Senem Işık

research @stanford

[Senem Işık @senem_ashak]

Super excited for this one!

[Amin Karbasi @aminkarbasi]

We just finished the first lecture. We will do our best to make all materials publicly available in a timely fashion.

[Tom Zahavy @TZahavy]

I am excited to share a work we did in the Discovery team at @GoogleDeepMind using RL and generative models to discover creative chess puzzles 🔊♟️♟️ #neurips2025

🎨While strong chess players intuitively recognize the beauty of a position, articulating the precise elements that constitute creativity remains elusive. To address this, we pre-trained generative models on public datasets and then applied reinforcement learning, using novel rewards designed for uniqueness, counter-intuitiveness, realism, and novelty. This approach doubled the number of novel chess puzzles compared to the original training data, while successfully maintaining aesthetic diversity.

Three distinguished experts—International Master of chess compositions Amatzia Avni (author of "Creative Chess"), Grandmaster Jonathan Levitt @JonathanLevitt7 (author of "Secrets of Spectacular Chess"), and Grandmaster Matthew Sadler @gmmds (author of "Game Changer")—evaluated and selected the puzzles they found most compelling. Their preference was for puzzles exhibiting original, paradoxical, surprising, and naturally occurring positions, with particular emphasis on those that integrated aesthetic themes in innovative ways and demonstrated exceptional over-the-board vision.

🧩Try to solve the puzzles @chesscom: https://t.co/qHxXiWC427

[Senem Işık @senem_ashak]

The most fun and impactful course I have taught in my life! APPLY

[AddisCoder @AddisCoder]

9th to 11th graders, apply to the (free!) AddisCoder 2026 4-week summer camp by the December 31st deadline to learn algorithms and programming.

Teaching assistant volunteers can also apply.

Camp dates: to be determined, 4 weeks in summer 2025.

Link: https://t.co/15q0WjgQAF

[Grant Sanderson @3blue1brown]

On a recent trip to the UK, @standupmaths shared this delightful little probability fact with me and asked if I might animate an explanation for a video of his. It's a fun one!

See his full video with shenanigans relating this to dice and more. https://t.co/DpxkVyYVFY

[AddisCoder @AddisCoder]

At the AddisCoder 2025 graduation we distributed 27 laptops to students thanks to a generous donation by X-School! https://t.co/JBnbq5qRvr

[AddisCoder @AddisCoder]

AddisCoder graduation is now complete. 121 students completed our 4-week program on algorithms, representing 13 kilils across the country. Thanks to all our partners and donors, and we look forward to Summer 2026 — applications will open next week.

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

RIP to the God King of Investing