---
tags: chapman, projects
---

# Ideas for Ongoing and Future Research

(... always under construction ...)

Most of my research has been in [logic](https://hackmd.io/@alexhkurz/SyhGzLI5Y) and [category theory](https://hackmd.io/@alexhkurz/r18dMLIqK) and I touch on some of this in my courses *Programming Languages*, *Compiler Construction*, *Algorithm Analysis* and various special topic courses on natural language processing, smart contracts and theorem proving (Lean).

In the following, I list areas I am interested in and which have (existing or potential) connections to programming languages research.

Currently, I summarize my interests under the title of cooperative systems science (subject to change).

## Cooperative Systems Science

How does organization and cooperation emerge from systems of autonomous interacting components?

This question arises in many areas such as physics (condensed matter physics), evolutionary biology (the evolution of cooperation), evo-devo, primatology, anthropology, neuroscience, ecology, evolutionary psychology, social science, economics (game theory, mechanism design, institutional economics, behavioral economics), computer science, management, law, finance, criminology, political science, international relations. One area of research that draws on insights of all of these fields is network science but afaics its methods are somewhat restricted and not able to address all interesting questions.

My interest is to shed new light on these areas from a software engineering point of view.

Blockchain technology and generative AI are changing quickly what software can do.

For many decades already, software engineers have been running (wittingly or not) real world experiments on a global scale by releasing software for collaboration such as social media.[^Haidt]

It is time to turn the question of how software engineering is changing the world into an expiremental *science*.

[^Haidt]: For one analysis of these experiments see the blog [After Babel](https://www.afterbabel.com/) by Jonathan Haidt. Btw, this blog is also a meta-example because it itself shows how to use software to collaborate and crowdsource.

## Software Engineering Projects

Here are some research projects that have large software engineering components. Everybody can contribute. Let me know if any of that interest you.

- Personal AI Assistant
- Moderation on Decentralized Social Media
- A Platform for Online Economic Experiments
- Ask The Founders
- Trusted AI
- Explainable Chess AI

I recently gave a lecture [Designing Algorithms for Cooperation](https://hackmd.io/@alexhkurz/BJXjBaxJC) in my Algorithm Analysis course on how all of this fits together.