@marimeireles






I care about effectively employing my efforts in ways that will improve the world.

I research coordination within dynamic systems. I use a lot of ideas from the areas of reinforcement learning and complex systems.

I am seeking opportunities to work with organizations that are uplifting to the world.

I've worked as a software engineer for several years now, most of my work was within open-source organizations, and I'm mostly active in the open science ecosystem. I have contributed to projects such as Farama's Petting Zoo (previously OpenAI gym ecosystem), PyScript, Jupyter, PySide, Mozilla Webcompat, Qt, Firefox, whynot, conda-forge, and many others.

I am a member of the DISC NumFOCUS steering committee and a collaborator of the Open Knowledge Foundation as an Expert.

In the past, I served as a member of the Jupyter committee and as a subject matter expert for NASA, developing a course aimed at providing guidance for scientists on practicing open science. I've also taught open science and software classes to graduate students at Harvard through the LSSTC-DSFP program and at several other conferences, meetups, and groups. I'm also grateful for the Jupyter community having recognized me as a distinguished contributor.

You can have an overview of my software work by looking at my GitHub profile. A more concise list of my previous work experience can be found on my LinkedIn.

I think communicating ideas is very important, so I try to write about software in my personal blog "Do Cyborgs Dream of Bionic Sheep?" and on my Medium page.

You can access my talks, workshops, classes, and podcasts at this link and check out my hack projects that I tackle alone or with friends here.

If you're a tech recruiter, please respond to these two quick questions, and I will get back to you!

coordination:

I'm a Cooperative AI researcher. I'm interested in improving our understanding of dynamic systems and agents within these environments that are able to develop cooperative interactions. These systems are frequently found at the intersection of complex systems and multi-agent reinforcement learning.

The reason why I care about furthering this area of research is because I believe it can directly improve people's lives, be it in increasing cooperation between political and economic agents or in improving coordination among machines and humans.

In BarfussLab, I'm modeling agents in repeated general-sum game scenarios using reinforcement learning dynamics. You can have a detailed overview of the research progress by checking this document. Or if you prefer a shorter version you can read the long abstract: Navigating the Complexity of AI Cooperation: From Learning Dynamics to Language Models.

I have a research blog where I write about my experiments and I also write about my research in the form of more-or-less structured notes here.

poverty alleviation:

I'm currently enrolled in MIT's MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy because I hope to gain a better understanding on how to be more effective about supporting and developing poverty alleviation policies. I'm interested in ways of decreasing the inequality gap, paying special attention to people living in extreme poverty. I think about running tech internship projects in the global south while having a fitting pedagogical ethos, teaching farmers about permaculture and supporting them with an NGO and increasing internet access in the world.

open knowledge:

I'm driven by meaning and I find a lot of significance and love in the open/libre internet. Liberating knowledge and fostering cultural and scientific development deeply resonates with many of my personal principles and working towards making the digital world more accessible and comfortable for all is a very fulfilling mission to me.

My main form of action on this front has been the advocacy of both the ethos and the practice of open source and open science.

governance:

Increasing interoperability and people's agency in a world of machines and humans. I keep some notes here.

I found out the way I learn the best is by having the support of a community. Do you want to learn something together? Send me a message! If you want, you can also send me anonymous feedback here.

  • Intentional co-living: I'm starting an intentional community in Berlin. It's loosely centered around hacker-house, music making, scientific and spiritual exploration and just being a huge nerd. If you are interested, please send me an email introducing yourself.

  • Supper and salon:I host dinners and salons in Berlin. Themes we talked about include "The limits of free speech", "Spirituality and rituals", "Rethinking future socio-economic structures and institutions", "How to be moral", etc. If you are a Berliner or a passer-by and would like to join we welcome first-timers, just send me an email!

  • Buddhism: I practice Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhism. I'm really interested in several facets of it: from meditation to the embodiment of yidams to the beautiful ceremonies and practices. I'm part of an Aro sangha in Berlin and you're welcome to join us if you're interested and respectful. I'm not religious myself, but thankfully this branch is very permissive. I'm also curious to explore other Vajrayana branches.

  • Books: I love reading and discussing things I learn. Do you want to read together? Check my reading list, maybe we can chill in a cafe or park and share our thoughts after a reading session.

  • Light installation and vjing: It's really fun to be the girl taking care of lights at events. I've built my own DMX controller, and I'm somewhat versed in being scrappy with electronics. I also try to be artsy with Touch Designer, I mainly focus on interactive art. Check some of my toes. Here's a link for a portfolio I'm building. I'm open for hire and to collaborate in this kind of work.

  • Drawing: I'm a beginner tattoo artist. I tattoo myself and friends. To me, this is a very special practice and one of the few things that are sacred to me. I'm open to tattoing new people, if you're interested, send me an email. I also know the basics of painting with spray, and I want to learn more, I would very much like to learn together. I also want to improve in watercolor and drawing, for that I like to go out on small friend dates and paint in the park.

  • AI art*: In the past, I've experimented with GANs and created some cool tattoo designs. I've also worked with story telling and agent-based modeling LLMs. Would love to collaborate with artists as a software engineer! For more of my AI projects check my Behance.

  • Music: Music theory, music producing (mainly electronic but also interested in analog jams), djing, foxdot(and similar shenanigans). I play the guitar and sing a bit, trying to be better at my Bossa Nova. Also looking for riot grrrls to play some punk rock with.

  • Flow: Poi, hula-hoop, fire flow, yoga. Anything flowey, I'm always looking for people to share these practices with.

  • Bouldering: I practice every other day in a gym in Berlin. If you're also a climber, let's meet up someday and climb together!

I support several causes: ethical open source, animal liberation, the decrease in animal-based products consumption, investing in carbon offsets to decrease my CO2 footprint, leveraging democracy through open democratic practices, post meritocracy in my engineering work context, combating disinformation on the Web, AI alignment, open access to knowledge, empowering people to overcome poverty using a) non-traditional methods of pedagogy, b) land redistribution coupled with permaculture and community building in rural contexts c) offering OSS opportunities through internships and mentoring d) respecting people's agency over their own economical future through donating money directly to them.

These are some of the projects I support:

  • Women of Color Code: This program seeks to unite WoC and other members of minoritized groups to battle feelings of isolation and marginalization that are prevalent in educational institutions and industry settings. Women of Color Code is an initiative funded by AstroPy. I offer 1:1 mentorships, workshops, and webinars. I also co-organize the group. If you're interested in either becoming a mentor or offering webinars for our group, get in touch! We offer monetary compensations to our contributors!
  • ReDI: In response to the refugee crisis, the ReDI School was founded: a vocational training program teaching digital skills to migrants and locals. I currently help as a mentor, but you could be a teacher of software or design, or if you have good organizational skills, you can help folks with the administration of the school!
  • PyLadies Berlin: The global PyLadies mentorship group has a focus on helping more women become active participants and leaders in the Python open-source community with the mission to promote, educate and advance a diverse Python community through outreach, education, conferences, events and social gatherings. PyLadies aims to provide a friendly support network for women and a bridge to the larger Python world. I'm helping to organize the group. You can join the meetup group, organize talks or classes. Hit me up and we'll figure out something together. Disclaimer: we don't care about your gender :) just come!
  • Frauen Loop: FrauenLoop offers a diverse network of women tech professionals who train motivated, women-identified persons in computer programming. There are many ways to help, from software to administration work.

I believe women have the right to have full control over their own bodies:

  • Doctors in Germany are not allowed to post factual information on abortions on their websites. Other websites are allowed to post this information, though. Frag Den Staat is currently providing resources on the subject in German, English, and Turkish.

  • Women on Waves is a Dutch nongovernmental organization created in 1999 by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts in order to bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services and education, to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. If the value of their products is inaccessible to you, I want to help, send me an email.

*AI art:

  • I believe it's hard to throttle technological development, which is not always good for our culture, institutions, and people. However, I also believe it's quite possible to harness these technologies in an ethical and uplifting way.