Personal website and blog of Nikesh Gyawali - Postdoctoral Fellow at Kansas State University working on large language models, NLP, and machine learning.https://gnikesh.github.io/en-ushttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/catan-map-generator/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/catan-map-generator/How a simple question while playing Catan - could I generate balanced boards automatically? - became a production-grade generator, built over a weekend using an AI vibe-coding workflow with Claude Code.Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/docker-notes-app/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/docker-notes-app/A hands-on Dockerized backend platform with a production-ready microservices architecture - two independent Express/MongoDB services behind an Nginx reverse proxy, with clear service boundaries, isolated networks, and environment parity from development to deployment.Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/from-tweets-to-takes-training-an-ai-to-read-the-gun-control-debate/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/from-tweets-to-takes-training-an-ai-to-read-the-gun-control-debate/We created GUNSTANCE, the first publicly available machine-learning dataset focused purely on the "banning guns" and "regulating guns" sides of the debate, plus a hybrid self-training + LLM method that reads brand-new conversations as they unfold.Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/method-of-least-squares/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/method-of-least-squares/When there are more equations than unknowns, there is usually no exact solution. The method of least squares - introduced by Adrien-Marie Legendre in 1805 while studying the orbits of comets - tells us how to find the best solution by minimizing the total squared error.Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/gpu-monitoring-app-with-django/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/gpu-monitoring-app-with-django/A tiny GPU monitoring web app built with Django and gpustat that shows real-time GPU usage, memory, and active processes per user - handy in shared research labs and clusters.Sun, 13 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/importance-of-statistics-in-science-hypothesis-test/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/importance-of-statistics-in-science-hypothesis-test/Statistics is the backbone of scientific research - from designing robust studies and sampling to hypothesis testing with p-values and significance levels. This article walks through the key elements of study design and the process of hypothesis testing.Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/privacy-preserving-deep-learning-how-gans-and-differential-privacy-work-together/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/privacy-preserving-deep-learning-how-gans-and-differential-privacy-work-together/GANs can generate useful synthetic data, and differential privacy adds a mathematical guarantee that no individual leaks from the training set. Together they enable collaborative, privacy-preserving deep learning - here is how.Tue, 11 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/a-blog-post-about-life/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/a-blog-post-about-life/The entire blog post below was generated by GPT-3. I was learning about OpenAI transformer-based language models and was astonished by how powerful they are, so I decided to see if one could write a post for me.Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/my-favorite-2021-books/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/my-favorite-2021-books/I read a lot in 2021. Here are five books I really loved: Educated by Tara Westover, The Body by Bill Bryson, Think Again by Adam Grant, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and Deep Work by Cal Newport.Thu, 13 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/book-the-5-am-club/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/book-the-5-am-club/My takeaways from The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma - an inspiring book that teaches the 20/20/20 rule for transforming your mornings, and my attempt to actually follow it.Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/tail-recursive-nth-fibonacci-number/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/tail-recursive-nth-fibonacci-number/How to compute the nth Fibonacci number efficiently using tail recursion in Standard ML and Python - reducing exponential time complexity to linear and stack space from linear to constant.Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/maximum-subsequence-sum-of-an-array/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/maximum-subsequence-sum-of-an-array/Solving the maximum (contiguous) subsequence sum problem in Python from a slow brute-force O(n^3) approach down to an elegant linear-time algorithm that also returns the subsequence itself.Sun, 07 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://gnikesh.github.io/blog/from-i-cant-quit-vim-to-i-cant-live-without-it/https://gnikesh.github.io/blog/from-i-cant-quit-vim-to-i-cant-live-without-it/How I went from fearing Vim to making it my daily driver for a full year, plus a practical guide to the modes, the key commands, customization, and the gotchas that trip up every newcomer.Sun, 11 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMT