For years, data-driven tech companies have used customers as their raw material: Facebook, Google, Amazon, and others track our moves across the web in order to sell that information and target advertisements. For a long time, users found this an acceptable tradeoff- but in the wake of the 2016 election and amidst the changes brought about by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), » Read More
Trustless Federated Machine Learning
Machine learning has exploded as companies find ways to draw actionable insights from the data which consumers feed them. However, the efficacy of artificial intelligence algorithms is dependent on the size of the data pool- giving big companies like Facebook and Google a formidable advantage over small scrappy startups. » Read More
Blockchains 3.0: Beyond Transparency
Early blockchains served as decentralized ledgers: creating trust by guaranteeing that each new entry securely built on previous entries. Smart contracting systems like Ethereum added intelligence to on-chain operations, making it possible to run simple computer scripts. » Read More
New Paper: Cybersecurity in Distributed Optimization
Conventional centralized optimization algorithms have challenge solving big optimization problems- at some scale, you simply can’t fit the problem on a single computer, let alone manage all of the variables. To solve this, researchers use decentralized optimization techniques to break the problem into a set of subproblems which can be rapidly solved on distributed computers or smart devices- but this exposes the optimization algorithm to cybersecurity threats from hacking these consumer-level devices. » Read More
Surviving your PhD
PhinisheD! PhDone! I got my lollipop- after five years of classes, research, and lab presentations, I’ve finally finished the journey! And before I forget what it’s like to be in the swamp, I wanted to jot down thoughts about how I got through it. » Read More
Writing your dissertation (or book!) with Overleaf + git
In many technical fields, a PhD dissertation is written with the mantra “staple 3” – take three peer-reviewed articles, add an introduction and conclusion, and turn it in. In writing my dissertation, I used LaTeX in Overleaf and git to make it easy to reuse content from articles. » Read More
Blockchain Growth Hurdles: Four Known Unknowns
I just spoke with Valentina Nakic, who is writing a thesis about the future of the blockchain+energy space, and was struck by the realization that there are some basic hurdles that will define the next 10-20 years of blockchain applications. » Read More
The #DataOpen Journey
I’ve never been so happy sleeping so little. For five days this November, I taxed my mind and my laptop crunching through education policy data on the way to submitting an entry in the 2017 Data Open Championships, organized by Correlation One and Citadel. » Read More
Winners of the 2017 Data Open Championship!
Monday is a dizzying mash of adrenaline-tinted memories. Walking the floors of the New York Stock Exchange, watching old-time traders tell about the bullpen days. Sitting in the palatial elegance of the NYSE Board Room, listening to Ken Griffin share stories of teamwork, » Read More
Devcon3 Debrief
I was honored to speak at Devcon3, the Ethereum Developers’ Conference, on my research on coordinating decentralized optimization with blockchains.
The attendees were a strange mix: 30-50% of the attendees were speculators who knew nothing about blockchains, but were frantically trying to understand the asset which had ballooned in their portfolio. » Read More