---
title: "Return of the Beard"
url: "http://andrewbolster.info/2015/09/return-of-the-beard/"
date: "2015-09-07T00:00:00Z"
tags: ["Academia","Networking","University of Liverpool","professional development"]
---

So today is my last official day in the University of Liverpool office. Time for a bit of reflection.

This is a self indulgent “For the sake of history and my bad memory” post so feel free to skip it.

It’s just over two years since I left Belfast, and in those two years, life got weird(er).

TL;DR for my own benefit in years to come:

- Worked for [DSTL](https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/defence-science-and-technology-laboratory) for a while on autonomous maritime systems
- Went to the Bournemouth Airshow
- Studied FPGA programming at [Cambridge](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netos/projects/netfpga/workshop/cambridge-september-2013/)
- Coordinated a [Raspberry Pi Outreach](https://blog.farsetlabs.org.uk/getting-kids-excited-about-computer-science-in-northern-ireland/) programme between Farset Labs, W5, and Digital Circle (along with the inimitable other Andrew; Mulholland)
- Spoke at [TEDxBelfast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja_huuD-K-M) and the [All Island Innovation Conference](http://www.intertradeireland.com/newsevents/news/2014/-intertradeireland-2014-all-island-innovation-conference.php)
- Built a green field network research lab from scratch (it’s still not finished)
- Joined the [Liverbeards](https://www.facebook.com/TheLiverbeards)
- Contributed to a joint project using atomic clocks for submarine location
- Went to [GDC](http://www.gdcvault.com/browse/gdc-14) in San Francisco as part of an InvestNI organised Trade Mission
- Visited the Microsoft and Google campuses in SF
- Visited [Noisebridge](https://www.noisebridge.net/) (and didn’t get involved in any drama…)
- Presented [some research](https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/SSS/SSS14/paper/view/7697) at Stanford
- Played with the [Intel Galileo](https://blog.farsetlabs.org.uk/join-farset-labs-and-intel-for-galileo-hack/)
- Went to Prague
- Got my first paper rejection
- Met the Queen, Prince Phillip, the Duke of York and a load of interesting entrepreneurs at Buckingham Palace
- Participated in VC negotiations and biz dev for a small tech firm
- Spoke at [Ignite Liverpool](http://igniteliverpool.com/2015/08/andrew-bolster-a-rant-about-a-visitors-perspective-of-liverpool/) (The video doesn’t do the animations justice…#cringe)
- Drank my way around Manchester [with a load of beards](https://instagram.com/p/15vy9cyxSg/)
- Secured funding for a Farset Labs [Raspberry Jam outreach programme](https://blog.farsetlabs.org.uk/getting-kids-excited-about-computer-science-in-northern-ireland/)
- Saw Dylan Moran Live
- Presented at a defence conference
- Attended a death metal gig in a suit
- Lost my passport and poster on the way to present at another defence conference…
- Took part in the [Worlds Biggest Catwalk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lCriYzt3Go)
- Presented at TrustCom in Helsinki
- Played [glow-in-the-dark-haunted-house-mini-golf](https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbolster/20802767021/) as part of what goes down in history as the most random night of my life…
- Was named Liverbeard “Beard of the Month” (well, I was leaving, they had to give me it sometime… :p )
- Participated in a mayoral discussion on smart cities
- Got the most unheard of submission extension
- Finally got rid of a collection of “joke” twitter accounts I’d wired up to IFTTT ages ago and forgotten about… (Sorry QUB…)
- Got a trim from barber-to-the-stars, [Cutthroat Pete](https://instagram.com/p/7OEpCaSxWQ/)
- Entered and won my first “food challenge”; a hot-wings challenge (and didn’t cry about it afterwards), also earning my second consecutive Liverbeard-of-the-month-status.
- Discovered far too many awesome bars in Liverpool
- Made some amazing friends I won’t be able to get rid of for the rest of my days
- Managed too many Undergrad, MSc and MEng projects

That’ll do.

Thanks Liverpool! You’ve been a blast and I’ll be back soon enough.

Belfast, prepare yourself.