PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Donald J. Patterson

Also known as Donald Patterson, Donald Jay Patterson

Donald Patterson is a computer scientist whose research connects AI with activity recognition, context-aware computing and human-computer interaction. He earned degrees at Cornell, served as a Navy officer and completed a computer science PhD at Washington. At UC Irvine, he developed context-aware systems and shared a 2012 sustainability award; he later taught at Westmont and co-founded Blockpliance to build AI tools for cryptocurrency risk analysis. He is LedgerLink's vice president of AI and machine learning and leads production work on personalized AI-generated educational videos.

Works
149
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 1994–2005

    Cornell, the Navy and a PhD

    At Cornell, he earns a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1994 and a Master of Engineering in electrical engineering in 1995. He serves as a U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer stationed in Italy and Japan before completing a computer science PhD at the University of Washington in 2005.

  2. 2005–2015

    Context-aware research at UC Irvine

    From 2005 to 2015, he is a tenured professor at UC Irvine's Donald Bren School and directs the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction. His academic work connects artificial intelligence, ubiquitous computing and human-computer interaction through activity recognition from Wi-Fi, GPS and RFID streams, and systems such as NomaticIM, a context-aware messenger, and NomaticAid, a photo-capture system. He coauthors a 2005 paper on fine-grained activity recognition by aggregating abstract object usage.

  3. 2012

    A sustainability award at CHI

    In 2012, he shares the Computing Community Consortium Sustainability Award at CHI with his co-authors for their paper on collapse informatics in human-computer interaction.

  4. 2015–2024

    Teaching at Westmont

    From 2015 to 2024, he teaches in Westmont College's Math and Computer Science Department in Santa Barbara. He also serves as visiting faculty at UC Irvine through 2024.

  5. 2023

    Founding Blockpliance

    In summer 2023, he leaves academia to co-found Blockpliance and becomes its full-time CTO. The startup develops AI-powered blockchain risk-analysis tools for cryptocurrency wallets and financial institutions.

  6. 2024

    AI and carbon emissions

    With Bill Tomlinson, Rebecca Black and Andrew Torrance, he publishes a 2024 Scientific Reports study comparing emissions from AI and human writing and illustration. It estimates that AI systems emit 130 to 1,500 times less CO2e per page of generated text than human writers.

  7. Since February 2025

    LedgerLink VP of AI and ML

    Since February 2025, he is LedgerLink's vice president of artificial intelligence and machine learning and remains a project scientist at UC Irvine. In May 2026, he leads AI-video production for an online-course study that finds students prefer personalized AI-generated videos over non-personalized human-recorded videos.

Career

  1. Since 2025LedgerLinkVice President of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
  2. Since 2005University of California, IrvineTenured Professor, Visiting faculty
  3. From 2023BlockplianceCo-founder and CTO
  4. 2015–2024Westmont College
  5. Until 2005United States Department of the NavySurface Warfare Officer

Education

  1. 2005University of WashingtonPhD in computer science
  2. 1995Cornell UniversityMaster of Engineering in electrical engineering
  3. 1994Cornell UniversityBachelor's degree in computer science

From the biography.

  1. 14% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Donald J. Patterson. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after their doctorate, and how the timing changed across cohorts.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of California, Irvine. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes University of California, Irvine. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of California, Irvine. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Donald J. Patterson yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Donald J Patterson III djp3.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. About - Donald J. Patterson djp3.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System faculty.uci.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Honors/Awards Archives - Donald J. Patterson djp3.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Blockpliance - Donald J. Patterson djp3.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Blockpliance Tech -> LedgerLink - Donald J. Patterson djp3.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. The carbon emissions of writing and illustrating are lower for AI than for humans pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Students Prefer Personalized, AI-Generated Educational Videos Over Non-Personalized, Human-Recorded Videos - Donald J. Patterson djp3.net. Checked 19 October 2026.