Jekyll2026-04-25T02:13:06+00:00https://aikoryu.github.io/blog/feed.xmlAiko Ryu | Independent ResearcherHi! My name is Aiko and I'm working on indendent research associated with programming languages, type theory, and proof assistants. I'm self-taught and early in my learning journey for these fields, so I'm using this blog to hold myself accountable, as well as create an honest representation of what it's like to learn hard things. Who I am2026-04-24T03:19:08+00:002026-04-24T03:19:08+00:00https://aikoryu.github.io/blog/story/biography/2026/04/24/welcomeAiko Ryu

First off, Aiko Ryu is a pseudonym as I prefer to keep any contributions private and away from my normal work as much as possible.

Now, let’s get into who I am, and what I am doing.

Currently, I’m working on learning (from the start, including the math) about type theory, programming languages, and proof assistants with the end goal in mind of contributing heavily to proof assistants, possibly writing my own one day, or writing a backend that allows proofs to be directly translated from one proof assistant to another.

Quite frankly, I realize that this is a lofty goal and that in-depth knowledge is needed (typically, this would be research that would be done in a PhD) and I’ve set myself a time horizon of ~10-12 years to work on this, while maintaining a full-time job. Ultimately, my goal is to contribute where I can to a small community of researchers that I feel are attempting to make software safer via formal verification. If I have the wrong idea, or you feel like I’m crazy, or better yet, you want to get a hold of me and either:

  • Help me through my journey
  • Collaborate
  • Get to know me

Feel free to reach out via email! I appreciate your time reading this and look forward to posting more in the future.

]]>Research2026-04-24T00:00:00+00:002026-04-24T00:00:00+00:00https://aikoryu.github.io/blog/2026/04/24/researchWhy I’m pursuing prover interoperability as independent research

Simply put, I wanted to do something that is hard, that I don’t have ANY background in and that will continue to push me to learn.

Beyond that, I’ve found some interest in different people over the time that I’ve spent on X and other social apps, and realized that what they’re doing is both seemingly difficult (although I probably don’t realize just how difficult it is), and equally as interesting. The introduction for me into this space was Victor Taelin who is building HOC which I originally found through Bend.

Further reviewing the content that he was putting out introduced me to the Lambda Calculus which I put in my back pocket to think about for a while.

Then he came across my feed again, and sparked my interest again and I started looking into some of the people that he was following and found ice1000.

Ultimately, this is what sparked my interest. Some of the things that I started taking a look at are:
- agda
- arend
- Coq/Rocq
- Lean
- Aya

And more…

So all of these things became an amalgamation of more things that I suddenly took interest in and so I built a study plan from basically scratch within a day or two.

Ultimately, the real reason that I’ve chosen prover interoperability over some other topic is that I am interested in the implementation details associated with proof assistants, while also wanting to still dig into the theory and maths behind it. Frankly, my level for both programming and math are too elementary to contribute anything substantive right now and that’s why there is a long time horizon on where I want to end up as an independent researcher.

With all of that said, if you are reading this and in this field (or an adjacent field) please feel free to reach out to me via email and give some advice or just a heads up about what lies ahead for me. Although I feel a bit behind now, anything and everything can be learned with discipline, and that’s ultimately my plan going forward.

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