Transcript Starting and Growing Your Own Research Program

Starting and Growing Your Own
Research Program
Amanda Stent
Principal Research Scientist
Yahoo! Labs
New York, NY
Fatma Mili
Professor & Dpt. Head
Computer Information
Technology
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
CRA-W
Computer Research Association Committee on the Status of
Women in Computing Research
Mission increase the participation and
success of women in computing research
www.cra-w.org
What does CRA-W do?
Individual & Group Research Mentoring
Undergrads: Undergraduate Research Experiences
Undergrads: Distinguished lecture role models
Grad Cohort: group mentoring of grad students
Grad Students: Discipline Specific Research
workshops
PhD Researchers: group mentoring of early & mid
career @ CMW, CAPP, Hopper & Tapia
600+ students and PhD researchers a year
Academic careers
Undergraduates
Graduate Students
Industry/government
www.cra-w.org
Background – Amanda Stent
• Research Areas
– Computational linguistics
– Applications of NLP to assistive technology and
online privacy
• Where I’ve worked
– Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Labs - current
– Principal Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Labs –
Research (6 years)
– Assistant, then Associate Professor, Stony Brook
University (7 years)
• Where I studied
– PhD, CS, University of Rochester
– BA, Math and Music, Houghton College
Background – Fatma Mili
• In Academia since 1984
– Program Verification and Validation
– Distributed Computing and nature-inspired
Computing
– Statistical Validation of Non deterministic
Systems
– Optimization, Human Decision Making
– System Modeling and Knowledge
Representation
• PhD, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris,
France
Develop Your Reputation
Academia
• Identify a strong research problem with clear
short-term, medium-term and long-term goals
– Do not heavily overlap with advisors or other
faculty
– Establish your laboratory as quickly as possible
– Identify strong students
• You can no longer do all the work yourself!
• If you can, hire a post-doc, but do not replace students
– Identify and apply to appropriate funding
sources
– Publish in the publications that matter the most
Produce strong results that have an impact on
the field!
Develop Your Reputation
National Lab or Industry
• Identify how you can contribute to the
organization while building your career
– Develop your overall research and engineering
capabilities
– Establish your expertise/carve out your niche
– Identify good collaborators and champions
– Produce deliverables on time, show impact ($$) and
relevance
– Practice good, punchy short presentations/demos
• Maintain your external visibility
– Publish … or perish
– Host interns and visitors, collaborate with academia
Be ENTHUSIASTIC about what you are working on
NOW!
Reputation = work + networking
• Network
– Attend Important Conferences
– Volunteer in conferences and professional
associations
– Network
– Help others
• Self-promote
– Cite your work
– Give talks
– Maintain your online presence
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Your organization’s website
Your own website
Google Scholar/Microsoft Academic/Research Gate
Social media
Build Collaborations
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Internal and external collaborators
People you enjoy working with
Compatible or complementary skill set
Junior researchers who are also starting
research careers and have compatible
skills
• Senior researchers who think well of
your work
• Be generous with co-authorship on
papers
Build Collaborations
• Do
– Communicate effectively and be responsible
– Learn to multi-task
– Have a contingency plan
• Don’t
– Be a “student” for someone else
– Take it personally if a collaboration does not
work
– As a young post-PhD: Limit collaborations
with advisors, carefully handle
interdisciplinary collaborations, etc.
Develop Proposals
• Look for new proposal opportunities
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Early career proposal calls
As a collaborator/subcontractor
Internal funding grants
Travel grants
Private foundations or companies
Faculty Fellowships: AFOSR, NASA, etc.
• Learn the rules and constraints of your
organization with respect to funding
– Human subjects, animals, environmental
etc.
Develop Proposals
• Learn how different organizations
work and how they select proposals
• Ensure that your proposal is a good fit
for the call and addresses all review
criteria
• Serve on review panels
• Talk to the program manager
Swim With the Sharks
• Take credit for your work
• Avoid working with people who do not give
you credit for your work externally and
internally
• Present to senior researchers and managers
(prepare in advance)
• Learn how to give an elevator speech about
your research
• Meet the program managers who will have
influence on your funding
Do not be shy or understated, but don’t
overstate either!
Enjoy what you do
• Feel and share the passion and play in
research
• Pay it forward
• Please visit http://alturl.com/z4gp9