hem.

Hem Vadgama

I’m a computer engineering student at Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College.

I build native apps, study how AI agents handle failure, and develop tools for distributed systems. I’m interested in the details that make software useful and dependable.

Alongside my engineering work, I’m a physics learning assistant and a guitarist and percussionist.

Explore my work ↓Get in touch ↗

Selected projects

Applications, experiments, and infrastructure.

Completed native iOS application

Offline Bluetooth messaging

I built a native iPhone app for nearby messaging without internet or cellular service. Peer discovery, connection handling, and message transport meet a SwiftUI interface.

Swift · Core Bluetooth · SwiftUI

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Local communicationBluetooth Low Energy
Nearby
iPhone
DiscoverConnect & send
Nearby
iPhone
Direct device-to-device messaging.
No internet or cellular service required.

Research & open-source contribution

Evidence-aware AI agent execution

I implemented bounded recovery for plan-execute agents: validate tool calls, classify failures, restrict replay, and block steps whose prerequisites failed.

Python · MCP · Regression testing

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Unsupported downstream tool calls
Baseline90
Bounded recovery0

35 executions per condition, under each summary script. Controlled offline evaluation.

Founder & lead developer

Distributed autonomous systems testbed

I built an open-source framework to compare coordination protocols under communication, execution, resource, and safety constraints. Experiments use configurable latency, packet loss, and replayable traces.

Python · TOML · Reproducible experiments

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From observation to execution
  1. World stateWhat is actually happening
  2. Local beliefsWhat each agent knows
  3. Protocol decisionsHow agents coordinate
  4. Safety validationIndependent checks before execution

Systems engineering & deployment

Self-hosted Linux infrastructure

I built and maintain a headless Debian server with persistent containerized services, private remote access, and controlled application routing.

Debian · Docker Compose · Linux networking

Explore project
Service and network boundaries
Private accessSSH · Tailscale
Containerized servicesDocker Compose
Controlled routingWireGuard · Gluetun
Debian · Persistent storage

About me

I’m a computer engineering student at Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College.

My work spans execution control for AI agents, reproducible distributed-systems experiments, native mobile networking, and Linux service operation. I care about how a system behaves when an assumption fails, and about making that behavior observable and testable.

I also work as a physics learning assistant, helping students reason through concepts and solve problems. Away from the keyboard, I play guitar and percussion.

Internships & research

I’m interested in software and systems engineering internships and research collaborations.

Email me ↗GitHub ↗