Intern | Stanford University Geophysics

Conducted field work and data analysis involving underground fiber optic cables using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) to improve seismic monitoring by collecting large amounts of data and mapping the cable to geographical coordinates.

Camp Counselor | City of Palo Alto Recreation

Worked at outdoor summer camps based in Foothills Park, oversaw and ran activities for about 50 kids.

Projects

𝄡 Alto Clef: a public piano I restored and repainted with a group of friends and student artists. Long story short, it was about to be tossed, we took it, I got a grant from the Public Art Commision, and we put it up as a temporary art piece in a public park for passersby to play. More details at arunim.fyi/piano

The Village Studio: a makerspace I co-founded and put together at my high school. Heavily inspired by MakeX, the community makerspace where I volunteered, I'm hoping the Village Studio expands the culture of hands on, curriculum-free education.

The Rest: I promise there are more projects (mostly smaller, but quite fun regardless), I just haven't gotten around to adding them.

Research

Hybrid Forecasting/Persuasion Tournament

University of Pennsylvania, 2022-Present

Currently working as a research assistant on an existential-risk forecasting tournament, with Dr. Philip Tetlock and Dr. Ezra Karger. Contributing to better understanding forecasts with conditional probability trees, and developing a (possibly) standardized forecasting test.

Ultra-lightweight Mylar Structures

University of Pennsylvania, 2022-2022

Constructed new, ultra-lightweight 3D structures out of Mylar and assisted with research on thermionic energy conversion and photophoretic levitation with the Bargatin Group. (The samples in the image to the right are made of 0.5 micron thick Mylar, and weigh under 10 mg!)

Greenland Ice Sheet retreat

University of Santa Cruz, 2020-2021

Beginning in the summer of 2020 and through the following school year, I analyzed the retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet over the last 35 years using satellite data. I drafted a paper on the Jakobshavn glacier’s role as a factor in ice margin retreat in the surrounding area. This research was conducted with Prof. Tulaczyk, eventually under the umbrella of a research program at my high school. A more detailed summary of this work can be found at: arunim.fyi/aar.

Arunim-Related News

I don't particularly try to do "newsworthy" things, but I've made it into the local papers a few times. Here are a couple of these instances I'm reasonably proud of:

Gunn grad finds piano in dumpster, turns it into public art project - Tomoki Chien, Midpeninsula Post

Club of Clubs wows audiences with magic card tricks - The Gunn Oracle

Contact

Email (arunim@seas.upenn.edu) is best, but socials are below if you prefer!

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter

Elements

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