For all 8 of my readers, I have some news. It’s taken a few years, many dead ends, and lots of searching… eh, I’ll just cut right to the chase. I’ve been offered the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. at Poly/NYU (Polytechnic Institute at New York University), and the whole gig is paid for! My last day at work will come at the very end of June; in August I move to New York City.
Poly is the second oldest private technology university in the nation. My program will be computer science, but the plan is to do something quite unique with it. It appears I’ll be able to pull in elements of ITP at the Tisch School of the Arts. And most importantly, I have a tremendously cool adviser in Katherine Isbister who is also the director of the new Center of Innovation for Technology and Entertainment.
As Yogi Berra said, it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. I can explain my intentions, but only time will tell what comes. Graduate studies are, for me, running off to the circus for a while so I can pursue and develop the topics of this site full time. That is, I intend for my work to be focused on play technologies and rooted in affective computing and HCI. When done, I don’t plan to teach or find some research job. All this is preparation for some crazy entrepreneurial thing to come later. Who knows. Maybe I’ll just get to change the world by helping us all to play together. Or, at minimum, I’ll get to fail in spectacular fashion (not necessarily a bad thing either).
This is a huge deal, and it’s going to be a big adventure. I’m really excited to go but also not eager to leave. Let’s hope I can keep up with all the other people who are way smarter than me. Wish me luck. This blog is where I’ll talk about the cool projects, ideas, and people I get to work with.