Advise on a Successful Career in Asia

1. Anthony K. H. Tung School of Computing National University of Singapore Advise on a Successful Career in Asia What I Think Will Bring a Successful Career in Asia

2. We are from Asia! • Asia • 44,900,000 km2 , covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) • almost 4 billion people, i.e. more than 60% of the world's current human population • large diversity in languages and cultures • Asia • Large number of database researchers • Important talent sources for database research • Let’s do a spatial analysis on that • National University of Singapore (NUS) • Benefit immensely from the Cosmopolitan nature of Singapore with in term of student intake • Have a very large database group (too large to put on the red dot) with lots of visitors every year • Lots of funding for emerging area and students come free • For modest reason (and also for the sake of peace), we won’t hype on the fact that these two guys in fact come from a more specific region of South-East Asia! • Singapore • the “little red dot”, nicknamed by an ex-Indonesia President • Area: 692.7 km2, i.e. 0.00154% of Asia • Population: 4.5 million, i.e. 0.11% of Asia ‘s population • Resources: location, human brains, reserve of US$115 billions • Focus on research to maintain it’s competitiveness. • Attracting talented students is of utmost importance We are from Asia!

3. Context • Enough of chest beating! The points to take note is as follow • Singapore ’s situation at most represent only 0.1% of Asia. Will try to make things general with you doing the customization • Working in Asia mean working near a very large student talent pool. How do you benefit from it? • As a new researcher, things can be separated into categories • No choice: Where you are born. How high is your IQ. How handsome/pretty you look. Where you graduate from etc. • Have choice: How hardworking, honest, nice you are etc. How you manage yourself and how you manage others. • The fun part is to optimize within the space of “have choices” under the constraints of the “no choices”

4. The main difference after Phd… • No more Phd. advisor to guide you • Beside doing the technical stuff for your research, you need to • manage yourself • manage your students • manage your bosses • manage…. • The technical part is easy as long as you can find time away from the management part!

5. Managing Yourself

6. Finding your own identity • In case you are unaware, you have been living (and taking shelter) under the shadow of you supervisor. It’s time to find your own identity in order to grow • If building a career is like drawing a circle, then your must first ask yourself where is the center. On then can you define “success” You

7. Finding your own identity(II) • Lots of choices on what type of researchers we want to be. The important thing is to do a self-assessment on • you abilities • your personal constraints • your ambition • What is your research directions • do I want to stay in an “old” area and try to pick the fruits higher up the tree? • do I want to follow others into a hot, emerging area to find low hanging fruits? • do I want to try to identify and lead the community into a new, important area? • don’t care, just published approach is not advisable though

8. Finding your own identity (III) • How do you see your students? • are they there just to help you get tenured ? • are you obliged to train/prepare them for their future ? • What type of collaborators do you want? • a friend who can go for a drink/chat? Or strict professional relationship? • should you work with senior/junior collaborator • do you see yourself as a nurturer? • What is the role of professional activities in your career? • Reviewing duties always there • Tutorial/Workshop advisable only for well defined area which is the focus of your research • The last thing you want to have is to be seen as a professional “professional activities” organizer • professional service with good research can made you famous, professional service without research make you infamous

9. Finding your own identity (IV) • Eventually, you need to ask yourself what you want to stand for and develop a set of principles for actions that is consistent with what you represent

10. Moving Forwards (I) • “Short” term papers with long term plan • Road is not always smooth Integrated Mining of Biological Databases Graphs, Trees, Sequences, High Dimensional Search Initial idea of many papers from 2004-2007 started in 2001

11. Quotes the have inspired me • “We can’t choose reviewers but we can choose to write good papers” • Raymond Ng, UBC • “If you think your idea is going to be published by someone else tomorrow, then probably it is not too innovative” • Philip Long, Google

12. Managing Students

13. We are trained in USA! Can you train them like us! First things first, will we get good students in Asia ? • That however is not the right question to ask.

14. Are there good students ? • North America/Europe recruitment system have high precision but low recall • Chelsea FC vs Arsenal FC • Chelsea is rich and can get good/talented players easier • Arsenal is poor and must spot unproven gems and groom them based on their talents • As a new, junior researcher, which one can you follow? • Guiding and training students is part of an academia’s job. You miss half the fun (and success) if you don’t do that. Bottom line, you should try to • convert weak student to strong student • convert strong student to stronger student

15. Selecting students • Interest and Curiosity • Persistency • Refuse them three time and if they come back again, they are probably persistent enough • Honesty and Integrity • Open mindness • Diligent and Discipline • Intelligence vs Patience • Examination take 2 hours, solving a research problem might take 20 years. Think fast and think deep are two different things sometime.

16. Continuing with the football analogy… • In many ways, you are player/manager of your research team • As a manager, you must • believe in their potential, • motivate them • put them in the correct position • plus handle all the admin of course!) • As a player, you need to continue with your technical development in order to assume the playmaker role to create goal scoring chances for them

17. Standard leadership techniques applies… • Leadership by example • Think win-win, • prepare them for their future • Clear guideline on the do/don’t etc. • The “chip on the shoulder” motivation • “they think you are not good enough, prove it to them!” • “people with a chip on the shoulder need to work harder” • Most can be learned in a leadership course, but practicing them is a different stories • The resultant impact on your career if successful is however immense

18. Final words • Two things not taught during Phd. training • Managing yourself • Managing students • Being in Asia, you are near to a very huge talent pool. These talents can help you in your research, but remember to fulfill the other end of the deal • Some of those things here might seems idealistic. Unfortunately, I have decide that this is what I stand for  • Finally, I have volunteered to Ihab to give this talk with the belief that I can provide something useful for the new researchers. If this is not the case, I offer my sincere apologies!

19. Jonathan the seagull… • May your career soar like him!