3rd month @Stanford
Masahiro RikisoDecember 1, 2023

TL;DR

1. Research: AI researchers are keenly following events like Sam Altman's ousting controversy, DevDay, and the rumors about the completion of AGI and Q*. I am currently developing a Proof of Concept (PoC) for LLM-based Visual Inspection. An alpha version is expected to be released by December.
2. Life: Enjoyed watching Big Game. However, I caught a cold during Thanksgiving week, my first fever since my student days. Having been working non-stop since moving to the U.S., I believe my accumulated fatigue led to decreased immunity. I aim to enjoy each day while taking care of my health.

0. Cost of Living in Silicon Valley (vs Japan)

Food costs are 2-4 times higher. Electricity and gasoline are about 1.5 times more expensive. Housing costs are about 5 times higher? Wages are approximately 3 times greater.

• A cabbage at Whole Foods: $9
• Fast food on campus: > $10
• Electricity cost: $0.36/kWh (compared to ~36 yen/kWh in Japan, nearly 1.5 times)
• Gasoline: $5.5/G (approximately ¥220/L)
• Hourly wage at supermarkets: $20
• Salary for Stanford PhD students (including tutoring): ~$70k/year
• Starting salary for Stanford CS undergraduates: ~$120k/year

1. Research

# every week
Mon: Lab Meeting @Factory, Menlo Park
Wed: Lab Meeting @Gates, Stanford

# event
11/06 Tech Discussion @KnightBuilding w/ 🇯🇵Hoshi(JR-East)
11/16 Google Devfest Silicon Valley @Google
11/17 Visiting Scholar Lunch @Gates

Achievements

• Reproduction experiments of LLaVa
• Reproduction experiments of LLaVa Interactive
• Testing the user experience of GPT4V API
• Initiation of PoC (LLM-based Visual Inspection) development (in progress)
• Dissemination of information to internal stakeholders
  • Eureke (NVIDIA): A reinforcement learning system where LLM designs the reward function
  • GNoME: Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (Deepmind): Searching for new material candidates using GNN and DFT
  • SESI: Stanford Energy Systems Innovations

Next Month's Plan

• Release of PoC Alpha version
• Exploration and expansion of research themes

Event: Google Devfest

At the event, gained a deeper understanding of VertexAI, PalmAPI, MakerSuite, LangChain, LammaIndex, and more. Also had the opportunity to interact with startups. Faced challenges in evaluating RAG as part of LLMOps (as RAG's performance depends on the combination of multiple pipelines like Retrieval and TextGeneration, and evaluation largely depends on Human Feedback), with startups focusing on this area. Personally found Voxel51 interesting in DataCentricAI x CV, and want to reference it for my own SaaS idea (where to differentiate and create value).

2. Life

# every weekday
Tue: English Debate Class
- 11/14 🇹🇼Suki (Early Bird / Night Owl) 🇯🇵Miho (Education)
- 11/28 🇮🇷Yosra (Protecting Environment)
Fri: Global Chef Dinner

# misc.
11/02 Car Maintenance
11/04 Wine Tasting w/ 🇯🇵Hoshi 🇨🇳Jody
11/10 Stanford Diwali
11/11 Flower Workshop @675Lomita
11/11 @RedBarn
11/12 @CantorArtsCenter w/ 🇺🇸Liz
11/15 Harpsichord @BraunMusicCenter
11/16 Woman Basketball vs Cal Poly
11/17 Man Basketball vs Eastern Washington w/ 🇹🇼Stephanie
11/18 Football vs Cal (Big Game)
11/20 Visit @🇮🇳Padma's House
11/29 Early Christmas Dinner @GraduateCommunityCenter

Wine Tasting

I was invited by Mr. Hoshi, who is a member of Ridge Vineyards, and enjoyed a wine tasting session there.

Stanford Diwali

Diwali is a festival celebrating the Hindu New Year in India. It's the largest festival of lights in India, also known as the "Festival of Lights."

Red Barn

Before becoming Stanford, this location functioned as a racehorse ranch. It is also famous for Leland Stanford's renowned photographic experiment, capturing the moment when all of a horse's feet are off the ground. Currently, it is used by Stanford's equestrian team.

"Big Game" Week

The annual American football match between Stanford and UC Berkeley. Stanford's team is called "Cardinal," while UC Berkeley's team is known as the "Golden Bears." The Big Game boasts a tradition of over 121 years. Prior to the Big Game, Stanford students engage in a week-long series of celebratory events and traditional activities. The winning team of the Big Game is awarded the "Stanford Axe" trophy.

Having purchased the Big Game Week Ticket ($75), I watched three games: American football (UC Berkeley), men's basketball (East Washington), and women's basketball (Cal Poly). The excitement of the football game was tremendous. The intensity of the live plays was impressive, but I found it too violent for my taste. Understanding that many American football players suffer from brain damage after retirement made sense to me.

APEC @SanFransisco

The leaders of Japan and South Korea visited Stanford, while the leaders of the United States and China were at Filoli Garden.