Peter Seelman

I'm a human studying Physics and Mathematics at Johns Hopkins, currently building Altera Labs.

My focus is on AI agent architectures and knowledge systems for education and national security.

Selected Work

Altera Labs — A state-aware AI tutoring platform for STEM, using knowledge graphs and Bayesian tracing to teach rather than give answers.
APL — AI system architect at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, building agent orchestration and evaluation infrastructure for national security workflows.
UNITE — A $35K-funded Intersession course that builds the JHU-APL recruitment pipeline through lab tours, speakers, and direct placement into APL roles.

Email me at , or find me on GitHub and LinkedIn.

Things I keep coming back to. Not finished thoughts, just directions.

The substitution problem — Students use AI to skip thinking. The tool that promised to democratize learning is making them worse. How do you build something that resists this?
Knowledge as a graph — Understanding isn't a score. It's a structure: prerequisites, dependencies, gaps. How can you map and use it?

Agentorchestration — AIs, like humans, work better in teams. And like human organizations, their structures can vary widely. What are the best ways to coordinate them?
Cybernetic governance — Control theory, AI, and systems science can help us govern complex societies and organizations through feedback loops. How can we do this in a way that puts humans first?

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Artificial Intelligence and Education: A Neurocognitive Perspective
- — The research and philosophy behind Altera. AI as a cognitive tool and what its rise means for memory, understanding, and the future of education.
- — Altera Labs, May 2025. Read the paper.
Cubesats to Classrooms
- — Presentation on NASA's EZIE mission and its citizen-science magnetometer program, from kit deployment to manuals, tutorials, and AI tools for public outreach.
- — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Young Professionals, Students, and Educators Conference, November 2024. View the slides.
EZIE-Mag: Empowering Students Nationwide in Space Science Exploration and Education
- — A national STEM engagement program deploying 700 low-cost magnetometer kits to schools across the U.S., inviting students to collect space-weather data alongside NASA's EZIE mission as citizen scientists.
- — Small Satellite Conference, August 2024. Read the paper.
Simulating quantum magnetism on noisy quantum computers
- — A comparison of Trotter-Suzuki and qDRIFT for simulating Ising-model quantum ferromagnetic dynamics on real quantum hardware.
- — IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, March 2023.
  View the poster / Read the paper.