Maximilien Rousseau

About

I'm a fourth-year engineering student at ESAIP, specializing in artificial intelligence. What I like most about engineering is the moment when something stops being a vague idea and starts being a working system you can point at and explain.

Background

I'm in the fourth year of ESAIP's five-year integrated engineering cycle, on the AI track since the start of M1. The path:

  • 2022 Baccalauréat scientifique, mathematics and computer-science specialty
  • 2022 — 2024 ESAIP, preparatory cycle (S1–S4)
  • 2024 — 2025 ESAIP, engineering cycle — Computer Networks track
  • Spring 2025 Exchange semester, Dennis Gabor University, Budapest
  • 2025 — 2027 ESAIP, engineering cycle — AI track (M1, M2)
  • Autumn 2026 Exchange semester, Università di Padova, Italy (upcoming)

The Budapest semester sharpened my English and gave me my first taste of working in mixed teams across languages. The Padova semester next autumn adds a third academic culture before the final-year internship.

Beyond the screen

I climb regularly — bouldering, mostly. It's the one hobby I've actually stuck with. Hard to overthink your day when you're hanging off a wall trying not to fall.

Outer Wilds has been in my head lately. It started as a master's thesis at USC before Mobius Digital turned it into a full game. Don't watch a video before you play — that's the one thing you can get wrong. The solar system loops every 22 minutes before the sun goes supernova; the only thing you carry between loops is what you figured out. No levels, no power-ups. Your curiosity is the only progression, and the ending lets things end.

I also cook. Most weekends I spend an hour or two on a single dish — Asian or Italian. Hands-on, slow, and the opposite of how I spend the rest of the week.

Self-hosted

This portfolio is served from my own VPS at portfolio.phitalys.fun. The same machine also runs wiki.phitalys.fun, a Linux reference wiki I built and continue to maintain since my third-year systems coursework.

Get in touch

The best way to reach me is by email at mrousseau.ing2027@esaip.org. You'll also find me on GitHub and LinkedIn.