Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Anil Madhavapeddy

@anil.recoil.org

1.4K followers 440 following 500 posts

Professor of Planetary Computing at the University of Cambridge @cst.cam.ac.uk, where I co-lead the @eeg.cl.cam.ac.uk and work on computing for global biodiversity and climate change with @conservation.cam.ac.uk. Homepage at https://anil.recoil.org

anil.recoil.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · Nov 28

I've also started the refresh cycle for Real World OCaml v3 w/ @yminsky.bsky.social in preparation for being on a sabbatical year in 2025! What would you all like to read more about in the latest OCaml 5 goodies? (aside from parallelism; there'll be lots about parallelism.)

10 8 54

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 7h

To be clear, @satnam6502.bsky.social is talking about chip design here but feel free to meme this as you wish #icfpsplash25

1 12

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

Programming for the Planet @propl.dev · 7h

The 2nd PROPL is today, and will be livestreaming from www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIRJ... in an hour! Full program here conf.researchr.org/home/icfp-sp... and an overview of the program at dl.acm.org/action/showF...

[ICFP/SPLASH'25] Peony NE - PROPL (Oct 12th)

YouTube video by ACM SIGPLAN

www.youtube.com

1 4 3

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 17h

Next up: “most excited by” video 😃

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 1d

Completely full house for our OxCaml tutorial at #icfpsplash25! conf.researchr.org/details/icfp...

2 20

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 2d

Singapore’s airport is really something else

5 2 40

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 4d

Computing education needs to change. Our new report, System upgrade required, summarises research commissioned by the Royal Society that highlights the significant barriers to participation in computing education and proposes the changes needed to support a skilled and inclusive workforce.

1 1 3

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 5d

Does the news reflect what we die from?

The image presents a comparison of the leading causes of death in the United States for 2023 and the media coverage these causes receive from three news outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fox News.

In the footer, it notes the data sources, indicating that the information is based on media mentions from Media Cloud (2025) and death data from the US CDC (2025) and the Global Terrorism Index, with a clarification that values are normalized to sum to 100%.

7 200 320

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 6d

I’m a happy paid subscriber!

THE NERVE @thenerve.news · 6d

Thank YOU to everyone who has helped make our first week a success 🙏

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 6d

Time for the Mill by the sounds of it

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 6d

Happy birthday Bill!!

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 6d

omg I made it onto French national TV yesterday talking about hedgehogs and satellite AI www.youtube.com/shorts/s4A6s... 1m45 mark, but the first bit is even more interesting about French conservation efforts; I just need to get my bud in Paris @gazagnaire.org to translate it for me

Des satellites pour protéger les hérissons, en voie d'extinction

YouTube video by franceinfo

www.youtube.com

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 7d

Yay I enjoyed last season!

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 9d

And if you’re interested in OxCaml, we have a tutorial on Sunday at ICFP walking through it conf.researchr.org/track/icfp-s... (materials will be online for anyone afterwards. Just the minor detail of finishing writing them first)

3 10

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 9d

I do think bridging is an anti-pattern for this sort of thing: discuss.ocaml.org/t/announcing... - but close to Adium/Zulip is OpenVibe openvibe.social

Announcing the OCaml Zulip at ocaml.zulipchat.com

I disagree that there’s a good bridging story for any of these chat systems: You end up with banhammers being dropped from the other side of the network if a bridging user triggers some abuse thresh...

discuss.ocaml.org

1 2

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 9d

I am quite enjoying following design conversations over ppxlib with @patrick.sirref.org across Discourse, Slack(s), Zulip(s), Matrix(s), GitHub and email. We need a couple more modes though; IP over avian time?

1 3

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 12d

Just been adding Linux-specific sockopts to our OCaml Eio library and blimey there are a lot of new options lurking in there in recent years github.com/ocaml-multic...

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

Accelerate Programme for Scientific Discovery @acceleratescience.bsky.social · 12d

📢 New blog! @charlesemogor.bsky.social uses machine learning to enhance anti-poaching across sub-Saharan Africa.

Working with @anil.recoil.org, @fletcherecology.bsky.social and @milindtambe-ai.bsky.social, he is developing models to help rangers patrol effectively.

Find out more: bit.ly/4mMs3Av

How can we ... use machine learning to enhance anti-poaching measures? Features a quote and photo of Charles Emogor. Read the blog post to find out more.

1 5 7

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 15d

poor @sadiq.toao.com didn't get in on the picture as he was taking it so here's a bonus one

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 15d

Not how I expected to make my @arstechnica.com debut but I'll take it arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/c...

Can AI detect hedgehogs from space? Maybe if you find brambles first.

Cambridge researchers use satellite-based bramble detection as a proxy for mapping hedgehog habitats.

arstechnica.com

1 1 7

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 16d

While it was a delight to visit my colleagues in Oxford today, I’m really not sure what’s going with their sofa placements. Is this their latest ploy to get an edge over Cambridge in the boat race?!

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 18d

next step: spot hedgehogs from space

Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 18d

Fun field trip today trying to validate a colleague's bramble detecting model: toao.com/blog/can-we-... with @anil.recoil.org

Can a model trained on satellite data really find brambles on the ground? - Sadiq Jaffer

toao.com

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

patrick @patrick.sirref.org · 22d

The #OCaml community are looking for mentors and projects for the next round of Outreachy. More details at: discuss.ocaml.org/t/outreachy-...

Outreachy Mentors Wanted

I’m excited to share that the OCaml community has secured funding for the next round of Outreachy. Thanks to Jane Street and Tarides, we have funding for 3 mentees in the next cohort of Outreachy inte...

discuss.ocaml.org

1 4 9

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 26d

As for biodiversity, a brand new study also confirms what's well established: overall ruminant meat, especially from grazing animals (which require more land, entailing more carbon & biodiversity opportunity costs) has the biggest 'extinction footprint' of all foods: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

6 51 140

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 26d

hm although i hadn't noticed your extremely cool git interpreter. I must take this for a spin when I get a spare moment, nice work!

1 3

Reposted by Anil Madhavapeddy

David Allsopp @dra27.uk · 27d

3 years since I finalised the demo of it for the OCaml Workshop in Ljubljana, Relocatable OCaml is finally submitted for review! 🥳🍾🎊

2 6 21