Full Stack Journey 072: A Peek Inside The Comp Sci Ivory Tower

On today’s Full Stack Journey podcast we climb the ivory tower to get a glimpse of academic life in the field of networking and computer science with guest Dave Levin. Dr. Levin is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on networking and security, including measurement, cryptography, artificial intelligence, and economics.

On today’s show we talk with Dr. Levin about his background and how he got into computing, research projects he’s working on, what life is like as an academic in the technology space, and his take on developments in the industry. Dr. Levin is a returning guest. We’ve had him on other shows in the Packet Pushers network to talk about DDoS attack techniques and alibi routing.

Scott Lowe is away for this episode, so Drew Conry-Murray and Ethan Banks from the Packet Pushers step in as guest hosts.

We discuss:

How Dr. Levin got interested in computers
The cutthroat world of professional tuba players
Differences between working in private industry and academics
What drives his and his students’ research
How his research gets funded
The need for open access to federally funded research
What AI can bring to computer science as well as its limitations
More

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