Energy, Learning, and Optimization
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
Blockchains are fascinating- a platform for robust, immutable, and trustless data storage and computation. But they’re also cumbersome- slow, inefficient, and expensive. So when are blockchains the right solution for a problem? Blockchains are not a magical new type of computing. » Read More
I help organize Cleanweb Berkeley, a student group on-campus that raises awareness of cleantech careers for data scientists, and facilitates research dealing with data and energy/electricity systems.
Over the years, we’ve tried a number of different formats; here are a few of the lessons we’ve learned:
» Read More