Builder · Experimenter · Synthesizer

Yiran
Fan

范奕然

I work at the edge of disciplines, where obvious tools run out and you have to build your own from first principles.

My method is deliberate experimentation. My instinct is to find the connections between fields that don't usually talk to each other, then build something from the gap.

Cognitive Neuroscience · Artificial Intelligence · Statistical Inference · Feminism Open to conversations
Work

Experiments & projects

Experimentation Platform Causal Inference · Systems
2026
Pottery Diary Tool · Concept
2026
Predictive Modeling of Neural Information Flow Computational Neuroscience · Course Project
2025
Coverage Path Planning: Vacuum Robot Reinforcement Learning · Course Project
2025
Optimizing LLMs for CPU Inference ML Systems · Course Project
2024
LLMs in Mental Health Diagnosis Digital Mental Health · NLP
2024
Person-Specific Right PFC Organization Computational Neuroscience · Thesis
2023
Personal

Life outside the work

"I'm drawn to ideas that take a long time to understand. The kind that quietly reshape how you see something you thought was settled."

I notice things slowly: how a room feels when people leave it, the exact way someone phrased something. I think in systems but feel in specifics.

I'm an INFJ in the most practical sense. I process a lot internally, care deeply about what and who I give attention to, and tend to connect things across domains before I can explain why.

I've been doing pottery for a little over a year. Every piece carries the decisions you made along the way: a wobble from throwing, a mark from trimming, a glaze that broke differently than expected. You learn to slow down and notice what's actually there, not what you want to see. And to accept that.

Right now
Reading All About Love: New Visions
Thinking about The gap between what AI can simulate and what it can't touch
Into lately Gardening (succulents), throwing pots for them; brewing kombucha
Listening to Sonic Youth, 海马星球 Seahorse Planet (podcast)
Based in Los Angeles, CA
Photo journal click to enlarge
Outdoors04 photos
Smoky Mountains 2022
Smoky Mountains
Snow Lake 2024
Snow Lake
Lassen Volcanic 2024
Lassen
Joshua Tree 2025
Joshua Tree
Pottery04 photos
Something for candy
For candy
Something for decorations
For decorations
Something for drinks
For drinks
Something I'm currently obsessed with
Recent obsession
Furry Friends04 photos
Mocha first day home
First day home
Mocha sunbathing
Sunbathing
Mocha's favorite blanket
Blanket nap
Cheese (family cat) and cheese bag
Cheese
Moments04 photos
Don't step on the M!
Don't step on the M
June 2025
Me
(Part of) my awesome stats cohort
Awesome stats cohort
Stats cohort normal distribution
Normal dist.

Let's think
together.

Good conversations are an experiment too. I'm interested in people who are building something, questioning something, or sitting with a problem that doesn't have an obvious shape. Reach out.