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Finding and Training Your Advisor

CRA-W Graduate Cohort: 2013. Finding and Training Your Advisor. DIANE LITMAN PROFESSOR Computer Science DEPT University OF PITTSBURGH. *Thanks to prior speakers for these slides and content. Diane Litman. Education MS/PhD: University of Rochester, 1986

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Finding and Training Your Advisor

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  1. CRA-W Graduate Cohort: 2013 Finding and Training Your Advisor DIANE LITMAN PROFESSOR Computer Science DEPT University OF PITTSBURGH *Thanks to prior speakers for these slides and content.

  2. Diane Litman • Education • MS/PhD: University of Rochester, 1986 • AB: College of William and Mary, 1980 • Positions • 2001-present: University of Pittsburgh • Computer Science Department (Associate/Full Professor) • Intelligent Systems Program (Secondary Appointment, Past/Upcoming Director) • Learning Research and Development Center (Research/Senior Scientist) • 1985-2001: AT&T Labs - Research (formerly Bell Laboratories) • Artificial Intelligence Principles Research Department (Member of/Principal Technical Staff) • 1990-1992: Columbia University • Computer Science Department (Assistant Professor) • Service • Chair (elected): North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 2000-2001, 2002-2003 • Editorial Boards (current): Journal of AI Research, Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics • Member of many technical program committees • Speaker: CRA-W Graduate Cohort, 2007

  3. My Research Areas • Speech and Language Processing • Spoken Dialogue Systems • Enabling Technologies • Artificial Intelligence in Education • Tutorial Dialogue • Web-Enabled Peer Review • Automated Essay Assessment • Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Natural Language Learning, and User Modeling

  4. Advanced degree == researchNeed an Advisor/Mentor • At some point in your graduate career, you need to find a research adviser/mentor • How do you do that? What is important about the process and that choice?

  5. What is a Research Advisor? Learning to do research - Apprenticerelationship: Explains, shows and helps you do research • Find a research problem • Get proper background: literature, skills at critical reading and understanding • Apprentice research – • How to identify problems worthy of Ph.D. • How to tackle problems • Organize and write papers & proposals • Give talks

  6. What is a Mentor? • A Mentor • acts as advocate for your professional & personal development as well as research • develops and lasts over an extended period of time • provides help, advice, contacts, and information • provides encouragement and acts as advocate • Research advisor may or may not be a mentor

  7. Need both, or more • If adviser not a mentor, need to find one – or more • Could be in department or not • Could be in research area but in different university or industry • Can have more than 1 mentor • Finding a research advisor that is also a mentor is ideal, but you can find a mentor elsewhere!

  8. Expectations from the combination of advisor and mentor Beyond research: • Help build confidence – encouragement • Help with networking • Conferences, workshops, email • Helps prepare you for talks • Helps prepare you for interviews • Helps with funding

  9. Finding an Advisor • Two important components • The research • The personality

  10. Doing a PhD is not easy • It takes sustained work in an area • There are many hurdles to get over But the rewards are amazing!!! • You need a research area/topic that you truly enjoy and can have passion about • You need an advisor that will help you achieve your potential

  11. Where are you now? • Best case situation: you know what research you want to do before you even choose your school • In this case: you don’t shop for a school, you shop for an advisor

  12. Don’t know your research area? • You need to shop for one – but you should consider advisor personalities as you do so • How? • Take classes • Talk to professors • Do projects with professors • Talk to other students about the faculty

  13. Finding/evaluating an adviser • Is the person in a research area you like? • Is the person’s work current and relevant? Funded? Where published? • How many students does she supervise? • How long does it take students to finish? • What is the placement of past students? • Are students given responsibilities? • How responsive is adviser? • How long to return written materials? • How accessible? • How helpful?

  14. Finding/evaluating an adviser • How much freedom does the student have? • Learn to do research – find problems • Does the adviser publish with students? What is the order of names? • Who presents the papers that are co-authored? • Does the person take students to conferences and help with networking? • Are the person’s work habits compatible with own?

  15. How to find out • Look at faculty’s web page • TALK to current and past students! • Work on a small project with her/him • Take a class from faculty member

  16. Advisor/Student Relationship • Not one size fits all! • There needs to be a match for you • What motivates you • Praise/criticism? • What is your working style • Groups (what size) versus alone? • Pressured or relaxed? • One track or multi-task? • Quiet or hustle and bustle? • Regular meetings or on-demand?

  17. Barriers to good mentoring • Faculty member doesn’t have enough time to devote to mentoring • Being too busy is not acceptable • Faculty member and student are in competition with each other • Faculty member and student lack personal experience with people of different backgrounds • Trust/Respect is not there – different agenda • Communication problems - listening • Unrealistic expectations

  18. Do and Don’ts Do • Listen and consider advice of adviser • Talk to adviser if have a problem in research • Make sure you are getting what you need from an adviser • Talk to adviser if not satisfied • Make sure (mutual) expectations are clear Don’t • Criticize your adviser in public • Get too involved personally with adviser – including intimate relationship

  19. It doesn’t always work out • Sometimes an advisor/advisee don’t work out together • The earlier this can be identified, the better off you are • Be honest and open about any problems • May need to simply find another advisor! • Funding implications? • Hard feeling? (hopefully not!) • Don’t bad mouth your advisor even if you switch

  20. Advisor/Mentors • Advisors and Mentors – very special people in your life. Relationship will have lasting effects on your career and your life • A Mentor relationship(s) grow over time – and may be found in unexpected places • These are important relationships and having a match is something that takes some thought. Take the time to do it right!

  21. Thanks to others who came before me for the deck of slides!! • Chandra Krintz, 2012 • SohaHassoun, 2011 • … • Mary Lou Soffa, 2007 • .. And beyond..

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