Types of Projects I Supervise
Project Guidelines
Below are classes of projects I supervise. It’s definitely OK to try to get me interested in a project that doesn’t fit into one of these categories, but just be prepared that I’ve become more rigid with project topics over time. The primary reason is that I want to advise projects where I’m confident I can be a good advisor even while time-constrained. When discussing working together, it’ll be helpful if you can let me know which class of project you’re interested in and why.
Deep Theory
These projects are representative of what one might work on as a PhD student in CS Theory.
- Relevant for: Someone who loves PSets in CS Theory courses (especially being stuck on the hardest PSets). Someone who wants to explore a project representative of pursuing a PhD in CS Theory.
- Prereqs: Done well in a related course (such as Algorithmic Economics / Economics & Computation or Advanced Algorithm Design).
- Mindset: Make sure you love spending enormous chunks of time being frustrated and stuck. It’s essential that you enjoy the process of working through problems independently.
- Day-to-Day: First, deciding which subproblems are the right ones to solve. Then, solving the subproblems. During the week, you’ll be working on a problem independently to solve it or try to get unstuck.
Blockchain-Adjacent
These projects are theoretical in nature, but have a more significant modeling component and sometimes a coding component.
- Relevant for: Someone who wants to explore a project representative of a PhD in Economics and Computation adjacent to Blockchains, theoretical applied modeling, or theory with coding.
- Prereqs: Done well in a course involving theoretical modeling (e.g. Algorithmic Economics). Basic understanding of blockchains.
- Mindset: Enjoy reading complicated protocols, deeply understanding them, and going back and forth between a mathematical model and the real-world domain.
Build Something Useful
These projects are ultimately about building something useful using concepts from my courses.
- Relevant for: Someone who wants their thesis to actually make a difference to some group or campus organization.
- Prereqs: Doing well in a related course and having an “engaged client” willing to specify needs and evaluate solutions.
- Day-to-Day: Full-stack work: talking to stakeholders, modeling, coding, and debugging.
Improve a Course
These projects are about improving infrastructure or pedagogical materials for a course I teach.
- Relevant for: Someone who really enjoyed a course I taught and wants to improve it for future students.