Omega Five
A dependency-free, high-performance C++ engine capable of playing Connect-5 through bitboards, Negamax search with alpha-beta pruning and NNUE evaluation.
I am Nicolò Alesi, a computer science student with a strong passion for mathematics, problem solving, efficient programming and machine learning.
I have loved programming since I was a kid. Growing up, I was surrounded by technology: laptops, computers, phones and tablets sparked my curiosity and gave me the opportunity to experiment. That eventually led me to attend a high school with additional hours dedicated to computer science, where I started programming in C and C++ and discovered that I enjoy solving problems through code.
Today, I write code for many different reasons, sometimes it's to make my everyday life a little easier, with small scripts that automate repetitive tasks; other times, programming is a way for me to learn or challenge myself, whether through problem solving and competitions, coursework, or side projects. Overtime, because of my interests, C++ and Python have become my preferred languages, but at the same time, I believe that a programming language is ultimately a tool: the right choice depends on the problem, the constraints, and what you are trying to achieve.
When I study or learn something new, I try to understand why and how things work rather than simply memorizing them. I have never found it particularly useful to know everything by heart. What matters more to me is understanding the underlying concepts, recognizing that a solution or technique exists, and being able to find my way back to it when I need it. For me, learning is less about collecting facts and more about developing new ways of thinking and approaching problems.
Outside of programming and studying, I like to work out and run. But if the day has been particularly rough, I like spending time with friends or playing video games with them.
Roles and hands-on work experience.
Honours Programme · Sapienza, University of Rome.
Ranked 2nd in my course and selected among the 10 best students for a parallel research programme. Working on the phylogenetic reconciliation problem, exploring integer linear programming approaches.
Tutoring Programme · Sapienza, University of Rome.
Ranked 3rd in the selection process and selected as a Probability and Statistics tutor. Preparing and teaching complementary lectures alongside the professor's main coursework.
Talent Garden, Milan.
Developed a camera-based UAV localization system using non-emitting sensors. Derived an analytical solution based on the centroid of the intersection of camera fields of view and presented the project to the jury.
A few projects from coursework and independent study.
A dependency-free, high-performance C++ engine capable of playing Connect-5 through bitboards, Negamax search with alpha-beta pruning and NNUE evaluation.
Selected among less than 15% of applicants for the LeadTheFuture mentorship programme, joining a community focused on personal and professional growth and receiving one-to-one mentorship.
Selected among around 60 students from across Italy to attend a week-long summer term featuring lectures on transformers, post-quantum cryptography and adversarial machine learning by world-class professors.
Ranked 3rd in my university's selection process and selected for its first team at the ICPC regional contest. Finished in the top 50% of the main event's leaderboard.
At age 13, advanced through all qualifying rounds of the national Mathematics Olympiad organized by the school "A. Fanelli - F. Marini" to reach the final in Ostia, placing 12th overall and receiving a prize.
Sapienza, University of Rome.
Course weighted average: 29.85 / 30.
L.S.S. Vito Volterra.
Final year weighted average: 9.58 / 10.
Final grade: 100 / 100 with honours.
Introduction to computer science and programming, covering algorithms, data structures, memory, C, Python, SQL and web development.
Introduction to Python, covering functions, exceptions, testing, modules, file I/O, regular expressions and object-oriented programming.
Right now, I'm focused on expanding my network and broadening my knowledge as much as I can. I'm exploring different fields and ideas to better understand what I want from the future. I'm also working on my fitness, with the goal of running a marathon sometime soon. If you are working on something interesting or looking to collaborate, I'd love to hear from you.
Get in touch