Jurij Waite

Personal Portfolio Website

About Me

Hey, I'm Jurij, a UC Berkeley undergrad studying physics and mathematics. I grew up in Berlin and love puzzles, problem-solving, and out-of-the-box thinking. You can find me on my github , linkedin , and, seldomly, twitter.

On the software engineering side of things, I am interested in computational physics, artificial inteligience, web development, and video game design! Aside from that I also enjoy playing chess, reading science fiction novels, star-gazing, making music, and watching old-school films.



Portfolio Excerpt

Redshift Mapping of Stars and Quasars in the Background of M31

As part of the Science Internship Program (SIP) at UC Santa Cruz, lead by Prof. Puragra and Roy Namrata, I worked in a team with two other interns over the course of 10 weeks. Using SPLASH survey data, we analyzed spectral emission lines of M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) background objects and cross-correlated them with template emission spectra. This was largeley done in jupyter, and extensively used numpy, pandas, and matplotlib.

N Double-Pendulum Simulation

Using numpy, matplotlib, and its animation features, this project simulates the evolution of N Double-Pendula. Initial conditions can be tweaked, such as angular velocity, pendulum-arm lengths, and air-resistance. Insipred by 3blue1brown's youtube series on differential equations, it is also possible to simulate a single double-pendulum along with its phase space trajectory. The idea is to show how slight changes to initial conditions result in vastly different outcomes - Chaos.

Maze Generator / Solver

Coded in python, this program takes an n * m grid and generates a maze. It then solves the maze using recursive backtracking. At every intersection (node) it makes a random decision on which path to take. Once it discovers that the current path cannot lead to the terminal node, it backtracks and attemts a new route. The algorithm's progress is visualized with the help of pygame.

Monte Carlo Simulation of the Ising Model

In collaboration with my classmate Varun Menon, I investigated the Ising Model for 1-D and 2-D lattices. To do so, we used the Metropolis Hastings Algorithm, alongwith Monte Carlo simulation techniques to simulate the evolution of spin of a lattice of electrons over time. We investigated differing types of lattice arrangements, different coupling types, as well as the effects of applying magnetic fields. We also produced many animations, which demonstrate a particular system's trajectory towards equilibrium.

Sudoku Solver

A visual sudoku solver, using pygame. Solves any solvable sudoku puzzle using the standard ruleset. Displays a 9x9 board to the user and visualizes the algorithm solving process step-by-step.