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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 04/09/2026

THE MOST important open question in list decoding of error-correcting codes, whether explicit Reed-Solomon codes are list decodable beyond Guruswami-Sudan's famous breakthrough is now resolved! Congrats to the team, including my amazing student Yeyuan Chen. #Proud eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/2026/...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 06/05/2026

Very proud of my awesome student Nikhil Shagrithaya @nikhilshagri.bsky.social for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis! This is a culmination of great work on challenging core questions in coding theory. Nikhil's research has been published in top CS venues, including FOCS and STOC conferences.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 27/02/2026

Related to this, Nature considers the University of Michigan the #4 in the US: www.nature.com/nature-index...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 26/02/2026

Time ranks the University of Michigan #9 in the world and the #1 public university in the US! time.com/7358185/top-...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 31/01/2026

Rasool Jalili, a former president of Sharif Univ, is now sanctioned by the EU for abusing his academic role "for serious human rights violations in Iran." Once again, he has tainted the reputation of Sharif & has effectively destroyed his own academic career. www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 09/04/2025

Sorry, but I don't see much sympathy there. There's a generic boilerplate opening paragraph reiterating the subject line, followed by some information that ChatGPT could also generate. I can't identify any meaningful link between the subject line and the content.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 09/04/2025

When the President of the United States uses graphic language:

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 03/04/2025

Right. Looks like the Save element doesn't have a fallback font, and for some reason Google Chrome doesn't use "Google Sans" at all, so it shows as serif for Save and different-looking kinds of Sans for other elements. Odd.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 03/04/2025

Huh, oddly looks like Chrome uses the wrong font family for everything.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 03/04/2025

Is this when you Google search for a place? This is what I get in Brave browser. Install Google Sans and see if it helps? font.download/font/google-...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 29/03/2025

“US warns French companies they must comply with Trump's diversity ban.” www.reuters.com/world/us-war...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 27/03/2025

Keep in mind the composition of Board of Regents, though. At least two of them are anti-DEI and Trump's demands have only given them the excuse. That's why many other universities comply with Trump but at the same time establish offices doing exactly the same thing (example below) but UM hasn't yet.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 27/03/2025

U of Michigan almost completely *obliterated* all DEI activities with one email. It's hard to describe what an abysmal leadership this is. Absolutely shameful doesn't begin to describe this. The only thing we have left now seems to be scholarships (which for a public university isn't to brag about).

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 21/03/2025

Kudos to CRYPTO 2025 for leading the way in making such a policy official: crypto.iacr.org/2025/

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 20/03/2025

UK government's travel advisory adds a new warning regarding travel of UK citizens to the US (as of last week, according to Internet Archive): www.gov.uk/foreign-trav...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 20/03/2025

This is the first thing you're "greeted" with when you log into your USCIS account these days:

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 20/03/2025

USCIS is now revoking APPROVED green card petitions (image from social media). I-140 is the more important of the two petitions (the other being I-485) involved in obtaining a green card, and that is where the "merit" is assessed.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 05/03/2025

I have now obtained a recording of the relevant segment.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 04/03/2025

Right after Trump's inauguration, U. Michigan College of Engineering updated its webpages to propose changing its values (that includes DEI). They've already removed banners on campus that mention DEI (attached). This is the beginning of the end of academic freedom. strategicvision.engin.umich.edu

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 10/02/2025

From a UC Berkeley presentation: spo.berkeley.edu/policy/fa_pr...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 06/02/2025

Proof-by-pizza that the area of a circle is radius*circumference/2 is very popular but also wrong w/o more work. The "simple" proof doesn't distinguish between a jaggedy and smooth circle, which have the same area but different circumferences. @veritasium.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgGr...

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 30/01/2025

It was a part of the now-rescinded memo so was to be expected one way or another.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 04/12/2024

Good to see that my dry humor is recognized by an expert in dry delivery: blueskyroast.com/roast/mahdi.ch

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 03/12/2024

This seems true. But when I ask ChatGPT to extract the binary, it outputs bit strings which in ASCII read weird, such as: "film generator greendirector.bin for anyprofession green.binrun dataplatform.binfrom anyapname." What's going on :)

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 01/12/2024

I always tell my students that, especially for theory research, doing research is in many ways like driving. By default, you must maintain a long-range focus on the end of the road. If your attention is mainly on the immediate steps ahead, you're going to crash. The big picture is what matters most.

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𝖬𝖺𝗁𝖽𝗂 𝖢𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝗁𝖼𝗁𝗂 @mahdi.ch · 30/10/2024

He was an incredible person, a great friend with a beautiful mind. I could listen to him for hours and lose track of time. We will miss you, Steven. Rest in peace.

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