A local brainiac is on a mission to win the title of the biggest nerd in the country.

25-year-old Brandon Moore is an eccentric PhD student at Vanderbilt University on a national TV show called "King of the Nerds."

When
he's not analyzing data or competing in a nationally televised
nerd-off, you might find him rapping at a Nashville karaoke bar.

Moore's
latest research revolves around understanding how the human eye turns
light into images in the brain, but he has a history of less than
orthodox projects.

"I tried setting up a camera with a computer
to see if it could identify the gender of a person walking into my room
with me," Moore said.

If he walked in with a male, it would do
nothing, but if he walked in with a female, the system would dim the
lights and play romantic music.

Of course experiments don't always go as planned.

"Often
times when some of my guy buddies would come in it would dim the
lights," Moore said.  "That wasn't exactly expected so that was very
short lived."

The last few years have seen nerdiness skyrocket in pop culture.

From
hit shows like "The Big Bang Theory" to pro athletes like LeBron James
even giving press conferences in full nerd attire, the once maligned
moniker is now a popular pronoun.

But Moore says to be a  real  nerd, takes a whole lot more than just wearing the uniform.

"You
may lose sleep, forget to bathe or something while conducting data
analysis or something like that but you do it because you love it,"
Moore said.  "And that's really at the core of what being a nerd is."

Moore says aside from winning the competition, he hopes his research will lay the foundation to someday help cure blindness.

"King of the Nerds" airs Thursday nights on TBS.Vanderbilt Student Hopes to be King of the Nerds - Eric Alvarez