Brad Burkman, Senior Lecturer of Mathematics and Computer Science, was awarded a PhD in Computer Science by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Friday, May 10.
Dr. Burkman began his doctoral work in 2018 thanks to a year-long sabbatical made possible by the LSMSA Foundation. Dr. Burkman is Chair of LSMSA’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
“(The sabbatical) let me do a year on campus in Lafayette, where I did all of my required coursework,” Burkman said. “That was followed by five years of independent research.”
Burkman’s dissertation was entitled Decision Thresholding in Classification-Based Recommendation Systems. By coincidence, he graduated alongside a former student, LSMSA alum Jonas Truax (’19), who received his BS in Infomatics during the same ceremony.
Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (LSMSA) is the preeminent state-supported residential high school with competitive admissions for Louisiana's high-achieving, highly-motivated sophomores, juniors, and seniors. As a public school, there is no tuition to attend, and assistance from the LSMSA Foundation ensures the program is available to all qualifying students regardless of family financial need.