University of N.H., Durham (2018-2024) - Patrick Russell McElhiney

Patrick R. McElhiney is currently enrolled in a PhD degree program in the studies of Computer Science at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, which he started in the Fall of 2018. He is majoring in Artificial Intelligence.

Patrick is currently looking for an employer to support his research work during his PhD degree. There has not been a decision made regarding what type of research Patrick will conduct, however it may be centered around Information Security and Artificial Intelligence.

Why a PhD?

Pursuing scholarly activity is perhaps one of the greatest honors in academia that someone can be charged with, and that is exactly what Patrick McElhiney is setting out to do. He doesn't want a career of pencil pushing, and creating widgets that often break under the stress of load. Patrick wants to have a very lucrative career, and wants to be able to contribute the absolute maximum amount that he can to an organization of his choosing in the future.

Patrick doesn't have an ego that looks down on those that don't pursue higher education - because Patrick wasn't always a top academic candidate. He knows what it's like to not be rich and famous, and he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in those types of limitations. Patrick has always worked to pursue the advancement of his career, even when profit was not an issue. Patrick has done things in his career that can only be attributed to him pursuing the improvement of himself for the purpose of advancing his career and understanding of his industry.

Some have rallied that Patrick will be so in debt to his student loans, that he'll never get out from underneath them, however Patrick believes that he can turn a profit regardless of how much he borrows. Patrick's only limitation currently is the amount of time that he can spend on business activities, because of his full-time status in school. However, Patrick has made significant contributions to his industry through MCE123, and he will continue to do so regardless of whether he is successful in profiting or not - because even if the company, or Patrick, are in significant debt to their investors, the intelligence behind the company is still worth a lot more than the debt. It's just a matter of finding the right buyer, and any creditor knows this, and will continue to loan Patrick as much money as he needs to pursue his development of technologies. With a Computer Science degree, the code is reusable, so it essentially becomes an issue of how marketable the code is - and Marketing is Patrick's second talent - his original career field.

Prerequisites

Patrick is charged with having to take several pre-requisites because he changed majors, again, from Information Technology (IT) to Computer Science (CS). It's true that CS is more theoretical, however Patrick brings a business career to the practicality of his CS career, and he is studying advanced math to ensure that he fully understands all of the intricacies of his CS materials - especially the Artificial Intelligence background, which consists highly of Calculus. Patrick could have gotten away with just taking one prep math class, however he determined that this wouldn't be the best decision for his future employer(s), so his program will take approximately an extra year to 1.5 years to complete - by 2023.

Classes Completed

CS 515 Data Structures [ Grade Received: A- ]
CS 900 Graduate Seminar [ Grade Received: A ]
MATH 418 Analysis and Applications of Functions (Pre-Calculus) [ Grade Received: A ]
CS 580 Introduction to Topics in Computing: Android Programming [ Grade Received: P ]