Managing Opportunities

Lori A. Clarke

Department of Computer Science

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Research Paths

Software Testing

Static Analysis

Object Management

SDEs

Software Architecture

Static Analysis

Requirements Engineering

Scientific Workflow

Digital Government

Medical Safety

Research Paths

Software Testing

Static Analysis

Object Management

SDEs

Software Architecture

Static Analysis

Requirements Engineering

Scientific Workflow

Digital Government

Medical Safety

Human Intensive Systems

Strategic and Opportunistic Choices

Software Testing

Static Analysis

Object Management

IDEs

Software Architecture

Static Analysis

Requirements Engineering

Scientific Workflow

Digital Government

Medical Safety

Interdisciplinary Research: the GOOD

• An opportunity to significantly impact another field Exciting and invigorating

• Provides a new perspective on your research New issues, new opportunities

• Often receive more appreciation than from the computing community

• Helps attract students

Interdisciplinary Research: the BAD

• Need to be sure that there is an interesting research contribution Don’t want to just provide programming support

• Can take a significant amount of time to cross the terminology and technology divide Delays progress and publications

• May be difficult to obtain funding Other discipline may be more interested in evaluating the

use of technology, not developing the technology

Interdisciplinary Research: more BAD

• Publications in other disciplines may need to water down the cs contributions

• Hard to know the best venues where to publish the interdisciplinary work

Interdisciplinary Research: the UGLY

• Authorship can get messy Different communities have different

expectations• Ecology and Medicine: long list of authors• Legal studies: single author

• Citation systems may not consider non-cs disciplines

Interdisciplinary Research: the UGLY

• No matter how much your dean and department chair might encourage interdisciplinary work, when tenure decision time arrives, the external letters are what matter!

• Hard to please multiple communities Each may assume your real contributions are in the other area Researchers outside of computer science may not feel qualified

to evaluate the cs research contributions

So, what should a faculty member do?

• Realize it is somewhat risky to pursue interdisciplinary research Be aware of pitfalls and plan accordingly

• Make sure there is a community that will praise and acknowledge your cs research Have research depth in that area

So, what should a faculty member do?

• Have a strategy to build your research portfolio Could put all your eggs in one basket, if the interdisciplinary

area is well-respected by the cs community (e.g., bioinformatics)

• Both communities need to appreciate your contributions

Pursue interdisciplinary work that still leads to recognized cs research

Could hedge your bets• Work in more than one area (but not too many)

• CS contributions in one; Interdisciplinary contributions in the other

So, what should a faculty member do?

• Discuss and decide authorship policy Revisit the policy frequently Decide on authorship for each paper before writing the

paper

• Pick interesting, difficult, and enduring problems that will have an impact

• Pursue interdisciplinary research, but do it wisely Remember it can be very rewarding

Research Approaches

• Different approaches Breadth

• Look for weaknesses in current approaches and add value• Move on to next area• Can gain a reputation as an excellent researcher

Might be known for your methodology

Depth• Have a vision and improve it over a period of time until…• Can gain a reputation as an excellent researcher

Might be known for your artifacts

Combination of the two

Make Opportunities Happen

• Meet people who can help your career Funding Managers Researchers Industrial Contacts

• Don’t leave it to chance Arrange to meet at conferences/workshops,

visit funding offices, invite as a speaker, visit researchers

Work on What Interests You

• Believe what you are doing is important Research

• Significant (future) problems for the field

Service• Things you want improved• Can’t improve everything as once

Pick your battles/opportunities

Teaching• What students need to learn• The intuition and insight behind a concept

Feel PASSIONATE about your work

What we learn from sports

• You don’t have to win every game to have a winning season

• Present an alternative opinion knowing it will be shot down … now But perhaps accepted over time

Unlike Sports

• Research (and life) can have many winners

My Background

• Started at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst 1975 as an instructor while I finished my Phd 76 - 81 Assistant Prof.

81 - 86 Associate Prof. 86 - present, Full Prof.

• Lots of service: ACM SIGSOFT chair, v chair, treasurer-secretary; IEEE CS Pubs board, special editor; CRA board, CRA vice chair, CRA-W co-chair; NSF advisory board, panels, strategic planning committees; General Chairs, Program Chairs, Program Committees; editorial boards UMass: Search Committees, Research Council, Status of Women,

College Personnel Committee,…; Department: Assoc. Chair, Exec, Personnel, Recruiting, Space,

Diversity, …