It’s hard to remember what machine learning conferences were like in person, but I think that I liked them a lot better when the field was smaller. It was easier to meet new people, to talk about new ideas in small groups of talented peo...
I got a question the other day about how to start a career in machine learning. I gave the best answer that I could, but I’m not sure that my best was very good. Can you help? If so, join the discussion on social media (or send me a note...
If you’re reading this blog, then you already know about PhD Comics. If you really haven’t seen them before, click the link and read them now. They are more insightful and funnier than anything in this blog.
I’m a sucker for New Year’s resolutions. Every year I make up a half dozen resolutions, usually the same ones each year, and carefully track my progress for at least two or three months before I get busy and forget all about them. And in...
A lot of scientific communication happens at poster sessions. It’s a great way to learn about the field, and to meet new people with similar research interests. It’s also a great way to be noticed in a crowded research field. Presenting ...
A natural way to end this serious of posts would be to talk about impostor syndrome. Instead, let me say something more personal about how I experience self-doubt.
The fourth in a tidal wave of posts about stress in research.
The third post in what is becoming an increasingly long series on stress in research.
The second post in what is perhaps a series on stress in research.
Perhaps the first post in a series.
We had a fun time on the professors’ Facebook the other day, swapping stories of the dumbest travel mistakes that we’ve made. You know, booking flights to the wrong country, forgetting to book a hotel, registering for the conference twic...
Alternate title: How having an imaginary friend can help you in research.
I’ve tried a lot of different methods to organize my email. None of them work.
Several students have recently asked me for advice about time management. When people ask you a important and difficult question like this, usually the best thing is to think of someone else who can give a better answer than you. For tim...
Of the many quirks shared by computer scientists, one that has somewhat entered the popular culture is the use of computing metaphors to speak about how we think. For example, “multitasking” is actually a technical term invented by compu...
Years ago I attended a lecture from a famous master of the game of Go. He is revered not only for the many championships he has won, or even for his daring and distinctive style, but also for his insightful and even witty commentary on t...
One of my PhD students is on his way to his first academic conference. Conferences are one of my favourite parts of research: I’ve met so many interesting people and started so many fun collaborations that way.
One of my favourite aspects of academia in the UK is the final oral examination for the PhD — formally called a viva voce, which everyone seems to call a viva (VEYE-vah). The viva is an oral examination that typically consists of the stu...
A large part of taste in research is deciding what not to work on. You might choose not to apply method X, even though you don’t really understand it, because it has a reputation for being fiddly and difficult to get right. You might cho...
Ubiquitous capture is a great term from Getting Things Done. Like the best ideas from GTD, it is simple, obvious in retrospect, but changes everything. Ubiquitous capture means: When you think of something, you should write it down, righ...
I have almost recovered from submitting a grant proposal last week. When I was revising it, I realized that there’s actually an easy way to tell how good one of your proposals is.
A switch flipped in my head at the beginning of my lectures last spring. At that point I had lectured something like 5 full university courses and maybe something like 50 research seminars. I was an experienced speaker.
It seems customary for computer science research papers to list directions for future work at the end. This custom is immensely strange. If your idea for future work is really good, the last thing you want to do is tell everyone about it...
It’s the time of year when teaching is very much on my mind. In an essay about his teaching style, Michael Scott says something about encouraging student participation that stuck with me:
A rite of passage for US PhD students is the title page of their dissertation. The way that faculty indicate their approval of the final dissertation is by signing the title page, and students are required to leave space on the title pag...
Ali Eslami has just writen a terrific page on organizing your experimental code and output. I pretty much agree with everything he says. I’ve thought quite a bit about this and would like to add some background. Programming for research ...
