Yibin Xu, PhD Student at the Software, Data People & Society Section

Hi Yibin, what are you working on these days?

I'm working on several projects that relate to blockchain and the DCR graph for the PAPRiCAS research project. I'm investigating the blockchain's performance enhancement methods in terms of transaction per second. I am also looking into how to model the business process to the blockchain. We already made some progress. Recently we had one paper and one poster accepted to good venues in the field, and we still have three papers undergoing major/minor revisions.

How do you explain to your grandparents what you do?

Unfortunately, my grandparents passed away when I was very young. Ask my parents why they met each other so late in their life :< But if my grandparents were still alive, I would say: I am developing magic that help people to trust each other and to work together even though they may be strangers and are located around the world.

What was your dream job as a child?

I had this question as my password reset question for iCloud when I was in middle school, I cannot successfully reset my password now. I guess that was because I am a dreamer who dreamed many things. When I was a teenager (I think I am still a teenager, BTW), I was (and still?) want to be a lawyer because I love reasoning and to arrive with unbreakable conclusions from given preconditions. Kind of like programming, but with more impact in the real world. In China you need to pick a path between liberal art and science when you entered high school, I left my lawyer dream for Computer Scientist. 

Which scientific riddle would you love to solve? 

Building trust over Internet. It is not an easy question, otherwise the server would not need the verification codes to tell if you are a human or not.

What do you do in your spare time? 

I am a gourmet who himself cannot cook. During my spare time I fly all over the world (with low-cost airline of course), to eat. I am also a swimmer although my body shape says otherwise.​

Who is your role model?

I don't really have one real world example role model. But I admire people who think logically and never compromise.

Which person in the world would you above all like to meet – dead or alive – and why?

I would like to meet the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Just out of curiosity, who is this mystery person who influenced the world in the past 16 years with only one prototype, an open-source code project and a pdf file.
​

What is your favorite spot in Copenhagen?

My backyard, I frequently invite people over for barbecue.

Which scientific trends concern you the most these days?

The gap between academic and industry is not something new, but I see some research being impractical and “write-only". It drives me concerns over the value of research life in general sometimes.

What is your best experience at DIKU?

Flexible working hour I would say. I am an owl in the sense of biological clock. Night helps me focus. You may run into me at 3AM in Sigurdsgade, but I also like work from home (or work from anywhere). I enjoy working with my colleagues and supervisors. I especially enjoy the times when I edit overleaf documents and go to sleep before sunrise, wakeup seeing changes from other people. It is like a relay race.

What is your favorite thing about Denmark?

Denmark is not extremely cold in the winter considering the high latitude, but has extremely good weather in other seasons.
​