hi! i'm mutammim [he/him], an 18-year-old from toronto, canada. i like to make things & learn about the world around me. below is a non-exhaustive list of things i care about!
organizing out-of-the-box events 🪅
i spent the first half of 2024 organizing Apocalypse, the high school hackathon where 150 teens built tech to survive the zombie apocalypse. my role was project manager + funding & venue + myriad sprinkles of everything else. we hosted it from May 17–19, 2024 at Shopify's Toronto office. participants created everything from peashooters to home security systems, while taking the bottle-cap based economy very seriously — to the extent of inflation and angel investors!
for years, i yearned to run an epic high school hackathon. Apocalypse was the fruition of that dream, more grand that i could’ve ever imagined. i am thankful for my teammates Acon, Arav, Shayaan, Ryan, Greg, Sam, Sarvesh, Evelyn, and Vivian, as well as the staff at Hack Club and Shopify, for their work in making Apocalypse happen!
if you're organizing your own wacky, nerd-oriented event, feel free to reach out — i'd love to hear about your work!
making software đź’ľ
when i was a wee lad, i stumbled upon Khan Academy's ProcessingJS course and was entranced by the magic of coding. i have not let go since! you may peruse the projects on my GitHub profile.
one of my latest projects is Adobe Brainrot, which i created at Hack the 6ix 2024 with James and Connie. it's an Adobe Express add-on that analyzes your design and outputs a TikTok-ready video roasting it, Subway Surfers gameplay and all. (i am embarrassed by the density of spaghetti code and frequency of OpenAI API calls…)
this semester (fall 2024), i'm looking forward to strengthening my OOP knowledge, delving into Computer Organization, and creating context-free grammars in Chomsky normal form based on production rules. beyond that, i'd like to engineer more projects that i care about :)
bettering tech's impact on humans ✨
from societal shifts to psychological impacts, i find tech's impact on humans to be fascinating — and at times, scary. it is something i reflect on and enjoy learning about.
in spring 2023, as part of organizing my high school's inaugural Model UN conference, i chaired the "Age of AI" committee! ~20 teenagers (almost none of whom had prior knowledge on AI) modelled prominent tech figures and engaged in thoughtful discussions on AI policy. they even tackled a rogue AGI in a surprise crisis scenario!
in spring 2024, i took a splendid philosophy course on the human impact of technology throughout history. one memorable takeaway was how today's challenges — from ai art to social media — hold parallels with yesterday's, such as the advent of radio.
looking forward, i'm interested in creating the products and policies needed to make tech — when it is used and makes sense to be used — a healthier force in society.
creative endeavours (allegedly) 🎨
i want to be that guy who can express ideas & stories with charm, whimsy, aesthetics, and that je ne sais quoi. this academic year (2024–2025), i'm diving into a course on writing! i'd also like to dabble further with illustration, UI/UX design, and other ways of combining the arts with technology.
if you’re disappointed by the sheer length of this section, check back in 8.46 months, for i may have a few creations to showcase…
miscellaneous items 🔡
reading, voraciously, especially blogs! i most avidly read the genres of “what tech is doing to humans” and “people my age figuring out life”. i do also like actual books, YouTube videos, and podcasts! nevertheless, i'm trying to keep my consumption:creation balanced 🫡
public transit! i appreciate a strong transit network's ability to make more of my neighbourhood, city, and region accessible to me by using speed to compress space…without the footprint of gargantuan highways. GO Expansion lives rent-free in my head.
pretty VS Code themes! against my MacBook's crispy display, i contend that an aesthetically-pleasing theme makes me more productive…or at least happier? i usually swap between GitHub Light, Synthwave '84, and Dracula Refined, paired with the Monaspace font superfamily, though i’m also fond of Cascadia Code.
sunrises, sunsets, and the joy of running down the streets of toronto! my long-term goal is walk every street & take every ttc route, with the intention of familiarizing myself with every sidewalk and corner. if all goes well, i shall become google maps in human flesh.
at this moment, i've completed 28% of my Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science at York University, where i am lucky enough to study almost anything that piques my interest! about half of my courses are in Computer Science, with the other half being a potpourri of everything from Philosophy to Cognitive Science to Psychology to Writing to Digital Media to those really random courses that you would’ve never thought existed, but fall in love with once you enrol.
if i sound like an interesting person to talk to! or someone you want to hire (please)! or you just have something interesting to share! please email me :) click here to copy my email address to your clipboard. i love meeting new people! have a wonderful rest of your day.