Hey! If you’re new here, I’m a 17-year-old design engineer, writer, and entrepreneur. Currently, I’m building tech for the Web3 and crypto space as well as writing poetry and applying to college :) Previously, I’ve built an app awarded by the U.S. Congress, been published in the New York Times, and won the World Series of Innovation for my fintech startup.
Pitching Our Web3 App at the Uber Global Hackathon
Since May of this year, I’ve been working on my next big project: Nexus. Nexus is a Web3 platform and social token launchpad for creators, businesses, and communities to create value together with their supporter base (you can read the project whitepaper here). Although I haven’t honed in on my exact “north star” yet, I’ve always been captivated by the idea for building for the next iteration of the internet (Web3 and the metaverse). This project feels like the next step in advancing that interest.
Then, in June through August, I gathered two of my friends (shoutout to Alexis and Mari!) to help me present the idea in the Uber Global Hackathon. We got together, filmed a pitch video, and had a Q&A in front of a live panel of judges, which got us all the way to the Global Finals. Definitely good validation for the project!
Next up, I’m working on gathering a team to advance the prototype and plan to dive deeper into the blockchain and crypto research required to bring this vision to life.
Generating AI Art with DALL•E 2 for My Upcoming Poetry Collection
If you’re even slightly an emerging tech nerd on the internet, you’ve probably heard of DALL•E 2, OpenAI’s new AI model which can create realistic images and art from a simple text description. A teddy bear dunking a basketball? You got it. A bowl of soup that’s a portal to another dimension? You can see that too. After being bombarded by articles and TikTok videos showing off DALL•E 2’s “magic”, I decided to sign up for the waitlist and try it for myself.
A little background: I’m finishing off my term as the inaugural OC Youth Poet Laureate and have been working on publishing a poetry zine. Traditionally, poetry zines are often enhanced by art — yet while I feel comfortable doing the graphic and editorial design, the only art I could offer was a couple of stick figures. So I decided to get AI’s help.
After getting access to DALL•E 2’s private beta, I pulled an all-nighter to learn the art of writing prompts to generate illustrations that match my poems. After days of trial-and-error generation (trust me, there were some messy results) and some help from photoshop, I had a full set of artwork to go along with the collection. The zine is getting published this month!
If you’re interested in learning more about the implications behind this tech, Cleo Abram has a really thought-provoking Youtube video covering DALL•E 2 and the fight over AI art.
Starting at The Knowledge Society (TKS)
September also marks the official start of The Knowledge Society (TKS), which is a program with “Olympic-level training for the next generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, and innovators.” I applied earlier in the year and got accepted with the TKS Unicorn Scholarship, which is only awarded to 20 students. After chatting with many TKS alums and seeing the cool work that students were doing, I couldn’t wait to join the community. In just four sessions, we’ve covered everything from artificial intelligence and “the next big thing” to unconventional thinking and the mindset behind high standards.
I’m so energized by the ambitious, talented people I’ve met and am thrilled for the opportunities to come. Huge shoutout to Steven and Aatik for being the best directors ever!
Snippets :·゚
Monthly favorites & media that I’m consuming
📖 Currently reading: Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, 1984 by George Orwell (for my 20th Century Dystopian Fiction class)
🎥 Film & television: The Sandman (Netflix), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
🎧 Podcast: How to Build a Metaverse, Part 1: Genesis (The Journal)
🧠 Articles/Vids: Startups: Why a Story Will Make You Stand Out (Pat Vieljeux), Figma's $20B, 10 Year Overnight Success (Garry Tan), Idea Labs and Echo Chambers (Tim Urban)
Next Month
In October, I have a poetry reading in Los Angeles for the Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Prize, am frantically finishing up my early action college applications, and will be going to homecoming. See you then 👋
💡 Where to find me: LinkedIn • Website • Twitter • Instagram
Some amazing stuff you're doing Tina!!!