Polsky Research Fellow, 2026
Nicholas Chin is a second year undergraduate majoring in math and computer science. His main academic interests are in machine learning. This summer, he worked with Professor Dorian Abbot using reinforcement learning to design interventions for controlling atmospheric models. His role was working on the Lorenz-63 system and applying reinforcement learning towards controlling chaos in the system.
“I learned about what it’s like to work with others on a large research project and also got the opportunity to gain experience in conducting applied machine learning research. I had taken a few classes on machine learning during my time at UChicago, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to conduct research in the field before. By working on this project which combined machine learning with dynamical systems, I was able to apply skills I’ve picked up in both the computer science and math classes I’ve taken here.”