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About Me

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor at Durham University in Durham, UK and am affiliated with the Department of Computer Science and with NESTiD as my primary research group and ACiD as my secondary research group. I am also affiliated with the Biophysical Sciences Institute and am a Fellow of the Durham Institute of Research, Development, and Invention.

I currently work on the theoretical foundations of distributed computing. There are two main lines of research I pursue: (1) solving graph problems over a network and (2) solving problems involving autonomous agents over a graph.  In addition to studying problems from each line of research in traditional settings, I also enjoy looking at problems in less traditional settings where things can go wrong. In particular, working in an asynchronous setting, dealing with faulty processors/agents, and dealing with dynamically changing graphs are flavors of research, which when applied to the problems I already look at, make them more enjoyable to work on.

Previously, I was a postdoc at the University of Houston in Houston, TX, USA where I worked with Prof. Gopal Pandurangan and was affiliated with the Department of Computer Science in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Prior to that, I was a postdoc at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel where I worked with professors Shay Kutten, Yuval Emek, and Ron Lavi and was affiliated with the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management. Even earlier than that, I worked on my Ph. D. in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras where I worked with Prof. John Augustine in the area of Distributed Algorithms. I was associated with the Algorithms and Complexity Theory Lab and the Theory Group, CSE Dept., IITM.

To me, algorithms are fun. Taking a problem and solving it was always something enjoyable for me. Distributed algorithms are even more so in that sense. All the planning and plotting, the fact that you have to deal with so many interesting corner cases and the fine line between a perfectly working algorithm and a disaster. That is some exciting stuff to work on. And when you add dynamism into the picture, the feeling you get is similar to considering a very sharp position in a chess match. The complexity involved, the subtleties and the overall challenge of the game. I love that stuff. It's fun, exciting, and to top it off, the work has a relatively quick impact on the so called "real world". The gap between theory and practice isn't as much as in some other fields.

Research Interests

• Distributed algorithms.

• Biologically inspired computing.

• Peer to Peer networks.

• Movement and computing, especially involving mobile agents on a graph.

• Algorithms in general.

Curriculum Vitae

You can download a copy of my CV here (last updated on November 24th, 2023).

Note About my Name

My full name is William Kumar Moses Jr. I use William K. Moses Jr. for papers and other important matters. However, if you're talking with/emailing me, please call me Billy.