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Jonathan Ullman
@thejonullman
Associate Professor of Computer Science @KhouryCollege @Northeastern. Probably an imposter.
Newton, Massachusetts
Joined July 2020
Posts
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    Feeling a little bashful, but also very proud of my father (and Alfie).
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    ๐Ÿป๐ŸŽ‰ Very excited to say that I now have tenure! A sincere thank you to the many many people who helped along the way. ๐ŸŽ‰๐Ÿป
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    BIG NEWS! I'll be moving to @UMichCSE in Fall 2025! I'm super excited about my new colleagues and my whole family is really looking forward to life in Ann Arbor. I'll really miss the friends I've made in my decade @Northeastern @KhouryCollege but ready for this new adventure.
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    I've been wearing this outfit in all my talks for the past 18 months. Why did people just start commenting on it today?
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    New faculty have been asking me for tips on starting out with PhD students, and I thought I'd share some of them here. Be warned, this advice is just what I've picked up from experience, and may or may not translate to your personality or the kind of work you do. ๐Ÿงต1/?
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    True Story: Once I was talking to a statistician after a CS to try and clear up some confusion over terminology. I said "I think we're just giving the same words different significance" and they replied "No no no, significance is 5%." I think about this a lot.
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    Last Spring, DP co-inventor Adam Smith and I jointly taught an intro course on DP. We've finally gotten around to making a YouTube channel with all our lecture videos. I hope you enjoy them!
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    The "related work" section is a misnomer. The introduction of the paper is where you explain the prior work you build on. The related work section is where you explain all the work someone might have thought is directly related, but actually is not.
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    I'm proud to introduce America's newest doctor, and my first-ever graduating PhD student, Albert Cheu!
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    When I try to start something new, like a talk or proposal, I usually end up staring at a blank screen for a few hours making no progress. I used to feel bad about myself for wasting time, but now I put "stare at blank screen" on my calendar and make it part of my process.
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    It's important to have friends who are not academics, just to remind you how weird academics are. I found out that one of the other dads at my kid's school plays for the Red Sox. This was huge news among my non academic friends. Among my academic friends, crickets.
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    I gave a talk @SimonsInstitute about the complexity of differential privacy and you can watch it here: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/differenโ€ฆ I tried something new by giving a survey of the major questions, rather than a talk about a recent paper. I, for one, thought it went well.
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    As a teenager I used to complain that the top Google hit for my name was some Jon Ullman from the Sierra Club. Well today he and another Jon Ullman emailed me out of the blue to congratulate me on dominating the entire first page of hits. I guess I've really made it.
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    ๐Ÿšจ I'm trying something new๐Ÿšจ On Friday 1/7 at 9am CA Time I am going to have a "Fireside Chat" for anyone who wants to come and talk about anything remotely related to academic computer science. Fill out ๐Ÿ‘‡ for the link forms.gle/SHhq3DUBuTywCxโ€ฆ More in๐Ÿงต 1/?