Hi there! As mentioned on the home page, my name is Bel Ami (/bellamy/), and I'm a junior at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar studying Computer Science with minors in Mathematical Sciences and Business Administration.

I'm currently working with Prof. Hasan Demirkorparan on research focused on improving solvers for boundary value problems (BVPs).

When I'm not studying or holding OHs (which is not terribly often), I enjoy listening to classical music, history podcasts, and keeping up with world news. I'm also learning piano through a studio elective, which is... a work in progress.

Academic Interests

Academically, I’ve always leaned towards maths — it just clicks, and I genuinely enjoy it. Before university, that became clear when I ranked top six in Rwanda and represented the country at the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad (Honorable Mention) and the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2022.

Then came the inevitable “what should I study at uni?” question. I was keen on maths/engineering, but in Rwanda there’s a common belief that pure maths leads mainly to teaching, which many see as limiting. I chose Computer Science, figuring I’d still get the maths I love without narrowing my options.

Somewhere along the way, I was drawn into finance. You can blame The Wolf of Wall Street and HBO’s Industry if you like, but it went beyond that. The best surprise was discovering that the BVPs I’m working on also appear in financial models such as the Black-Scholes equation — that genuinely made my day. So now, if I’m honest, algorithmic game theory, mathematical modelling and quant analysis are where I’m hoping to end up, though I’m keeping my options open.

I’m also considering grad school (master’s for now) — a Ph.D. hasn’t quite persuaded me yet.

Books

I'm not really into reading new books these days, but these ones have stuck with me—I like going back to them:

  • Animal Farm, by George Orwell
  • The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
  • The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
  • Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, by Jeffrey Zaslow and Randy Pausch
  • A Mathematician's Apology, by G. H. Hardy

Hopefully this list will expand in the future.

Music

I mentioned earlier that I'm into classical music. Here are some pieces I keep coming back to:

  1. Waloyo Yamoni, by Christopher Tin
  2. Nelle Tue Mani, by Andrea Bocelli
  3. Bocelli's classics: O Sole Mio, Libiamo, Funiculì Funiculà
  4. Zadok the Priest, by Handel
  5. Classical instrumentals by Beethoven and Bach

There's something about these that just works.

Above is me, and I'd love to hear from you! Whether you want to talk about anything I mentioned above, share ideas, or just have a chat—I'm all ears.