Max Zhang
max.zhang@mail.mcgill.ca · +1(514)-653-4210
2025–
B.Sc. Honours Physics and Computer Science
McGill University
2025
CMC SiEPIC Silicon Photonics Workshop
Designed active photonic devices (modulators, phase shifters) for AMF
fabrication.
Link.
Recipient of the Young Researcher award.
2023–
Research internship under Prof. David Plant
McGill University
2023–25
CEGEP
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
2022
Took AP Calculus AB, AP Physics I and AP Computer Science Principles on my own. Reused some previously developed game for AP CSP.
2020–22
Developed two more games in the meantime, never published.
2020
Released my first game on the App Store—got taken down by Apple because I didn't pay the developer license.
2018–24
Competitive basketball with coach John Dangelas under the Collège Notre-Dame and Team Helisis banners. Won the Work ethic and Leadership Award.
2018–23
Secondary education
Collège Notre-Dame
2016
My brother and I built my first computer, on which I learned some basic machine learning (Scikit-learn, TensorFlow) and built a voice assistant using mycroft.
2014
Received my first phone. It was an OEM-locked Chinese phone, so I had to flash a new OS to bypass the Google block to have access to YouTube.
Research projects and contributions
Transformer-inspired DSP (2025–)
Deep learning models for IMDD optical signal equalization. CNN encoder with transformer attention for PAM symbol recovery.
Optical computing (2025)
photorch
Photonic circuit simulation framework using PyTorch. DAG-based signal propagation.
complex-res-net
Complex-valued neural networks. Implemented complex VGG16 in PyTorch and MLX that are ready to implement on cascaded IQMs.
Cascaded IQM simulations
Cascaded IQM and MZM simulation for real and complex-valued optical matrix-vector multiplication.
MatTorch
Re-implementation of basic PyTorch features in MATLAB.
Ising Annealing Simulation
Simulation of optical Ising model annealing using cascaded MZM and IQM components.
Ericsson collaboration
Tested the polarization compensating capacity of a device designed at Prof. David Plant's group, and designed compensation algorithms.
Tidy3D simulations
FDTD and Tidy3d device simulations.
DC Characterization
Performed DC sweeps on HyperLight's IQM in order to measure the extinction ratio.
Production apps
loon (2026)
Work in progress. A developer friendly chat interface to make it easy to build your own chat bots or to control things using messages.
applaud (2025)
A productivity-focused social media app.
langlang (2025)
Word-based language learning apps weren't cutting it for me. I wanted to learn only how to put them together. Langlang is one of the things I think LLMs might be good for.
meteon (2025)
Automated platform for onboarding tenants, performing background checks, collecting rent, managing maintenance requests and lease renewals.
charter (2025)
Dental video annotation platform with AI-powered auto-charting.
ball3
My first ever real programming project. A 2D basketball game.
Personal projects
geo-bench (2026)
An LLM benchmark for different model's capabilities to setup simulation geometries in Tidy3d.
flashcards (2025)
Study app with Monaco code editor. Built with SvelteKit and Convex.
codecrafters-shell (2025)
POSIX shell implementation in C.
1893 World Expo replica (2024)
Built an RC boat and a scale model replica of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition from scratch, 3D printing every part.
micrograd (2023)
Recreated Karpathy's micrograd as a learning experience.
mycroft (2016)
Built a voice assistant on a Raspberry Pi using mycroft.
Publications
2025
A. Nikic*, W. Li*, C. St-Arnault, S. Bernal, B. Qiu, E. Berikaa, L. Xu, K. Zhang, Y. Hu, J. Zhang, Z. Wei, M. Zhang, I. Plant, A. Bigongiari, F. Cavaliere, A. D'Errico, L. Giorgi, S. Lessard, R. Sabella, S. Stracca, and D. V. Plant. "A WDM Capable SiP Polarization Compensator That Isolates the Carrier Laser." Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 43, no. 18, Sep. 2025. doi:10.1109/JLT.2025.3588315
2025
A. Nikic*, W. Li*, C. St-Arnault, S. Bernal, B. Qiu, E. Berikaa, L. Xu, K. Zhang, Y. Hu, J. Zhang, Z. Wei, M. Zhang, I. Plant, A. Bigongiari, F. Cavaliere, A. D'Errico, L. Giorgi, S. Lessard, R. Sabella, S. Stracca, and D. V. Plant. "A WDM Capable SiP Polarization Compensator That Isolates the Carrier Laser." Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), 2025. (conference version of JLT paper)
2026
A. Nikic, W. Li, C. St-Arnault, S. Bernal, B. Qiu, D. Mao, E. Berikaa, K. Zhang, C. Nacke, L. Xu, M. Zhang, I. Plant, A. Bigongiari, F. Cavaliere, A. D'Errico, L. Giorgi, S. Lessard, R. Sabella, S. Stracca, and D. V. Plant. "Ultra-Low Loss Compact SiP Polarization Compensator for CPO with an ELS." Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), 2026. (accepted)
2026
W. Li, A. Nikic, C. St-Arnault, S. Bernal, B. Qiu, D. Mao, E. Berikaa, K. Zhang, C. Nacke, L. Xu, M. Zhang, I. Plant, A. Bigongiari, F. Cavaliere, A. D'Errico, L. Giorgi, S. Lessard, R. Sabella, S. Stracca, and D. V. Plant. "Compact High-Speed Silicon Photonic Polarization Compensator." Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2026. (under review)