Aaron Williams

Aaron Williams is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Williams College. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Victoria (2009) and prior degrees from the University of Waterloo. Before joining Williams, he served as an Assistant Professor at Bard College at Simon’s Rock (2014–2018) and held postdoctoral positions at Guelph, Carleton, and McGill Universities. His research focuses on algorithms and combinatorics, with a recent emphasis on retrogame archaeology—examining how retro video games managed computational constraints. He collaborates extensively with undergraduate students on topics like puzzle complexity.

Williams' educational background includes a BMath (2001) and MMath (2003) in Computer Science from Waterloo, followed by industry experience as a programmer at Corel and Autodesk. His work bridges theoretical computer science with practical applications, particularly in combinatorial generation and Gray codes. He teaches courses at Williams and maintains an active research agenda in computational puzzles and historical game analysis.

His research interests span algorithm design, combinatorial enumeration, and the intersection of computer science with retro gaming. He has published widely on topics like universal cycles, de Bruijn sequences, and NP-hard puzzles.