Hammad Mazhar
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hammadmazhar.bsky.social
Hammad Mazhar
@hammadmazhar.bsky.social
240 followers 78 following 86 posts
Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Northern Colorado. Broadly interested in security and privacy issues in the IoT ecosystem. Growing the CS program at UNC
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hammadmazhar.bsky.social
@apf.bsky.social you've made it to my Instagram reel scroll somehow:
A tweet by Adriana Porter Felt describing how she asks questions of her child instead of telling them things and how they've turned that back on her when she ignored the speed limit by first asking her about it and then asking if her current speed is higher than observed speed limit.
July 15, 2025 at 6:38 AM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
As I think about the Fall intro to CS course, so much here I want to convey to students.
May 26, 2025 at 4:35 AM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
markriedl.bsky.social
So many good zingers deplet.ing/the-copilot-...
The Copilot Delusion
Disclaimer: This post was written May 2025, and the arguments apply to AI code capabilities at this time. The arguments around lack of competence are certainly likely to become less prevalent-while th...
deplet.ing
May 25, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
fractalecho.bsky.social
If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.

You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.

Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
May 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
cfiesler.bsky.social
This is one of the worst violations of research ethics I've ever seen. Manipulating people in online communities using deception, without consent, is not "low risk" and, as evidenced by the discourse in this Reddit post, resulted in harm.

Great thread from Sarah, and I have additional thoughts. 🧵
sarahagilbert.bsky.social Sarah Gilbert @sarahagilbert.bsky.social · Apr 26
The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988
From the changemyview community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the changemyview community
tinyurl.com
April 26, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
neeldhara.bsky.social
I am hoping to include ideas for class activities, and historical anecdotes with an emphasis on the Indian context.

If you are teaching undergrad DM next term, and if you would be willing to stress test this text, would you please reach out?

(2/3)
March 31, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
oscarlevin.com
Shameless self back-patting: www.unco.edu/news/article...
Oscar Levin Honored for Open Educational Excellence
The UNC mathematics professor was recently awarded the inaugural Open Education Excellence Award by the Affordable and Open Educational Resources Committee.
www.unco.edu
March 29, 2025 at 2:53 PM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
In my case it was playing video games but guilty as charged.
darinself.com Darin Self @darinself.com · Nov 29
Every academic right now
A version of the kermit vs darth kermit meme where good kermit tells the online academic that they should grade, while darth kermit tells them they should eat more pie.
November 30, 2024 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
nathangrayson.bsky.social
first guest is @ramiismail.com, who explained why games mess up arabic and how that's both a result of and catalyst for anti-arab sentiment. we also discussed dreams on a pillow, a palestinian project he's producing on that has an “in case of our creative director getting massacred” contingency plan
Nathan: I would assume that that probably necessitated a very clear idea of what the vision is for this game, so that if, god forbid, somebody has to take over, they can do it and see his vision through – as opposed to having to do a lot of guesswork? Rami: Days and days of conversation and plotting things out and talking about what it means – why he’s taking a certain symbol or moment, why he really wants to include this or that. Really understanding where he was coming from was a big part of that. Normally as a producer in the games industry, you’re focused more on shipping the title than the meaning of the title. You’re the one who’s responsible for keeping everybody else to a timeline. But in this game, I sort of by necessity had to step into the creative role a bit every now and then, just to make sure I understand why we’re doing certain things. Rashid really wanted all the dream sequences – which are sort of historical sequences where you play our main character when she’s a child in Palestine before the Nakba – to start and end with you coming home and opening the door with your home key. And so one of the items you always have in your inventory is this key. We asked why he was so obsessed with the key, and he was like “Many Palestinians, when they were displaced in the Nakba, they kept the keys to their home.” Even though they were banned from ever returning to their home, they kept the key as a symbol of “One day we will return to this.”
November 28, 2024 at 4:47 PM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
I'm seeing a sudden uptick in followers today, and I don't think I've done something of note recently (unless this is just the BlueSky/X immigration). Most of you new folk are from computational social science . So..... What made you follow me?
November 14, 2024 at 8:45 PM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
If there's one thing I'm learning in the first year of the professor life, it's that I need to build the mental stamina for multiple class teaching days.
October 5, 2024 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
ignactro.bsky.social
👋 networky people, I have created @acm-imc.bsky.social follow it for updates related to the Internet Measurement Conference conferences.sigcomm.org/imc/2024/
ACM IMC 2024
conferences.sigcomm.org
September 18, 2024 at 10:41 AM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
ah just missed the top 10%
September 17, 2024 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Hammad Mazhar
mariaa.bsky.social
Wrote a short thing about why people should use Bluesky. Feel free to share if you think it will be persuasive!

maria-antoniak.github.io/2024/08/12/n...
August 13, 2024 at 4:13 PM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
Big thanks to @shriram.bsky.social who was able to drop by UNC in Greeley to talk to our Math department about curriculum design and about Bootstrap. Really interesting work and certainly appreciated by our colleagues.
Shriram Krishnamurti giving a talk on Curriculum design.
April 22, 2024 at 9:41 PM
hammadmazhar.bsky.social
In an actual post on this platform, I defended my PhD. Thesis yesterday. I will be joining the Dept. of Mathematical Sciences @ University of Northern Colorado as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Computer Science.
November 15, 2023 at 9:24 PM