Academics &Research

As a content creator, I have often wondered why some videos suddenly take off while others do not. I explored this question using a YouTube dataset covering 10 countries and more than 360,000 records. Using the first three observation days of views and engagement, I tested a GWO-Transformer model against six other forecasting approaches. For this short-term task, simpler models performed better — a useful reminder to judge a method by its results, not its complexity.

After volunteering with Operation Smile in Tibet, I became curious about why people help others. For my EPQ, I studied altruism through philosophy and psychology, including Kant, Aristotle, and social-psychological perspectives. I also considered the experiences of volunteers and how empathy, personal values, and self-interest may overlap. The project helped me look beyond the simple question of whether an action is selfish or selfless.