Simon Xiang

Simon Xiang

SWE @ AWS · Seattle

Hi, I'm Simon. Welcome to my personal website! Currently, I work as a software engineer at AWS - formerly I was a quantitative researcher at a QuantLab spinoff. I graduated in Fall 2023 with a degree in pure math from UT Austin.

I'm interested in systems, machine learning, LLMs, mathematics, and the overlap between them. If you want to chat, feel free to reach out!

Projects

all projects

KKLC Lookup

A quick kanji lookup tool for the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course (KKLC), featuring OCR-powered mnemonics and smart search.

math notes

A collection of live-TeXed notes I took as an undergrad, spanning topics from algebraic topology to TQFTs.

Recent writing

all posts
  1. What I've Been Studying: Attack of the Categories9 min readmathematicscategory theorytopology
  2. All Voting Systems are Fundamentally Screwed5 min readmathematicsvoting theory
  3. My Experience With Graduate vs Undergraduate Level Courses4 min readmathematicseducation

Extras

sidequests

construction zone

  • Set out on a quest to run a sub 20 minute 5k in January 2026, starting from 26 minutes. This should be achievable by EOY - I just ran 21:24 in a time trial (August 2026). TODO: write more on this in a blog post. Follow me on Strava!
  • Dialing in the perfect espresso - Ascaso Uno and Option-O p64. Currently brewing Anchorhead Guatemala El Canchon. It has a really nice tea-like clarity with a hint of acidity.
  • Since I live in Seattle it's mandatory that I ski in the winter and hike in the summer.
  • (historical note) Back at UT I did triathlon training, which led to road cycling, and finally evolved into running. Also learned basic tennis, golf, judo...too many hobbies too little time. It's just running and table tennis nowadays.
Sesame (my cat)

Some photos of Sesame.

Sesame curled inside a round cardboard scratcher beside the couch, looking at the camera
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table tennis

construction zone

  • ping pong
reading

Recent books/articles/things I've read.

  • The Three-Body Problem trilogyCixin Liu
  • Norwegian WoodHaruki Murakami
  • Never Let Me GoKazuo Ishiguro
  • Norwegian Singles Method (running)James Copeland
  • The Death of Ivan IlyichLeo Tolstoy
  • The StrangerAlbert Camus
  • The OdysseyHomer