Education: Masters Research

2003-2004: Trinity College Dublin, M.Sc. in Networks and Distributed Systems (NDS). NDS focused on technical skills aimed at developing distributed computer systems, however a strong business and inter-personal communication element was also present. This was achieved with the aid of outside venture capitalist input and multiple presentations to external visitors. The accompanying thesis I completed in 2004 is available online.

NDS had a strict entrance requirement wherein only students who had achieved a first class honours degree in their primary degree would be considered. This led to an atmosphere of healthy competition within the course, forcing all students to study at a higher level than previously.

The technical side of the course focussed on distributed protocols and computer systems, the secondary element of the course was of a business nature. Students had to develop an idea of their own choosing into a viable business plan. This plan was then pitched to venture capitalists, who criticised and commented from the perspective of these being in their offices and looking for start up capital.

A research project formed the final part of the Masters programme. I conducted my research under the supervision of Dr. Mads Haahr. The research focussed on a new routing algorithm for ad-hoc mobile networks. The core idea was one of taking advantage of the mobility of nodes within the system to aid in delivering messages. The algorithm looked for the nodes most likely to deliver to the destination node, assuming mobility patters existed (which for almost all animals is an accurate assumption). The Library in the School of Computer Science at TCD holds a copy of my thesis, and it is also available online.