Banzhaf Power in Hierarchical Games

For my thesis in applied math & computer science, I introduced an algorithm to calculate the Banzhaf Power Index in a hierarchical voting game with a runtime of O(NS 2S), where N is the number of players in the game and S is the branching factor in the game tree, an exponential improvement over the standard naive algorithm, which has runtime O(N2 2N). I then applied the algorithm to 2 examples: French Senate elections and the importance of words in determining positive or negative sentiment in language.

This work was published as part of AAMAS (International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems) 2024.

Bradshaw for US Senate: Live Turnout Tracking

In 2020, I worked as a Bluebonnet data fellow supporting two campaigns: Bradshaw for US Senate and Alaina 2020 (House of Representatives). Campaigns ramp up before the elction like sports teams ramp up before nationals, so I spent the week before election day in a hotel room in Memphis - the longest time I've ever gone without seeing the sun. Another other college student (Eddie) and I built a live turnout tracking map for election day. By Tennessee state law, someone can ask for vote turnout totals every two hours at a polling station, so we had volunteers spaced out across the state taking measurements every two hours and feeding them into a google form, which then was transformed by spreadsheet logic and python and magic into a live, interactive turnout tracker. This map extrapolated turnout across the state and estimated the result of the election based primarly on (a) historical voting patterns and (b) the relative turnout of our 7 key counties versus the rest of the state. We were able to call the election before the news stations, which was at the same time gratifying and depressing.

An Algorithmic Approach to Power in Forming Coalition Governments

For my thesis in Behavioral Decision Sciences, I examined voting power in forming coalition governemnts in Germany, Japan, and the UK through the lens of the Banzhaf Power Index. I chose these three countries because they have different electoral systems (first-past-the-post, mixed-member proportional, and parrallel voting). There were several differences between the distribution of power in the three countries but in each, power correlated with seat share and vote share but was much more volatile, leading to disparate effects on political parties.

SNL Host-Hider

I don't like knowing who the SNL host is before I watch the show. Usually I do a good job of avoiding spoilers on youtube or social media, but NBC.com presents a unique challenge as I need to click through their site to load up the episode itself. As a solution, I made a Chrome extension that hides SNL-host-spoiler related content on NBC.com without blocking any functionality involved in actualy playing the episode.

GrantLindsley.com

My good friend Grant Lindsley published a wonderful memoir about his six months as a silent monk in Thailand. Check it out - it's worth a read. I made this website for him and his book. See if you can find the easter egg.

Brown Dining Alert

In 2019 I got tired of looking at the menu of each of Brown's 7 dining halls to see if they had my favorite foods, so I built a chrome extension to do it for me.

Driver's License application redesign

In the spring of 2019 I worked for the Brown Policy Lab, which was consulted by government entities who wanted to make life easier for their constituents using data- and psychology-driven insights. We redesigned the Rhode Island state driver's license application and presented our proposal to the RI Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Revenue.

Tax Calculator

A simple calculator that tells you where your taxes go.