Homepage of Agatha Mallett

Portrait of Agatha Mallett holding a Utah Teapot.

Hello! I am Agatha Mallett, a computer graphics researcher focusing on mathematically correct rendering and light transport simulation.

I enjoy computer programming, especially data-oriented programming^[1] and low-level optimization, music composition and performance, electronics design, visual arts, creative writing, mathematics, philosophy, and scientifically 'hard' science-fiction.

Here, you'll find many of my various projects. This site may even be a helpful resource on some esoteric technical topic, or amuse those inclined to hacker-flavored intellectual soup.

Please enjoy your stay!

IRC

My name is Agatha S. Mallett, PhD—pronounced "AA-gah-tha ma-LET"^[2] (IPA: [ˈæː.gə.θə] [mɐːˈlɛt] or [məˈlɛt]). I was not named for Agatha Christie^[3], and don't call me "Aggie". On the net, I often go by "geometrian"^[4]. You may also have seen "agatha" (lowercase), or variations such as "__agatha". I have a younger sibling, father, and grandma.

I am a recent PhD graduate in Computer Science from the University of Utah, where my adviser was the wonderful Cem Yuksel. My undergraduate university was the University of New Mexico. At both, I worked as a research assistant and tutor / TA.

I am an old-school coder several decades too young to be old-school. I'm a hippie with a math degree, without the rehab. I speak (nearly) flawless English, horrible French, and a bit of Latin. I can also transliterate several hundred Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphics, common IPA, and to ASL. I have a black belt and a violin. I read and write old and new sci-fi and pontificate on consciousness. I write GPU path tracers for research and write compilers and operating systems for fun. I type 69 words per minute English and 91 tokens per minute C++. I've had dreams about semicola. My favorite foods are thai and indian, and should be spicy. I'm passionate about high-quality peanut butter the way other people have conniptions about celebrity fashion.

To help me in my research, life, and happiness (and to make me more likely to post / improve content here), please consider donating to my education and research (e.g. by the PayPal / Venmo links below)!

For licensing / usage of all content, please see this page.

Professional Links

Social Links

Contact

The best way to contact me is by Email or IRC (or Discord, if I know you).
(Please do not send images or large attachments by email; use a hosting service.)

In general, please feel free to contact me! I'm not scary! I especially want to be contacted for:

Research Collaboration: graphics professionals writing technical papers should definitely get in touch.
Corrections / Suggestions: e.g. a mistake / broken link on this website, an idea for an improvement, a tutorial request, etc.
Student Inquiries: questions from students in my classes, or learners of any age looking for guidance or mentoring with something relevant.
Usage and Citation: I like to know where my code ends up and who is using my research!

Press inquiries and open-ended personal questions will be entertained, too. I'm not likely to accept unsolicited job offers or contract work, but you can ask. (Hint: I often help my friends on Discord with small-scope programming / theory questions.)

"Link exchange" scuzziness will be shunned and shamed. Spam will be ignored and, if persistent, will be dealt with at the level of your ISP.

In terms of social networking, these days I am mostly only available on Discord. Twitter became awful and my Google+ deleted itself^[5]. Once upon a time, I had a Facebook, but then I decided it was evil and deleted it (I have been informed that Facebook counts this as 'unfriending' you; your ego can rest assured, I never unfriended anyone; I only left). However, I am present on any of the social links above, and I'll probably see pings on any of them.

Data-Dump

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/M/S d--(+)@? s+:->-- a? C++++$ UL(+)$>++++ P>++ L+(++)$ !E- W+++$ !N !o K? w !O !M-- !V-- PS++ PE-@ !Y+>++ !PGP-- t+ !5++ !X- !R* !tv-- b+(++)>+++ !DI !D-- G e*++++ h*+@?>++$ !r x?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

RPG stats (standard array):
STR=8, DEX=14, CON=12, INT=15, WIS=13, CHA=10

Age^[6]:
Height: ≈ 1.842 [m] / (6' 0.5")

Human Benchmark

Collaboration distances:
Erdős number: ≤ 4
Dijkstra: ≤ 4, Metropolis: ≤ 5, Morphy: ≤ 6^[7], Einstein: ≤ 6, Feynman ≤ 7, Bacon: ≤ ∞?^[8]

Graphics Programming webring: ⬅️➡️

Notes

[1]	As opposed to object-oriented programming, which I learned first but now use more sparingly.
[2]	Note that the first name is pronounced "AA-gah-tha" ([ˈæː.gə.θə]) and is spelled with an "a". It is not "a-GATH-a" or spelled with an "e", common errors no doubt influenced by ἀγαθή, the Greek source (meaning "good"). The last name is pronounced "ma-LET" ([mɐːˈlɛt]), with the stress on the second syllable, and it has two "t"s. It is not pronounced "MAL-it" or spelled with one "t", almost ubiquitous errors. The history of "Mallett" is apparently extensive. On my branch of the tree (modulo a few recent exceptions), the pronunciation and spelling have been this way for a long time, but in other branches it might be different. "Mallett" might derive from "Malo" or from "Mall", derive from a medieval warrior's fondness for his weapon, or most fun of all, mean "cursed". It seems to be an English name, though possibly ultimately of French origin.
[3]	Not for the fashion accessories brand, the martyr, nor the MCU character / TV show (whose existence I hate), either.
[4]	This comes from a Geometry paper I wrote in 8^th grade, which proved formative. The subject was the Approximate Construction of Regular Polygons.
[5]	As Google is wont to do with its products, it seems.
[6]	This correctly factors in leap years, but most online calculators do not, so take care if you want to use this (e.g. to calculate my birthday, which I'd also rather you didn't).
[7]	Via my father, who has ≤5, since he played against at least e.g. the following players with 4: Joshua Gutman, Alexandre Kretchetov, Emory Tate.
[8]	One time I was on (and won) a local TV science quiz show, but I doubt that amounts to any connection. Other than that, just home videos.