Energy, Learning, and Optimization
This blog has been quiet the last 4+ years while I was working at Teza Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in Austin. A combination of financial regulations, company policies, and a culture of secrecy keeps people from talking about life at quant funds- but now that I’m out, » Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
This tutorial walks through an example of how to implement ADMM on a blockchain, and complements my Devcon3 talk. Github repository is here
Goal: Use a smart contract to coordinate decentralized optimization¶
This can model federated machine learning or federated optimization problems
We will use the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers, » Read More
Our blockchain/microgrid research might become a reality: working with the Blockchain@Berkeley team, we’ve submitted a proposal to the Wanxiang Global Blockchain Challenge, an international competition for blockchain infrastructure ideas. If all goes well, this research might turn into the actual metering and scheduling system for a city that is being planned in China. » Read More
Slick algorithms and whiz-bang math are nice to have, but sometimes nothing speaks as well as a hardware demo. And for energy nerds, this means flashing lights. Rather than wrangling an Arduino and working with LEDs, another option is to get a quick start using ‘smart’ » Read More