Geoffrey Phipps

Part-Time Lecturer

  • PhD in Computer Science, Stanford University  
  • BSc in Computer Science, University of Sydney — Australia 

Geoffrey Phipps is an adjunct professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Seattle. 

Phipps has spent more than 20 years as a software engineer, manager, scrum master, product owner, and lecturer for institutions ranging from Amazon Web Services to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. He co-founded the digital wine media platform Corkscore and led technical integration for Australian telecommunications giant Singtel-Optus in Sydney. 

Phipps joined Khoury College as an adjunct professor in 2024 to inherit and rework the course “Building Scalable and Distributed Systems,” which he continues to teach. He is fascinated by the large-scale distributed systems that support the modern web, and he's excited to train the next generation of engineers to take over what he sees as the most complex piece of technology humans have ever built. He has always enjoyed mentoring, and finds the opportunity to teach an advanced and practical course to master’s students very exciting. 

Phipps is passionate about historical war games, with one published title under his belt (Gallipoli 1915: Churchill's Greatest Gamble) and a second in the works. He also serves as the president of the gaming club Metro Seattle Gamers.