Why IEOR 190G?

I learned about IEOR 190G while taking a looking at the courses offered in the 190 series, which had been suggested to me by a friend. I took IEOR 171 with Dr. Lesniak last semester.

I've had an interest in free and open source software since high school. Through this interest, I learned about legal frameworks (mostly related to copyright), including software licensing (e.g., "copyleft" vs. "permissive"), litigation (e.g., SCO and USL v. BSDi), copyright term extension, and free culture.

From my limited knowledge, I think patents are a mixed bag. On one hand, I agree that they are a necessary incentive, but I also think they can be abused, particularly with "software" patents. I think "patent trolls" (see also, "When Patents Attack") and high-stakes lawsuits harm innovation.

In my senior year of high school, we wrote our own Supreme Court decisions for ongoing cases. I chose to write a decision (PDF) about Bilski v. Kappos, a case on patent eligibility.

I also was an active amateur radio operator for a while in high school, so I think wireless mobile technologies will be fun to learn and discuss.

I'm taking IEOR 190G in the hope that I'd satisfy my curiosity and gain a new, informed (engineering) perspective on patents.

Hello, world!

Hi, I'm a civil engineering student in my senior year with an emphasis on transportation and a minor in city and regional planning. I originally hail from the New York metropolitan area but am quite comfortable in the Bay Area for now.

I'm interested in information technology and public policy. I'm currently working with Professor Waddell in the Urban Analytics Lab. I've been the general manager of the Open Computing Facility, a student organization that operates a web hosting service and computer lab, for the past six semesters. I've co-facilitated the Unix system administration DeCal twice. I also worked in a DevOps role at a startup, Kloudless, for two years.