Happy news! As some of you know, I've been hard at work on my PhD for the past 5-6 years, and last week all that work paid off. On May 10th, 2018, I undertook the age-old tradition known as the "PhD Defense Examination." What this means is that I stood up in a room with my dissertation committee (4 professors from my university and one Skyping in from Stanford), and gave an hour-long seminar about my research. Here's the top of the title slide for my talk:
They grilled me throughout my talk, and for about half an hour afterward, but then they all agreed to sign the paper that says I passed the defense exam! This means the only thing left before I'm officially Doctor Brown is for the University to sign off on some boring paperwork. I wasn't actually expecting to fail the exam, but there's still nothing quite like the feeling of knowing for sure that you've passed:
What's next?
I have a few more things to wrap up before I leave California, but next month right after the official graduation ceremony I'll pack up all my things and move back to my hometown, Colorado Springs, CO to be a professor of Computer Science at the university in town, the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
What this could mean for me and cryptocurrencies and Steem
At UCCS, I'll be a Tenure-Track Professor. This is a very interesting job in the American university system, because it means that I'll have a degree of flexibility over what I do with my time. Part of the job description is that I need to start an externally-funded research program of some kind. Typically, the funding source for these things is the federal government -- and I'll certainly plan to write grant proposals to the NSF, ONR, AFOSR, and others to get my research funded.
However, the other thing it means is essentially this: If I can get someone to fund my research, I can work on essentially whatever I want. Right now, some of the most interesting questions in my mind pertain to distributed ledger technologies (DLT) such as cryptocurrencies. My expertise gives me a unique perspective on DLT: my PhD work dealt with incentive mechanisms, game theory, and feedback control of dynamical systems -- all of which are of crucial importance to the proper functioning of DLT. I have three basic research areas in mind: Stablecoins, Ledger Architecture, and Governance.
So stay tuned to me in the coming weeks and months, as I expect to develop a series of proposals or whitepapers that I can present to the cryptocurrency community to solicit funding for this work. My ultimate goal is to establish a multidisciplinary research lab that can benefit the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Also, I'm hiring graduate students -- if you are interested in getting paid to get a PhD in Computer Science in beautiful Colorado Springs studying the game theory of distributed ledgers and cryptocurrencies, please contact me as soon as you can. If you're a good fit for my research lab, you can apply at any time and possibly start taking courses and working with me as early as August 2018.
biophil, as written in the blockchain for eternity...Congrats @biophil! Sorry, no "professor". Here you will remain
Congratulations doc. looking forward to hear more about your new research projects in DLT
Congratulations! I look forward to hearing about what you are up to next :)
Hopefully it will involve some good hard math that makes the world a better place. :)
I was able to understand more than 70% of the write ups with the exceptions of few abbreviations and crypto terms.
Congratulations for the Academic achievement "Doctor Brown".
Congratulations @biophil Dr. Phil, uh, Doc Brown, uh Doctor Philip Brown. Way to go. I graduated from college as well many years ago and it was not easy but I am sure it was much easier than your study. I have a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design and English with an Associates in Photography. Graphic design because I love art. English because I love words and creative writing. Photography because I love everything beautiful about Mother Earth. Have an Amazing Weekend Brother.
congratulations Doc
congrats!! you are a thinker. so, no surprise from me though... :)
Congratulations Dr. Brown! :)
Congratulations, @biophil!
Congratulations mate
I often vote for replies to gentlebot; I created him.
Glad you're interested!
I used python. Really, if you want to do real blockchain development, you need C++ because most industrial-grade blockchains are created in that. I've been happy with Python for my simple stuff.
Gentlebot isn't open source, but you could check out https://github.com/biophil/pocket to see a public app I created.