Hey yall!

I figure it’s about time to post about my first public hobby project, Sagitta. It started as a local copy of varkor’s quiver that I edited by hand to make tweaks here and there: maybe a UI edit one day, a keybinding tweak the next, an Electron wrapper after that, etc. Eventually it became interesting enough to put a bit more time into, and with access to LLMs, I could finally make more substantial edits.

I won’t claim that Sagitta is in any way better than quiver. I’ve used quiver for years, and the community behind it is capable of amazing things. Put simply, Sagitta wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t loved quiver first.

The name “sagitta” is Latin for “arrow”. It’s a bit on the nose, but fitting nonetheless.

The keybindings work Vim-ish, with heavy emphasis on the ish. This is because I am an Emacs user and only learned Vim later. The design aims to be efficient at editing diagrams, but, because I’m just one person, my taste isn’t even close to universal. So, there are settings to customise the keybindings to your liking.

The biggest behaviour change you can make out of the box is toggling spreadsheet mode. By default, the command layer is latched on and you have to press RET to enter label edits, as in quiver. In spreadsheet mode, if you’re not pressing a special key, keystrokes go directly to label edits and you have to press ; to enter the command menu.

If you want to see it work rather than read about it, there’s a walkthrough of that diagram key by key.

Future plans

The next update is going to be mostly ergonomics and polish. Now that it’s functional and at least a few friends are interested in using it, I’m just going to keep my office door open in case anyone swings by to complain about it. If you have any complaints, big or small, do feel free to email me!

The next feature update will probably be presets and templates. I have to type spectral sequences every now and then, and quick setups for those, for exact sequences, and for chain complexes would be nice. The command line, accessed through :, could have commands like :ss, :exact left, or :cc. Maybe there’ll be a few well-known lemmas and examples as well.

Bigger plans are in store. The general format is rich with potential in my opinion, and I have an unreleased graph theory version that actually kinda works. It needs some tweaks, but eventually, I want to combine it and Sagitta into one engine with different programs lying overtop. I’d love to do a knot theory one and a more general-purpose editor based on the same interface, but I’m working on my PhD. Projects come as I need them, so graphs and commutative diagrams are the first on the docket.

Best,
Hailey

Hey yall!

I promise this isn't meant to become a travel blog, but... this is once again about a trip! This time, I went to Eugene for a conference and then stayed with my aunt and uncle in Portland.

I was pleasantly surprised at the temperature. Even in August, it was chilly enough to want a hoodie at times. With Baton Rouge consistently above 110 in the heat index, it was deeply refreshing to be able to walk outside comfortably. The nature was similarly stunning, and walking along the Willamette River was lovely. All in all, I think Eugene might be one of my favourite places in the world.

As with all of my trips, I'm really happy about all the folks I got to meet. I made new friends and connections, and had a really wonderful dinner with all the conference attendees! Scott, I'll submit a pull request soon, I promise. The University of Oregon was itself beautiful, and, while under extensive construction and revitalisation, is among the prettiest campuses I've seen.

Portland was similarly pleasant. I have rather severe food allergies, but every place was either accommodating or simply vegan and fortunately devoid of peanuts. I particularly enjoyed getting my morning coffee and muffin at Jet Black. If you find yourself in the area, show them some love! Additionally, I somehow managed to survive a burger at McMenamins; moreover, it was a pretty good burger!

Parts of the city were very strange to someone from the South. The city is organised around neighbourhoods, each with their own "main street" area. Walking and biking seemed to be sufficient for daily life rather than just as exercise.

My favourite place in the city, however, was the International Rose Test Garden. Roses are my favourite flower (check the site favicon!) and one finds oneself surrounded by a menagerie of rose variants, each more beautiful than the last.

Rosebush-laced arches

Clear blue skies over the garden

Rosebush winding around a lamppost

Pink roses hit with a powerful lens flare

Mottled pink roses

Red flowers

A white rose

Best,
Hailey

Hey yall!

I recently returned from yet another summer adventure! This time, I was up at Haverford College, TA'ing for an REU. It was sponsored by Budapest Semesters in Mathematics and the professor for our group was the brilliant (and extremely friendly) Josh Sabloff. Everyone in the group was beyond wonderful; shout-out to Peter Ahlin, Catherine DiLeo, Olivia McGrew, and Rishubh Thaper for their sharp minds, work ethic, and collaborative spirit! I loved working with yall and would love to see yall again.

More than just a fun summer project, we ended up doing really good research! Keep your eyes peeled for that, but it's still a work-in-progress. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone in the group was more than strong enough to hold their own in serious math research, even through big challenges and many, many failed Reidemeister moves. I feel confident in being able to call them my collaborators.

On a personal note, I got to rediscover my love of soccer! We all spent time watching the World Cup and took evenings off to kick the ball around. I'm told "math soccer" isn't normally as competitive and high-quality! Hopefully, I'll spend some time this semester continuing to play.

This post would not be complete without mentioning my good friends in the "other" group: the professors Aaron Abrams and Jamie Pommersheim, the TA Annie Holden, and participants Aren Gürlap, Sofia Piccirillo, and Nickey Zhang. Yall more than impressed me and everyone else there.

I've done my very best to provide links to everyone to give them all the proper credit. If I haven't, I'm sure they'll let me know.

Two special mentions from the above: Catherine is an organizer of the National Set Championship at the JMM every year. The preceding link is stale, so go sign up for the upcoming one whenever that's available. Additionally, Aren is an officer and writer for the Brown Puzzlehunt.

Here are some pictures I took around campus. It was an absolutely gorgeous place and I really enjoyed my time there.

Hilles Hall

The Rotunda from the ground floor

The staircase leading up to Hilles

A garden between buildings

A rather beautiful sidewalk view

The gravel path through the woods I walked daily

A human pyramid! (Image credit: Sofia Piccirillo)

A passthrough between buildings, apparently dubbed Mordor

Best,
Hailey

Hey yall!

Some quick updates on things I've been up to.

First, a confession. I corrected an issue where I accidentally pushed missing name information for a blog post. Hope that doesn't end up in anyone's feed...

I've also updated the websites I've been managing. You'll notice a new dark mode, animation, and new blog posts! Finally, I'm actually paying attention. On the LSU AWM site, I gave it a refreshed look and improved mobile browsing. Lastly, on the RTG website, I added a new page for the Directed Reading Program, as well as adding filtering to the people page, writing a brand-new gallery page, and collecting all the papers and preprints that stem from or acknowledge the grant itself. A lot of changes! More to come!

I've not really been working on the 3D print lab as much due to travel in the summer. Kiri Cahill has been more than gracious in covering me in my absence and I'm told that things are going beautifully back home.

I have a new preprint out! On some structural properties of graphs with non-negative resistance curvature, as a coauthor with my good friends Gyaneshwar Agrahari, Sean Boros, and Fernando Heidercheidt, a lovely and supportive mentor Zhiyu Wang, and my advisor Christin Bibby. Go check it out; it was really fun math to do, and I hope you'll think it's really fun math to read!

Lastly, I'm at Haverford this summer as a TA for an REU! It's been a lot of fun so far, and my group has been incredibly productive. I've taken more of a programming role on the project (I can't escape the stereotypes), and I expect that soon enough I'll put some visualizations and data up here for your viewing pleasure. I also have some awesome pictures and many fun stories; stay tuned for a future blog!

For now, I gotta get back to programming. I wonder how my slurm jobs are doing...

Best,
Hailey

Hey yall!

Disclaimer: This was written a month after the fact because I'm lazy/busy. Choose whichever word you think fits me best.

So, I'm not a number theorist. Shocking, I know. Regardless, I was invited by Fang-Ting Tu (a wonderful human being and, in her own words, the "cutest professor") to TA alongside Archisman Bhattacharjee for the number theory group at the 2026 Undergraduate FRC.

The reason I was asked: The book we were going through was The Topology of Numbers by Allen Hatcher. In my opinion, the book doesn't have a whole lot of topology in the first few chapters, but I found the content quite interesting regardless.

What made the program worthwhile, however, was the people. Big shout out to Nico, Greg, Jackie, Joseph, LJ, and Anthony. They really were excellent at what they did and impressed me to no end. Sadly, I wasn't able to make their final presentation (had to catch a flight), but I'm told it went brilliantly.

Attached are some images of the group, posted with permission.

The group finishes their presentation

The group, minus Hailey and Nico

The final presentation!

A Greg selfie

A Hailey selfie

Best,
Hailey

Hey yall!

So, it's been a while since I posted and that's because I've been extremely busy. This blog will catalogue probably only one of those reasons.

Some of my friends will know that I'm not the greatest fan of travelling. That in mind, it might seem a bit surprising that I'd attend a summer school in Italy. In fact, this wasn't just to Italy; it was to the Alps! Not the fastest place to get to. However, when I saw the offer... I just couldn't resist! The math looked too good.

I loved the trip! The people I got to meet, the math I got to learn, and the sights I got to see combined to a really enjoyable experience. It was held in Dobbiaco, at the Gustav Mahler Cultural Center. My friends that enjoy classical music perked up when I told them the venue! The first day, we went for a pretty long hike up a mountain. It was harder than I'd like to admit but hey, it set the scene for the school very well. Out of everything that I enjoyed, meeting new friends was the best part of the experience. Being able to meet people from Italy, Greece, and Germany, an experience that's not always easy when you're camping out in the states, was delightful. More than that, the folks were delightful too, and they're a main reason I'd like to go back!

The one thing I'll complain a little bit about: There was too much cheese! I have a dairy allergy, so finding food to eat wasn't always easy. I'm used to people liking cheese, but there was cheese with basically every meal. It was... impressive, in a way.

The last thing I'll share here are the pictures I was able to snag. The nature and venue were beyond beautiful and I'd leap at the opportunity to return.

The Dolomites

More of the Dolomites

A lake near Dobbiaco

Rock striations along a river

The Gustav Mahler Cultural Center

Strudel (dairy allergy be damned)

Ciao,
Hailey

Hey yall!

Oh my GOODNESS the draft is finally live! The long-awaited rewrite of the LSU RTG website is finally up! Some new features:

• The site has COLOR! Instead of a plain, white expanse, I leaned in to the blue and gold that the site originally used as highlights. I'm still not quite sure why the site was originally using blue instead of purple, but c'est la vie.
• Completely redesigned the people page to use dropdowns instead of just dumping all the people onto the page. Also, the python build script reads plaintext so it's super easy to add new people as needed!
• Eliminated the activities page in favor of an expanded navigation bar.
• Combined multiple, separate webpages into a single, tabbed page. This might change in the future for specific pages (workshops, DRP, etc), but was critical for the current site size to make navigation faster.
• Changed the icon and decorations!

Actually, a bit of a story behind that last item…

The original torus design with folded paper didn't scan as well as I hoped. I couldn't figure out what I wanted. At one point, I even ended up browsing Escher's artwork. Hyperbolic tilings piqued my interest but the impossible Penrose triangle were just as appealing. I eventually was reminded of my love of knots and settled on a right-handed trefoil taken from a minimal grid diagram and rotated 90°.

But this is revealing a secret. See, that drawing is fairly notorious: Does it look like a trefoil on first glance? Because if you squint, it might look more like a figure 8. Both I and a friend got tripped up at one point, but if you flip a few crossings, all's well. One of my professors even thought I had made a mistake while trying to draw the figure 8! While I'd love to say this was an intentional choice… it wasn't. I think it'll make a really fun trivia question some day.

I have a lot planned still! I'm going to revisit my custom build script (I'm on version 5) and add some of the custom code I have for writing calendars. Additionally, there's a lot the RTG has planned, so that content is forthcoming. In particular, one of my friends is going to be running a program next year and I'm really excited to work with her to design something custom with a home-cooked flair.

Best,
Hailey

Hey yall!

As you've noticed (presumably; you are on a new page, after all), I've updated this website considerably. This shouldn't come as a great shock to anyone. While I like the retro, deeply personal design I was using, it wasn't the most efficient to update. A clean design, prioritizing simplicity and modularity, was the solution.

There are, for now, two new sections. The blog section is, as you've been able to discover, a place for blogs and updates. I'm excited to write stories, information, and the occasional math blurb for all of the two-and-a-half people that'll read this.

The other new tab is the relevant links tab. It's probably the least special and it just lists the links that used to be scattered around the page. On desktop, the link isn't even shown and the sidebar takes care of showing the extra links.

However, there's more to come. I'll be organizing LSU's DTC seminar in the 2026-2027 academic year. Information on that will eventually have its own tab. I also may or may not be working on some fun and secret projects. Shh!

As a final note, I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of my friends who successfully defended their theses this semester. I will particularly mention my friend Kiri Cahill. Her resilience, kindness, and Tikz ability are constant sources of inspiration and respect for me. Additionally, she managed the 3D print lab with me this past year. Her and her husband Kade have been beyond critical in getting the lab to where it is today.

Best,
Hailey