Rhys Goldstein

Picture of Rhys

Welcome

I'm a programmer with a bachelor's degree in applied science from the Engineering Physics Department at the University of British Columbia. I worked at SJ Geophysics for a few years, developing software and conducting geophysical surveys in Oman, Alaska, Tasmania, Cyprus, and other parts of the world. I then completed a master's degree program in biomedical engineering in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. I currently work at Autodesk Research.

This website discusses my involvement with... Here's my resume.

You can get in touch with me at rhys@rhysgoldstein.com.

Programming Language Design

I've been designing a programming language on and off for several years now. My idea is that programmers can develop software using mathematical notation instead of ASCII code, and that doing so would make programs easier to understand, more reliable, etc.

This document, which presents a solution to the n-Queens problem using my notation, will give you a sense of what I have in mind.

A more in-depth discussion of my idea is titled "On the Unification of Mathematical Notation and Programming Notation".

In 2007 I designed the Caltha Language Website to document my programming language. I now consider "Caltha" to be out of date, as I prefer the "Unified Notations" described in the preceding two documents.

The reason why I abandoned "Caltha" is described by this page, "How Mathematical Formulas can be Organized".

Please do email me if any of this interests you. I haven't completely given up on the idea of writing an interpreter or compiler.

Biomedical Engineering

After 3.5 years in the mining industry, I returned to academia to pursue an interest in biomedical engineering. My research focused on two areas: the dynamic simulation of 3D deformable biological structures such as proteins and membranes, and the design of biological models in general using a modeling formalism called DEVS.

On the right is a simulation of a presynaptic nerve terminal. A signal propagating through a nerve cell ends up at one of these compartments. The green things are synaptic vesicles. They release chemicals that transmit the signal to an adjacent nerve cell. Simulations like these may help biologists predict how various chemicals and proteins will interact in the human brain.

More information can be found here.

Changing the topic, here's an essay about patents I wrote for an ethics course. It focuses mostly on patented antiretroviral medication for HIV.

Other Interests

Right now, for fun, I mostly play soccer. At one time or another I have been into rock climbing, hiking/backpacking, competitive swimming, waterpolo, dragonboat, and chess.

In 2008, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) hosted a contest to find a new theme song for "Hockey Night in Canada". Here's the song I wrote for the contest. (You can check out the winning entry on Youtube.)