Engineering and Art Reflections

A collection of ideas, projects, and lessons inspired by technology, creativity, and my passions in space, baseball, and building with AI.

TechBy Chris West•April 21, 2026•7 min read

42% of React Code Is AI-Generated. Your Design System Isn't Ready.

With 42% of React code now AI-generated and climbing to 65% by 2027, design systems are the last line of defense against fragmented, hallucinated component code.

Design SystemsReactAITypeScript

I've obtained a BFA in Computer Graphics from Syracuse University

TechBy Chris West•7 min read

Artists Are Designers, But are Designers Artists?

I was traditionally trained as an artist before becoming an engineer. My art training changed how I think about component architecture, constraints, and creative problem-solving in code.

Traditional artists leveraging the digital medium

TechBy Chris West•7 min read

Code as Canvas: Why Should Traditional Artists Learn to Code?

Traditional artists aren’t abandoning painting for code. They’re finding that composition, color theory, and spatial reasoning transfer directly to generative systems. Platforms like fxhash and Art Blocks finally created galleries for the work.

TechBy Chris West•5 min read

Fifty-Four Years Later: What Artemis II’s Lunar Flyby Means for All of Us

Four astronauts just crossed a gap fifty-four years wide. A reflection on Artemis II’s historic lunar flyby, from the Earthset photograph to what it means that we’re finally going back.

TechBy Chris West•6 min read

The ABS Is Catching What Umpires Miss: 12 Days of Strike Zone Data

The ABS system overturned 299 of 542 challenges in its first 12 days. A data-driven look at which umpires are struggling, when teams challenge most, and what the numbers reveal about baseball's new reality.

TechBy Chris West•8 min read

Design Systems as Living Architecture

Design systems are now critical infrastructure. The W3C Design Tokens spec, React Server Components, and micro-frontends are reshaping component architecture. Here's what that looks like from inside an enterprise eCommerce stack.

TechBy Chris West•7 min read

AI Won't Save the Climate, But It Might Help Us Make Better Decisions

AI's biggest climate impact isn't flashy breakthroughs. It's optimization, forecasting, and giving policymakers the evidence they need to act faster.

TechBy Chris West•8 min read

How AI Is Helping Scientists and Doctors Find Cures Faster

AI is transforming medicine from drug discovery to cancer diagnostics. How machine learning designs molecules no chemist imagined, catches cancers earlier, and is accelerating the path from lab to cure.

TechBy Chris West•9 min read

How the Hail Mary Ship Actually Works: Astrophage as Rocket Fuel

How does the Hail Mary ship work? Astrophage fuel stores energy near the E=mc² theoretical limit, powering a photon drive across 12 light-years to Tau Ceti. A breakdown of the real physics behind Andy Weir's interstellar spacecraft in Project Hail Mary.

Studio Updates

Tech

Apr 21, 2026 — I added the ship from Project Hail Mary to my Solar Propulsion Simulator project. It allows you to travel on Astrophage at a cool 1.5m/s constant acceleration. The Hail Mary works on IR light propulsion, which you normally wouldn't see with the human eyes, but for gameplay, I kept it in.

Apr 21, 2026 — Inspired by my trip out west a few weeks ago, a big open sky on a western plain. Initial layers are set, waiting for the paint to dry a little.

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Featured Projects

Pendu - Organic Gallery Layouts for React

An organic gallery layout for React. Arrange images into beautiful, natural collages with no grid or masonry. 5.4 KB gzipped, zero dependencies, FLIP animations, and SSR ready.

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Building Mission Control: Teaching Orbital Mechanics Through a Browser-Based Rocket Sim

Mission Control is a browser-based rocket engineering game that teaches orbital mechanics through hands-on experimentation. Players design multi-stage rockets, fly them manually through gravity turns, and learn real physics by failing and iterating. Built with Next.js 16, React Three Fiber, and a custom physics engine using the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, Keplerian orbital mechanics, and RK4 numerical integration — no physics libraries. The 3D Earth features custom GLSL shaders for real-time day/night cycles, procedural cloud layers, and atmospheric scattering.

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CenterStage: A Social Interaction Event Tool

Built with Next.js, TypeScript, Supabase, and Stripe, CenterStage is a SaaS platform that transforms live events by putting guests at the center of the experience. Attendees scan a QR code, share photos, videos, and comments from their phones — no app download required — and their content appears on screen in real time during the event. Designed for corporate conferences, association events, and social celebrations, CenterStage gives planners a turnkey engagement tool that enhances the guest experience without disrupting the main event.

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