My name is Joseph (Joe) Bakarji. I'm an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut, where I teach intro to ML and ML for science, and I research problems at the intersection of data-driven equation discovery, mechatronic design of digital musical instruments, and complex systems modeling and simulation. I'm driven by questions you can find me wrestling with on my blog, and you can find the people who have joined me on this journey on the team page. I'm also a musician (pianist and composer/improviser) enjoying sounds across neo-classical, jazz, and arabic music on SoundCloud. I enjoy bringing together loosely related ideas, hence the background simulation: a piano-triggered game of life.