PraCha, home
Today's kolam, . One line, never lifted, drawn from the date.

Prabakaran Chandran

பிரபாகரன் சந்திரன் · Tamil Nadu → New York

I observe the world, look for the patterns and mechanisms underneath, and build from what I find.

Come in.

I grew up in a village near Rasipuram, became a control engineer almost by accident, and have looked at the world as a system ever since. Now I do research at Columbia on how learning systems work, I teach, and I write down what each experiment changes in my understanding.

I also sketch, cook and read old Tamil poetry. I used to keep those in a separate house. They live here now, beside the work: art, philosophy, science and engineering under one roof. This is where I learn and teach, write to the world, and work on problems worth solving. Take your time.

From the studio: A white moon in an indigo night sky over a low far shore, its light broken on the water below, two geese crossing it. More paintings

An inquiry I keep

What system is worth understanding, and what is actually happening underneath it?

AnotherWrite back

On the bench

The many kinds of Research Engineer

Newest

Everything →
An engraving of a winged figure sitting chin in hand among tools of measurement: a compass, a polyhedron, a sphere, a scale, an hourglass and a magic square.The Art of Problem Solving in the Age of Superintelligencecourse · Oct 2026A young man in a long coat stands by a bright window, leaning against the sill and absorbed in reading a book, the room around him in deep shadow.Readingreading · Sep 2026An engraving of the Earth cut open, its dark interior laced with glowing channels of fire linking chambers to volcanoes at the surface, with wind-heads around it.Preferred Problem Spaces — Building My Career Around What Keeps Me Curiousessay · Sep 2026The arched wooden Nihonbashi bridge in Edo crowded with people, boats on the river below and Mount Fuji white in the distance.The Next Starting Lineessay · Sep 2026

Writing

All in Writing →

Essays on what I study and build, and musings on everything else: reflections, poems in English and Tamil, and the sketchbook.

Lab

All in Lab →

Experiments, notebooks and builds. Each one starts from a question, and its failures stay in the book.

Lessons

All in Lessons →

Bentos of ten essential readings, courses I work through in the open, tutorials and primers from first principles, and the shelf I read from. Written so the next person gets there faster.

Inquiries

All in Inquiries →

What I keep asking, what I think now and how sure I am, and the work beneath each one. Answers welcome.

Correspondence

All in Correspondence →

When an experiment changes my mind, I write a letter about it. There is no schedule, and each one asks you something back.

Sent through Substack, which will ask you to confirm. Your email is used for these letters and nothing else. Subscribe on Substack instead.