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Transcript of Starting and Growing Your Own Research Program Cecilia Aragon Associate Professor Dept. of Human...
Starting and Growing Your Own Research Program
Cecilia AragonAssociate Professor
Dept. of Human Centered Design & EngineeringUniversity of Washington
Seattle, WA
Outline
• My background• Defining a research agenda• Advice for the newly independent
researcher• Proposal writing• Starting a research program• Questions
My backgroundCecilia Aragon, University of Washington
• Education– B.S. mathematics, Caltech– M.S. and Ph.D. computer science, University of California
Berkeley (1987 and 2004)• Jobs
– Bell Labs, DEC, Sun, other; NASA Ames (1987-2004)– Interlude: Airshow pilot– Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2004-present)– University of Washington (2011 present)‐
• Research– Human computer interaction– Visualization, visual analytics, scientific collaboration
• Personal– Married with a 16 year-old daughter and 11 year-old son‐ ‐
Defining a research agenda
1. What is the theme of your research?2. What are your short, medium and
long range research goals? How do ‐these relate to your career goals?
3. What steps do you need to take to achieve these goals?
Defining a research theme
Come up with 1 2 sentences describing your research ‐theme.• How?
– Pick three of your papers, tell a coherent story about how they are related.
– Pick three of your students/reports, tell a coherent story about how their research fits under your research theme
– Look for ideas / connections with current funding initiatives
• Use research theme as a filter for prioritizing what collaborations you decide to pursue, what grants you go for, networking opportunities to pursue, etc.
What are your research goals?
• Short term (6 mos)‐• Medium term (2 – 5 years)‐• Long term (5 – 10 years)‐
Advice for the newly independent researcher
• Networking• Collaboration• Funding
“Organic” networking
• Go to research workshops that appeal to you; better, propose one yourself
• Go to seminars you find interesting• Prepare posters on your work• Mentor other women (or men)• Hang out with your friends• Talk to students• Volunteer in your community (“old soccer
moms network”, children’s schools)
Collaboration
http://sciencewatch.com/nov-dec2007/sw_nov-dec2007_page1.htm
Collaboration: Dos and Don’ts
• Do:– Be a responsible collaborator– Develop the ability to multi task‐
• Don’t:– Be a programmer for someone else’s project– Take it personally when a collaboration
doesn’t work out– Pretenure: take care how much you
collaborate with your advisor, how you handle interdisciplinary collaborations,etc.
Funding
• Federal agency funding• National laboratory funding • Private industry funding• Private foundation funding• Internal lab directed R&D Funds• Internal university/college research
funds
Funding Criteria
• Why are you the right person to do this work?
• In the case of multi investigator ‐projects, do you have the right team?
• Do you have the appropriate facilities to conduct the research?
• Why is this program or agency the appropriate one to fund your work?
Proposal Writing DOs
• Watch for opportunities• Identify the relevant program and talk
to the appropriate manager(s)• Read the program announcement
carefully (all the way through)• Understand the rules and evaluation
criteria• Present your ideas clearly and
succinctly
Proposal Writing DOs
• Provide adequate explanation & highlight the significance – reviewers are technical peers
• Make it clear you know the literature• Ask an experienced investigator to critique
your proposal• Keep within agency guidelines for proposal
format• Read abstracts of awards; read proposals and
reviews of successful proposals• Volunteer to be a reviewer
Proposal Writing DON’Ts
• Don’t submit an identical proposal to several programs
• Don’t miss proposal deadlines• Don’t request unrealistic items in the
budget• Don’t exceed program budgetary guidelines• Don’t wait until the last minute if you need
institutional sign off (human subjects ‐protocols)
• Don’t give up if your proposal is declined
Starting a research program• Good relationships with support staff• Marketing– You MUST advertise your work– Have a good web presence– Email colleagues about papers, software,
datasets, etc.– Through networking– Make it easy for people to find and cite your work
• Collaborations– Within department, within university, locally, with
companies, nationally and internationally
Standing on the shoulders of giants (acknowledgments)
Many slides borrowed from• Andrea Danyluk, Lise Getoor, Ashley
Stroupe• Carla Ellis and Tina Eliassi Rad‐• Debbie Crawford• Jan Cuny• Mary Jean Harrold• Susan Landau• Caroline Wardle