Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them. ~François VI de la Rochefoucault
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. ~Harvey Fierstein
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. ~Frank Tibolt
"In good prose (says Schlegel) every word should be underlined!" that is, every word should be the right one; and then no one would be righter than another. There are no italics in Plato. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. ~Robert Southey
Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable. ~Bruce Lee
Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself. ~Author unknown, possibly from Monty Python?
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Friday, December 25, 2015
穿越唐宋做苦逼小AP
By Fiona Rawsontile
人家写了个高雅的【穿越唐宋做小资】,给我改编成低俗的【穿越唐宋做苦逼小AP】。
1,穿越唐宋做小资
唐诗:田园有宅男,边塞多愤青。咏古伤不起,送别满基情。人妻空房守,浪子卧青楼。去国伤不起,满怀平戎忧。
宋词:小资喝花酒,老兵坐床头,知青咏古自助游。皇上宫中愁,剩女宅家里,萝莉嫁王侯,名媛丈夫死得早,妹妹在青楼。
2,穿越唐宋做苦逼小AP
唐诗:Lab有琐男,funding多被拒。领导是祖宗,小蜜勤打理。放假守空楼,开会抱大牛。日夜勤灌水,奔四不言愁。
宋词:闭目想idea,睁眼看细胞,,养个千老总想跑。小本来要分,博士不上道,码工常取笑。 骑驴找马没走了,终身在烂校。
人家写了个高雅的【穿越唐宋做小资】,给我改编成低俗的【穿越唐宋做苦逼小AP】。
1,穿越唐宋做小资
唐诗:田园有宅男,边塞多愤青。咏古伤不起,送别满基情。人妻空房守,浪子卧青楼。去国伤不起,满怀平戎忧。
宋词:小资喝花酒,老兵坐床头,知青咏古自助游。皇上宫中愁,剩女宅家里,萝莉嫁王侯,名媛丈夫死得早,妹妹在青楼。
2,穿越唐宋做苦逼小AP
唐诗:Lab有琐男,funding多被拒。领导是祖宗,小蜜勤打理。放假守空楼,开会抱大牛。日夜勤灌水,奔四不言愁。
宋词:闭目想idea,睁眼看细胞,,养个千老总想跑。小本来要分,博士不上道,码工常取笑。 骑驴找马没走了,终身在烂校。
Monday, December 14, 2015
Interview with Dr. Yiran Chen
By Fiona Rawsontile, Dec 2015
I think I could say that whoever knows Dr. Chen,
personally or professionally, would agree that his career, while still in a
young and aspiring stage, is purely legendary. I’m excited to find out what I’m
going to learn from him today.
Fiona: After you have graduated from Purdue with a
Ph.D., you worked in industry for five years. Why did you decide to go back to
academia?
Dr. Chen: I was asked this question by many of my colleagues and
students. The truth is that the research lab I was working in was dismissed during
the last economic crisis. The company deployed all the researchers to product
departments as R&D engineers, including me. However, having been “spoiled”
by the freedom offered by the research lab, I was unable and unwilling to adapt
myself to the life of an ordinary engineer. So after nine months, I quit and joined my
current university. The manager did not even know I had a Ph.D. until my resignation,
or maybe they simply did not care.
Fiona: When people talk about your achievements,
they often mention your wife, who’s an equally accomplished engineer in the
same field. How would you describe your professional relationship with her?
Dr. Chen: My wife is my (without “one of the”) best partner in my
career. We had the same Ph.D. Advisor at Purdue, and now we are working in the same department of our
institution. As a couple, we simply 100% trust each other in all aspects. (Fiona
commented: That can be boring sometimes.) For example, you never need to worry
about if your editing on her draft would harm her feeling. I think both of us
benefit significantly from this mutual trust, which makes our collaboration
extremely efficient.
Fiona: Do you two discuss about work at home? Who
wins more often when disputes occur?
Dr. Chen: Yes, we do discuss about work at home. We have many
divergences in our work, but we always manage to reach an agreement when attending
to the students. Neither of us always wins, though my wife claims she is the one
who often gives in (which is questionable, in my humble opinion).
Fiona: “Love does not consist in gazing at each
other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” (Antoine de
Saint-Exupery) Related to the last question, what do you think is the overall
condition of engineering women in industry or academia, in terms of competence,
promotional opportunities, peer recognition, etc.?
Dr. Chen: Women are normally considered as “minorities” in
engineering. Under this presumption, the current systems of both industry and
academia provide women engineers and professors with many additional
opportunities. In fact, I think academia offers even more than industry through creating special programs or
considerations in hiring and research funding. A female engineer or professor
is also more visible (say, easier to be noticed or remembered) during daily
working contacts. Nonetheless, female engineers and professors often encounter
more difficulties when being considered for administrative positions.
Fiona: Do they tend to be better or worse than
men with regard to certain skills?
Dr. Chen: In academia, my observation is that female professors
are more aggressive (of course, not everyone) than their counterparts in
industry. I am not sure whether it means that academic life is harsher, or only
the “aggressive” women would choose academia. I don’t see any difference
between male or female engineers from technical perspectives, but apparently
female engineers take more responsibilities for their families than male
engineers. That may explain some of our observations.
Fiona: Your 35-page single-spaced CV told me you
must be a genius as well as an extremely busy person. How could you find time
for serving as journal editors, conference organizers, panel reviewers, and
numerous service and dissertation committees, while maintaining high productivity
with several ongoing federally funded projects (there are 14 manuscripts under
review at this moment!)? Do you have secrets in time management?
Dr. Chen: You have to prioritize them and attend to the most
important tasks first. Not everything is equally important and their value
alters at different phases of your career. I work hard, of course, but in
academia almost everybody (if not all) is working hard. If I have any secret, I
think that is probably motivating my team effectively: my students participate
in writing proposals, coordinating meetings with collaborators and funding
agencies, and helping with many administrative and logistic duties of mine. Through
learning from these extra activity, they become well prepared for the “cruel” society they will be facing upon graduation.
(插入作者高妹/Fiona的话:向大家推荐我正在连载的玄幻---武打---佛道---言情故事《魅羽活佛》,晋江链接:http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4880087 故事简介:鬼道中的魇荒门,七个师姐妹都以绝世美颜著称。然而这次的任务中,二弟子魅羽却要化作一个中年油腻肥秃僧,卷入佛国、道门,和修罗界的斗争. 还要让咱们古往今来文采武功都称霸天下的帅哥活佛,对她一见倾心,矢志不渝。)
(插入作者高妹/Fiona的话:向大家推荐我正在连载的玄幻---武打---佛道---言情故事《魅羽活佛》,晋江链接:http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4880087 故事简介:鬼道中的魇荒门,七个师姐妹都以绝世美颜著称。然而这次的任务中,二弟子魅羽却要化作一个中年油腻肥秃僧,卷入佛国、道门,和修罗界的斗争. 还要让咱们古往今来文采武功都称霸天下的帅哥活佛,对她一见倾心,矢志不渝。)
Fiona: Considering the short duration you have worked
as a college professor, the number of students and postdocs you have trained is
impressive. Do you mentor them on an individual basis or rely mostly on lab
culture and peer supervision?
Dr. Chen: We have two types of meetings – weekly 1-1’s and small
study-group meetings. We have only one general group meeting per semester
because it is hard to find a meeting room for 40 people and such a meeting is often
inefficient. With a hierarchical personnel structure, senior students help me
mentor the juniors. I monitor students’ research progress through 1-1 meetings,
which I try my best to protect even considering my busy travel schedule, as
well as weekly reports. I usually tell them what I want to see rather than what
they need to do. They figure out the details by themselves or with other
students. Luckily, our group is sufficiently large so that they can always find
an expert to answer their questions. I have never laid off any students (so
far), but our peer pressure is huge with so many productive members. In short,
we run as an efficient team, in which individual genius is not critical.
Fiona: Now that all of you students are productive
and competent, can you tell which ones are more likely to succeed as scientists,
which ones should aim at industrial leadership? Has anyone disappointed you
with his/her decision?
Dr. Chen: First of all, not ALL of them are productive or
competent. People like to imagine that we have different requirements of
personal characteristics for scientists and industry leaders. Unfortunately,
this presumption does not hold. There are common personality traits shared by both roles:
persistence, diligence, teamworking … I am happy as long as my students become
successful, be it academia or industry.
Fiona: Hollywood likes to portrait us scientists as long
gray haired nerds who have little idea about how the society outside our labs functions.
Tell us about the online bookstore you cofounded as a college student. Are you
still participating in the management? Do you have plans for other types of
business in the future?
Dr. Chen: I quit from the online-store business around 2004 and am
no longer a part of the team. Since then, many of the people I worked with have
become important figures in the Chinese Internet industry. That was one of my
most valuable investments in terms of personal connections. In China, there is
a popular saying, “Personal connection is the first productive force”. Although
meant to be a joke, it does state a truth that your reputations and personal
connections are vital for your career, and I carefully maintain them. In
addition, if you have gone through the whole process of building a startup, you
would know whom you want to work with, what you can and cannot do. I like trying
new things, and I will experiment with some kind of start-up in the future. In
fact, I think we have already come up with some good ideas, and we’ll see.
Fiona: Entrepreneurial mindset is currently a hot
topic in the engineering disciplines. For students who are still pursuing their
degrees, do you think it helps to bring up their awareness of industrial
opportunities, risk management, etc., or would you rather have them focus on
basic engineering skills, e.g., signal processing, without being overly
distracted?
Dr. Chen: Although I started my own company when I was a M.S.
student, I am generally against the idea of sacrificing your study for commercial
opportunities. I still remember when I told the advisor of my M.S. thesis how
“successful” my start-up was, he said, “I agree with you that you might have learned
things that extend beyond the scope of school, but the reason we still need education
is that other things, some of which are essential in the make of a scientist or
a businessman, can ONLY be taught at academia.” Those are the words that will
be kept in my mind forever and shared with my students.
Fiona: Would you also like to share the experience
of organizing the concert for two famous singers at Tsinghua?
Dr. Chen: Ahha! Jian Li and Jie Miao are very famous now, and I’m
happy to have witnessed their growth in our young age and early stage of their
career. I was the producer of that concert, and I still consider it as one of my
proudest accomplishments. You wouldn’t believe we only spent RMB12000 organizing
the whole concert, and I still owe one of the two singers RMB2000 for the
recording tapes we used.
Fiona: Did the concert bring back enough gross to
cover the expenses?
Dr. Chen: No. If I remember correctly, the admission was free
because ticket pricing would have taken a long time to be approved. You can
imagine how hard it was to get a ticket. Many famous singers and musicians
attended the concert: “Lao Lang”, Gengxu Lu, Xiaosong Gao, Jie Li … After the concert, we had an
exclusive party for the rest of the
night in a pub named BlueJay in the university neighborhood. I met Jian and Jie
again at the 60th anniversary party of the department I graduated from, and we
were glad to see all of us doing well in our own careers.
Fiona: An experience like that would certainly be
remembered. Could you have become an artist yourself?
Dr. Chen: My mom has a B.S. degree in music, but I failed to
inherit the talents from her. I enjoy art and music, but I don’t want to pretend to be an expert.
Fiona: Your research covers the areas of embedded systems,
memory and sensing, nano-devices, etc. Which topic do you think has the
potential of making the largest impact?
Dr. Chen: As computer engineers, my wife and I have started gaining attentions for our research on emerging memory technologies. We recently shifted to brain-inspired computing, which is believed to revolutionize the computer industry by allowing computer to “think” like a human being. We are still far from this ultimate goal, but we have already seen light above the horizon. I’d like to use the following sentence to summarize our research: “I imagine a world where the difference between man and machine blurs, where the difference between humanity and technology fades, where the soul and silicon chip unite.” (Raymond Kurzweil, “The Age of Intelligent Machines”)
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
【相声】航班风波
By Fiona Rawsontile
A: 这么久没见,出差了?
B: 我是去警局协助调查去了。
A: 查谁呀?
B: 查我自己。
A: 你给逮起来了!为啥事儿呀?
B: 还不就是给黑心的航空公司闹的。上次我回国讲学归来,你说我给了他们那么多钱,才分我那么一把小椅子坐。
A: 家里宽敞,你怎么不在家里坐着?
B: 这飞机还没起飞,我就两腿发麻了。不行,我得到过道里溜达溜达。
A: 伸伸腿儿。
B: 走了会儿一看,咦,这儿有个座位不错!大皮椅子,手脚都能伸展得开。前面还有窗户,视野开阔。
A: 你就坐那儿了?
B: 还说呢,没坐多久,就来了一个穿制服的男的,“先生对不起,我得准备起飞了。”
A: 你跑机长的座位上去啦!
B: 我是一边起身,一边叹气啊。你说这遥控飞机都发明那么久了,还搞个机长干啥呀?
A: 这飞机要是遥控的,你敢坐吗?
B: 从驾驶舱出来,我没走几步,又给我看到一个宽敞的好位置。
A: 你也不能想坐哪儿坐哪儿呀。
B: 没人坐我怎么不能坐?我正在这儿闭目养神呢,发现有人推我。
A: 人家来了呗。
B: 我说真没礼貌!没看我这儿休息吗?
A: 这是人家的位置呀!
B: 怎么成了他的位置了?我先坐下的呀。
A: 你以为这是公共汽车呢,先来后到。
B: 那人见我不走,把空中小姐叫来了。我说叫他坐我那儿不就得了。
A: 你说得容易,人家那个位子好几万呢。
B: 一个烂椅子卖好几万,还不给带走,你说这航空公司黑心不黑心?得抵制它。
A: 下飞机把椅子搬走?没听说过。
B: 这时候周围的乘客都要我走,你说这年头,道德败坏,真是墙倒众人推啊!
A: 还说人家道德败坏。
B: 我大喝一声!别以为我好欺负的,我可是身负武功。
A: 练过。
B: 先漏两手震震他们。我于是离开座位,来到过道,就地儿使了一套地堂拳。
A: 打起滚儿来了。
B: 这时候机长闻风赶来了,说叫我离机。
A: 你扰乱秩序了。
B: 我能怕他吗?我一个鲤鱼打挺,站起身来。丹田提气,只听啪地一声!
A: 你用内力击他?
B: 我拿吐沫吐他。
A: 这素质。
B: 机长立刻拿起电话,没多久,警察带着警棍和警犬都来了。
A: 你闹大了!
B: 别以为能依多取胜。我伸手往怀里一掏,把枪掏出来了。
A: 你还带着武器呀?
B: 我可是美国人,什么弄不到?我对着这帮恶警们就滋了起来。
A: 水枪啊?怪不得没查出来呢。
B: 这下可把警察们惹火了,大叫一声:“关门,放狗!”
A: 这可糟了。
B: 就见一人手一扬, 一条四尺长的大黄狗,红着眼睛,张着血淋淋的大嘴,就向我扑来。只听嗷的一声!
A: 你受伤了?
B: 我把狗咬了。
(鞠躬)
推荐相声:天外飞仙
http://fionarawsontile.blogspot.com/2016/01/blog-post.html
A: 这么久没见,出差了?
B: 我是去警局协助调查去了。
A: 查谁呀?
B: 查我自己。
A: 你给逮起来了!为啥事儿呀?
B: 还不就是给黑心的航空公司闹的。上次我回国讲学归来,你说我给了他们那么多钱,才分我那么一把小椅子坐。
A: 家里宽敞,你怎么不在家里坐着?
B: 这飞机还没起飞,我就两腿发麻了。不行,我得到过道里溜达溜达。
A: 伸伸腿儿。
B: 走了会儿一看,咦,这儿有个座位不错!大皮椅子,手脚都能伸展得开。前面还有窗户,视野开阔。
A: 你就坐那儿了?
B: 还说呢,没坐多久,就来了一个穿制服的男的,“先生对不起,我得准备起飞了。”
A: 你跑机长的座位上去啦!
B: 我是一边起身,一边叹气啊。你说这遥控飞机都发明那么久了,还搞个机长干啥呀?
A: 这飞机要是遥控的,你敢坐吗?
B: 从驾驶舱出来,我没走几步,又给我看到一个宽敞的好位置。
A: 你也不能想坐哪儿坐哪儿呀。
B: 没人坐我怎么不能坐?我正在这儿闭目养神呢,发现有人推我。
A: 人家来了呗。
B: 我说真没礼貌!没看我这儿休息吗?
A: 这是人家的位置呀!
B: 怎么成了他的位置了?我先坐下的呀。
A: 你以为这是公共汽车呢,先来后到。
B: 那人见我不走,把空中小姐叫来了。我说叫他坐我那儿不就得了。
A: 你说得容易,人家那个位子好几万呢。
B: 一个烂椅子卖好几万,还不给带走,你说这航空公司黑心不黑心?得抵制它。
A: 下飞机把椅子搬走?没听说过。
B: 这时候周围的乘客都要我走,你说这年头,道德败坏,真是墙倒众人推啊!
A: 还说人家道德败坏。
B: 我大喝一声!别以为我好欺负的,我可是身负武功。
A: 练过。
B: 先漏两手震震他们。我于是离开座位,来到过道,就地儿使了一套地堂拳。
A: 打起滚儿来了。
B: 这时候机长闻风赶来了,说叫我离机。
A: 你扰乱秩序了。
B: 我能怕他吗?我一个鲤鱼打挺,站起身来。丹田提气,只听啪地一声!
A: 你用内力击他?
B: 我拿吐沫吐他。
A: 这素质。
B: 机长立刻拿起电话,没多久,警察带着警棍和警犬都来了。
A: 你闹大了!
B: 别以为能依多取胜。我伸手往怀里一掏,把枪掏出来了。
A: 你还带着武器呀?
B: 我可是美国人,什么弄不到?我对着这帮恶警们就滋了起来。
A: 水枪啊?怪不得没查出来呢。
B: 这下可把警察们惹火了,大叫一声:“关门,放狗!”
A: 这可糟了。
B: 就见一人手一扬, 一条四尺长的大黄狗,红着眼睛,张着血淋淋的大嘴,就向我扑来。只听嗷的一声!
A: 你受伤了?
B: 我把狗咬了。
(鞠躬)
推荐相声:天外飞仙
http://fionarawsontile.blogspot.com/2016/01/blog-post.html
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Interview with Dr. Tom Yin
I’m very
excited to have Dr. Yin here, not only because he is my former postdoc adviser,
but because during the four years I worked with him, when he was overburdened
with administrative duties, we never had a conversation as long as this one.
Fiona: Your
independent research began at University of Wisconsin Madison 38 years ago.
Over the years, what was the biggest change you have observed in the way people
conduct research?
Dr. Yin: I
think the biggest difference is that faculty now spend much more time writing
grant proposals than I did. Of course the reason for that is the present
prolonged period of tight funding compared to when I started out. Funding has
usually been rather cyclical with up and down cycles but the present 5-10 year
severe depression is very worrisome, especially as there is no end in sight. During
most of my research career, one expected to get funded when applying to NIH.
Nowadays, it seems like the hope is not to be triaged! As a consequence I only
wrote about 10 grant proposals during that 38 year period. Nowadays, PIs are
writing that many proposals in 2 or 3 years!! I couldn’t possibly come up so
many ideas for grants.
Fiona: As a
young investigator, I totally agree. If the overall funding situation remains,
could you think of strategies the government may adopt to ease up the competition?
Dr. Yin: One
of the irritating aspects of present NIH funding is that there are quite a few
very large laboratories that have multiple NIH grants. I personally know
several labs with 8 and 9 R01 grants. I believe NIH is now implementing a
policy to prevent this from happening, but I would strongly recommend that some
reasonable cap (two or three) be implemented on the number of NIH grants to any
given P.I. Obviously some policy on collaborative grants needs to be included
in such a rule.
Fiona: Your
lab is stuffed with equipment my age. Are there advantages of using primitive
electronics over the fancy ones made more recently?
Dr. Yin: No,
I just have a difficult time throwing anything away so the old equipment stays
in the lab.
Fiona: Really?
I thought there were old-equipment magic. At the moment, what is the biggest
obstacle in the auditory research that hinders further advancement of the
field? In other words, what existing problem would you like to be solved first?
Dr. Yin: I
think the biggest problem in brain research, not just auditory, is to
understand how the nervous system integrates information from individual
neurons to produce perception, action, decisions, and other higher order
functions. We now know a lot about how individual neurons respond to different
stimuli or to produce different actions, and under different behavioral
conditions but we understand very little about how the responses of many
neurons are integrated to generate behavior. In visual research this is often
referred to as the binding problem: how does the CNS take information about the
shape, color, orientation, 3D form, etc. of an object which appears to be
encoded by different visual areas and put it all together to give us a percept
of a person running, for example.
Fiona: When
a large department with a long history recruits new faculty, what are the major
considerations people tend to have?
Dr. Yin:
There are a number of important considerations that departments generally have
when looking to hire new faculty. Among them are the following: the faculty
member has a history of productive research as judged by publications during
the graduate and post-doctoral years, that he/she is doing interesting and
important research that has a high likelihood of getting funded in the future,
sometimes departments are looking for faculty working in specific areas,
indications that the faculty member will be a good colleague within the
department and school with interest in collaboration with existing labs, and
the faculty member will be a good mentor and teacher.
Fiona: You’ve trained more than a dozen graduate students and postdocs. Despite the escalating competition, all but two successfully landed jobs in academia. Did you only recruit students who were willing to make a commitment, or was there a secret in how you mentored them?
Dr. Yin: No,
I don’t think I ever asked a student if they were interested in an academic
career, at least not when they applied to work in the lab so this was not a way
to screen potential students. I think I was lucky to find students and postdocs
who were really talented and hardworking and also really liked doing science
and just wanted that to be their career. Having a productive graduate and
postgraduate experience also helps.
Fiona: I
still think there has to be something more than luck. Would you like to offer
some advice to young researchers in their earlier careers?
Dr. Yin: I
always tell students who are considering a research career that the most
important thing to me is that you be excited about doing research. It’s
unlikely that you will become rich or famous in academia, so what has to drive
you during the inevitable hard times when experiments aren’t working or funding
is tight or reviewers are obstinate is the love of the science. So if you
aren’t excited about coming into the lab in the morning, then try to work on a
problem that will get you excited.
Fiona: And if we fail in the end, at
least we’ve had some wonderful time. That might be too permissive. Let me put
it the other way: if we are excited about what we do, we have a better chance
of getting the reviewers excited. Okay, thank you so much, my mentor! I wish
you a happy retirement (with still more teaching responsibilities, of course)!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Interview with Dr. Yitang (Tom) Zhang
I recently
had a phone interview with Dr. Zhang, Professor of Mathematics at University of
New Hampshire. Although brief, our conversation left me with the impression
that he is a humble and dedicated scientist who does not cease taking new
journeys in the area of Number Theory after the receipt of the 2014 MacArthur
Award.
Fiona: You
once disputed the view of mathematicians as geeks who have few connections with
the real world. Do you ever feel the need to discuss your projects with your
peers?
Dr. Zhang: I used to spend many hours thinking about
mathematics without communicating with other people. To me, the initial exploration
of a new problem involves a lot of intuition. You may have some feeling about
the possible strategies that could work or the direction it’s heading toward,
but articulating your thoughts to others can be difficult. The nature of my research
determines that I’m not in a business that invites teamwork or benefits from collaborations.
A mathematician needs to endure solitude, and I have been avoiding activity
that’s unlikely to yield a meaningful outcome.
Fiona: That’s
interesting. What you have described sounds almost like artistic creation. What
got you interested in the study of twin primes conjecture? How would you
summarize its impact?
Dr. Zhang: I
have known this conjecture for many years. It is interesting to many people,
not only to me. I think it’s possible that more hypotheses in this area may
stem from my work, but that could take a while and, for now, it’s not clear.
Fiona: You
once said there are other on-going projects you are proud of, but wouldn’t want
to throw them out yet?
Dr. Zhang: Yes,
but it is not easy to describe them right now. All I can say is that they don’t quite
belong to the same category of the problem I have just solved. And I can’t map
out a timeline when they might be finished. It could happen one day
unexpectedly, just like the last time.
Fiona: How
does your mind engage in different research topics?
Dr. Zhang: I used to
concentrate on one problem, but also try to know what happened to others. To me, there is no
boundary that separates work from the rest of my life. When I’m working on a
problem, it lingers in my mind all the time.
Fiona: In
physics, a law doesn’t have to be unconditional or universal to be valuable.
People constantly bring up new theories that overwrite an old principle or exceed
its limit. Is being right or wrong more absolute in mathematics? Do you agree
with what Michio Kaku said about God being a mathematician?
Dr. Zhang: In mathematics the situation might be
different. For example, it was Euclid who first proved that there are
infinitely many prime numbers. Today we can only say this is true. Although
sometimes I do marvel at the exquisite structure of math and its power to
explain the physical world, generally I’m not a philosophical person who likes
to dwell on the origin or purpose of life.
Fiona: If
you were given a chance to go back in time and rebuild your career, would you
have done anything differently? Did you remain optimistic during the days when
things didn’t work out?
Dr. Zhang: I
might have done something differently, as I have learned many lessons from my
academic career. For example, at the beginning, I
should have listed all possible methods that could apply to my problem; once I
ignored some of them, I wasted time. But I used to be optimistic, as I regarded
the difficult time was just the start of a new road.
(插入作者高妹/Fiona的话:向大家推荐我正在连载的玄幻---武打---佛道---言情故事《魅羽活佛》,晋江链接:http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4880087 故事简介:鬼道中的魇荒门,七个师姐妹都以绝世美颜著称。然而这次的任务中,二弟子魅羽却要化作一个中年油腻肥秃僧,卷入佛国、道门,和修罗界的斗争. 还要让咱们古往今来文采武功都称霸天下的帅哥活佛,对她一见倾心,矢志不渝。)
(插入作者高妹/Fiona的话:向大家推荐我正在连载的玄幻---武打---佛道---言情故事《魅羽活佛》,晋江链接:http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4880087 故事简介:鬼道中的魇荒门,七个师姐妹都以绝世美颜著称。然而这次的任务中,二弟子魅羽却要化作一个中年油腻肥秃僧,卷入佛国、道门,和修罗界的斗争. 还要让咱们古往今来文采武功都称霸天下的帅哥活佛,对她一见倾心,矢志不渝。)
Fiona: You
mentioned you don’t like the distractions of a large team. Do you plan to recruit
students in the near future?
Dr. Zhang: I
have been considering this problem, but no decision has been made. In the past
few years, I have received several applications from prospective students, most
of whom were Chinese. Because those were not full applications but Letters of Interest,
with limited mentoring experience, I was uncertain how to judge the
qualification of the applicant and whether a match existed.
Of course, I want my students to eventually
become masters of the field, not just qualified graduates who could find jobs. In
the past summers, I was invited to spend time in the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, where I saw clear talents in their students. I have been interacting with and advising a few of them, but a formal relationship is yet to be established.
Fiona: I
hope something would work out soon. What is your favorite course to teach?
Dr. Zhang: It is hard to
say. I love teaching various courses. Giving lectures in a classroom is
different from mentoring graduate students. I have more experience with the
former but little with the latter.
Fiona: Would
you like to say something about the western academia and scientists in their
early careers?
Dr. Zhang: What
the academia here attracts me the most is the freedom to pursue
topics we are interested in. I’d like to tell the young scientists: if you really love sciences, do not give up easily.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
泛谈评估
我之前常去一个业余作家网站,那儿很多人都对Amazon的Custom Review系统有意见。有些人说,在他们出的书的读者留言中,很明显有些是根本没有读过这本书而留了一星级的评估。还有些或许读过,但出于某种不明的恶意原因,指鹿为马,给他们的书写了完全不靠谱的差评。虽然每个review在提交时,都是会经过Amazon专门人员审查的,而且对即使已经通过审查发表了的review也可以举报abuse,但Amazon的原则是只能对谩骂侮辱啦,与本产品全不相关的评论,或者借机给别的产品打广告之类的review才会“删帖封人”。
然而经过讨论,多数人的意见是,对于那些恶意的差评,实在没有办法。因为你就算有足够证据证明这个顾客是没读过你的书的,那你对于下一个读了一半的呢?还有就是读了几页认为太差读不下去上来发火的呢?这你总不能说人家无理吧?总之,举报实行起来的难度就在于Where to draw the line? 到底哪些算是合理的negative review,哪些是应该被删除的,这是很难做客观判断的。尤其作为作者本人,你当然觉得自己写的好,可能大部分差评对你来说都是没有道理,或者有道理但太过火的。谁会觉得自己的孩子丑啊?如果由你来定,那差评就给删的差不多了,那这个评价系统整体也就失去了意义。还有的作家说,别光说差评了,有些书或产品一堆的五星,摆明就是虚假的,这又如何去举报?
所以说,It’s not a perfect
system. 任何一个类似的系统,都会给人钻这样那样的空子。但总体来说,由用户来自由评论产品的优劣,既可以帮potential 买主做决定,又可以对产商和作者进行质量监督并提供具体的反馈,这是非常好的一种双赢政策。对卖主讲,刚收到差评时肯定不高兴,但过一阶段等心情平复了琢磨琢磨,通常都是有些道理。比如有人说我的书极欠景物描写,我一开始为自己辩护,心说《傲慢与偏见》里基本没有任何景物描写,也不妨碍它成为经典。但后来想想,在其他条件一定的情况下,当然还是生动的景物描写可以更好地把读者带入情节。
即使是对于完全不constructive的负面意见,也没有必要感到难过。不要说像Dan
Brown这种因为写宗教题材而引起强烈争议的作家了,即使如Gone with the wind之类的经典,也有极少数的一星评论。而且很明显写评论的是读过这本书的,很理性的读者,有的读者甚至因为不能喜欢这本书而觉得痛心。也就是说,You can’t please everybody. 这点谁也不能做到。而且这也完全不影响其他读者尝试或者喜欢你的作品。恶意中伤的总是少数,不切实际的吹捧带来的反弹其实更糟。大众毕竟有大众的判断力。一个作家有一部分差评没有关系,如果都是差评没有好评,那就说明水平有一定问题,但也还不丢人。
真正丢人的,是少数作家对于差评不能handle而丧失理性。举两个例子,一个女作家写了几本erotica的书,可以说把erotica这个题材里最关键的那个字,orgasm,写成了organism,可想而知读者会留下什么样的评论了。当然除了这点她还有其它问题,比如被查出注册不同账号给自己写好评。关键是这个作家在很多Amazon读者review的下面留下了comment和读者进行争吵,这其实是她最不明智的举动,比有错别字难看多了。另一个女作家把即将出版的新书寄给一个书评博客评审,也是被发现很多错别字。其实我看了那人的评论,都算是很礼貌很客观的了,估计换成真的读者肯定比这糟。结果这个作家就在网上公开骂人家,有些观众看不下去回了帖,也被她骂。当时她的劣行被大量传播,一时“声名大噪”,甚至有人预言她的书会热卖,因为可能有人就是想看看到底差到什么地步。
所以我一直很欣赏Raymond Chandler的一段话:I have
made three rules of writing for myself that are absolutes: Never take advice.
Never show or discuss work in progress. Never
answer a critic. 你可以说这段话透着高傲,但却不是没有道理。作为一个政治家,回答公众的问题是必须的。作为一个艺术家,最好就是对任何评论置之不理。在短期内这样看来是很吃亏,尤其是人家曲解你的时候,但从长远来看,是非常明智的一种姿态。就像台上的演员不应该和台下观众拌嘴一样。你以你对于艺术的理解,选择自己的方式来诠释,摆出来给人看就行了。别人如何评论不是你应该操心和试图改变的。
这里岔开来说一下采纳群众建议的问题。上面的quote里说的Never take advice. 看起来高傲,仔细分析来这个问题很复杂。除了前面提到的众口难调,你实在无法让所有人都满意之外,还牵扯到一个作家为何要写作的基本问题。你写作的目的是要说出大家都想听到的话呢,还是说你自己最想说的?表面看来,前者更容易卖钱。你或者可以说,这是基本的商业准则,哪里有市场,就去那里发展,干嘛要制造谁都不需要的呢?不过艺术创作毕竟和产品制作不同。严格来说,只有如鲠在喉,不吐不快的话,才是有必要说出来的,无论你的观点是让人舒服还是难受。先去揣摩大众想听什么,然后假装这就是自己的想法,自是空洞无比。看看哪种故事卖的最好,就去模仿来写,肯定全无新意。一个人做的最出色的事,只能是发自内心,而且最enjoy的事。这才是Never take advice的本意。
啰嗦了这么多,其实是因为最近在考虑有关教学评估的问题。我想任何接受过期末匿名评估的老师,肯定都见过完全相反的评论和建议,这时候通常会苦笑一声,你看看,这我可就没办法了,我怎么做都有人不满意是吧?松也不对,严也不对。就像我上学期期中自己搞了个非正式评估(第一次教课先探探水吧),每个多项选择都是有选完全相反的选项的,比如有人认为下半学期的课应该减少topic但增大深度,就必有人选择希望减少深度。但奇怪的是,让他们自由发挥提意见的时候,大部分人提的却惊人的相似,让你无法不当回事儿。
和Amazon的书评系统一样,匿名评估也是不完美而且可以被利用的。隔壁贴有人提到过,曾见到极具侮辱歧视性质的评论,可惜不知道是谁写的。也有老师说,几乎有把握确定是谁写的。其实这样费神没有多少意义。如果有少许恶意评论,大部分人都很positive,又有谁会在意那些明显与事实不符的评论?(要相信“领导们的英明”,呵呵。)读到有用的建议,记下来争取改进;没用的,笑笑放过就当没看见。如果为了揪出那少许几个人,破坏了这么好的反馈系统,实在是得不偿失。
另外,开头还说了个问题就是Where do
you draw the line? 有些话看来很过分,很出格,但其实算是legitimate的评论。比如有学生说,你水平非常差,根本不配当一个老师。听到这话自然是伤心加生气了,尤其是其他学生都认为你是个好老师的时候。但从另一个方面讲,如果这个学生就是这么认为的,无论是否有根据,这就是他的看法,还是应该让人家说话(当然只能在该说的时候说,写在卷子上就不对了)。这里牵扯到的一个问题就是,错误的评论是否是合法的评论?每个人在发表意见的时候,都是基于他已有的经历,价值观,处世哲学。他的评论是受他个人水平和境界局限的。即使妄下评论的人,也是因为性格使然。而且对错毕竟是很主观的东西,很多时候就像前面说的书评,不是非黑即白的。
当然了,就像Amazon也是有基本审批一样,有些恶意攻击还是可以明确定性的。比如如果一个学生说我是idiot, 中国猪,女人就别出来工作了,这种话就是明显的违规。我觉得判断标准是不是可以这样,就是他的评论,无论对错,是relevant,还是irrelevant。配不配做一个老师,毕竟是与教学相关的,但上面举出的例子,就超出了他应该进行评估的范围了。
说完教学评估,再扯高一点儿。西方提倡的言论自由,就是一个类似的,不完美的体系。谁想说什么都行,自然会给心术不正,或者水平有限的人给滥用了。但总的来说,利是大于弊的。防民之口甚于防川。如果他们说的不对,群众还是有判断力的,不是那么容易给糊弄的。如果给他们戳到痛处,就证明自己确实有问题。在这种情况下,堵着不给说,后果只能更严重。
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Interview with Dr. Cecil Thomas
Dr. Thomas is special to
me, because he founded the Biomedical Engineering Department at Saint Louis
University (SLU), without which I might have left academia by now. He is also
special, compared with other interviewees who mostly focus on research, in that
he has tremendous experience in building academic programs, designing
curricula, exploring novel teaching techniques, and helping underdeveloped
countries.
Fiona: You worked in
industry before you became a faculty member at Case Western Reserve, and again
in North Coast Engineering as the President before you founded SLU’s BME
department. There seems to exist a “force” that always drives you back to
academic.
Dr.
Thomas: North Coast Engineering was my consulting group while I was a professor
at CWRU. Graduate students and I used NCE to work on a few contracts outside of
CWRU. The main effect was funding for graduate students.
Fiona: That was nice.
After
my MS degree, I worked with Martin Marietta in Orlando. MM was a defense
contractor, and I worked in a research division where we investigated new ideas
and new techniques that could lead to new products. On at least a dozen
occasions, I was temporarily assigned to a short-term project that was a kind
of emergency for MM or for DOD. In each case, I joined a small group of
engineers in an assignment that could be characterized by “here are the data
from some situation, what does it mean, and what should MM do”. While all those
projects were classified, the engineering content was great, and I had a chance
to work with others whose expertise differed from mine. All those projects
provided great engineering experience, and a few ventured into physics and
chemistry.
My
division directors at MM encouraged me to pursue a PhD degree. I recall that
family members thought I was crazy to quit a really good job in order to go back
to school. I moved for two reasons. As much as I enjoyed the engineering work
at MM, I wanted to learn about a new field called “bionics” which was absorbed
into biomedical engineering. I also wanted to work in an area that focuses more
directly on benefits to humans.
As
a PhD student, I was recruited by CWRU after experience in teaching and a few
research projects. I did consider an industrial position, but for reasons that
are not totally clear, I thought a university environment was a better fit for
me.
Fiona: Well, sometimes our subconsciousness makes
the best decisions for us. What aspect of Higher Education attracts you the
most?
Dr.
Thomas: Being a university professor and being an engineer in the MM research
division were not all that different. In both cases I worked on projects that
could be funded and projects that I found interesting. In university, I had
more control over my project selection and research directions, and that
independence was attractive. As a PhD student, I taught a course, and I found
that experience to be enjoyable and challenging. As a result, I was attracted
by the opportunity to teach and work with graduate students.
Fiona: What challenges or advantages you think are
unique to faculty in Engineering compared with other disciplines?
Dr.
Thomas: Engineering differs from other disciplines, but those differences are
not huge, and the differences often make work more interesting. At CWRU, I was
in engineering, but I also had an appointment in Experimental Psychology,
specifically in a Perception Lab that focused on vision. In that Lab, my
engineering expertise complemented the visual science and psychophysics
expertise of my colleagues. Of course, engineers build things – in hardware or
software. In order to investigate brief visual phenomena, I built a video based
system that opened some new avenues for research. We frequently talked about
our different approaches, but our differences were always viewed as a strength
in the Lab, and the differences enriched the experience of the graduate
student.
Fiona: Biomedical engineering is a relatively new a
discipline. When you tried to build the BME program at SLU with limited
resource, what were the difficulties you had to face? Have you envisioned it to
be what we have today or something rather different?
Dr.
Thomas: I wanted to start the department with a PhD program first, and then
expand to an undergraduate program. The SLU administration vetoed that
approach, and we compromised to an approach of undergraduate degree first, and
later a graduate program. At the beginning, that compromise was not totally
comfortable, but after 6 years or so, the result was effectively the same. The
department today is really what I wanted, thanks for you and the other great
young faculty.
Fiona: I’m glad to hear that. Do you have advice for
educators in the future who want to build new programs?
Dr.
Thomas: In terms of starting a new program, I see two ways to start. With
sufficient university commitment, a totally new department can emerge, i.e.,
Civil Engineering at SLU. The second approach is to build a specialty using
faculty from multiple departments. For example, your Neuroscience program did
not start as a department, but you had a group of faculty with similar interests
who could work together to build something new. Both approaches are valid and
appropriate. Which you use depends on the area and the faculty. The
non-department start-up may be more appropriate when the focus is on graduate
research.
Fiona: Do you have opinions about the general BME
curriculum in the United States? Do you think students, upon graduation, are
ready for jobs in industry? What aspects could have been strengthened?
Dr.
Thomas: I recall when biomedical engineering programs were in two categories.
The large majority was more engineering, i.e., more like the traditional
engineering majors. The minority moved more in the direction of the biological
sciences. In the past 20 years or so, those two populations have merged. There
are still differences among universities, mostly due to different faculty
expertise, but the differences are not that important.
I
took my first job, after my MS degree, and I had doubts about my abilities. I
found myself in a division where I was the “new kid on the block”; the next youngest
was about 12 years older that I. The age difference quickly disappeared. I
found that I had a few skills that could be useful to my group, and I found
that others had engineering experience that I did not have. It was a teaching-learning
situation.
BME graduates today seem to
face similar situations. Even when they join a well-established group, our
graduates have unique, and sometimes more up to date, skills that make them
valuable employees.
While we might talk about
minor changes in the curriculum, the main principle is to make the curriculum
match the faculty. Secondly, graduates will give valuable feedback. Graduates
tell us that they had the skills to be immediately productive, even while they
learn new lab techniques. Faculty from other universities tell me that our
graduates are prepared to be productive on day one.
Overall, maintain a
curriculum that matches the faculty, listen to graduates in their new
positions, and listen to faculty and employers who hire our graduates. Be
willing to make minor corrections in the curriculum, and trust your judgment on
what changes need to be made.
Fiona: As a junior faculty, I am yet to develop a
practical strategy to help me get tenure. Do you have advice for non-tenured
faculty in terms of self-planning for their career and surviving academic politics?
Dr.
Thomas: My usual advice is to pursue you own
interests and do the things you like to do. I think that is good, but it omits
a lot of details.
Preparing for tenure and
promotion varies with the area and the person. But generally, I suggest two
things. First, the preparation should be the same as If you anticipate going to
a new institution. Again, that may or may not be helpful. Secondly, create a
track record and paper trail. The track record will build naturally, with pubs
and grants and students. The paper train may be equally important. Record every
act of research, teaching, or service. Even the simplest of items should be
included, like giving a guest lecture in someone’s course, collaborating with
colleagues in a start-up, serving on a committee, visiting a local school, and
other event that you may consider to be minor.
Fiona: I know you have
been constantly trying new teaching techniques. What is the key in being an
effective teacher, in your opinion? Are there useful principles or tricks you
would like to share with us?
Dr.
Thomas: Tough question. I started using personal computers in lab and in
courses, starting with the Apple II and a TRS80 (from Radio Shack). I did it
because I wanted to use the computers. In hindsight, the computing aspect made
courses more interesting and more challenging for students. The introduction of
computers into courses was not well planned; it just happened. There was a lot
of trial and error, and a lot of good advice and feedback and assistance from
students.
Different
faculty have different talents. A few can entertain students with a
performance. Most of us in engineering do not have those entertainment skills,
at least not for more than a few minutes.
I
have used a course website for many years, and that was another experiment at
the time. With or without a good textbook, students benefit from class notes,
videos, or other references. The videos are especially interesting. The current
undergraduates will be very attentive for any video, even a low-quality video. During
a video may be the only time, other than exams, when I have their undivided
attention. In ten years, the students and teaching tools will be different, but
for now videos work, just as a personal computer worked in the 1980s.
From
my own experience as a student and as a professor, I think the primary element
for success it to like the material you present in courses. Students will recognize
when a professor has enthusiasm for the course material or if the professor is
just going through the motions. I have always been fortunate to teach courses
that I really liked, and that made teaching fun for me. When it is fun for me,
that enthusiasm transfers to students.
Fiona: You just mentioned the curriculum should
match the faculty’s expertise, and I think it helps bring up the enthusiasm of
the faculty teaching courses relevant to their research. Thank you so much for
the invaluable advice, Dr. Thomas! Before we end, I’d like to hear about your
exciting project in Haiti. Could you talk about the progress you made when you
last visited there with the 13 SLU students? What is your goal next year?
Dr.
Thomas: The 13 SLU students and I traveled to the northern region of Haiti in
June 2015. We were accompanied by a Haitian student who expects to study
Business in St Louis. The 15 of us tutored students in the small town of
Plaine-du-Nord, where the SLU students spent three days with more than 160
Haitian students. We spend a day at the
factory of Meds & Food for Kids where they make a peanut-based food bar for
undernourished children and pregnant women. The SLU students saw the process
from growing peanuts to producing the final food products, and the
infrastructure of the factory that includes producing its own electricity and
potable water. On a day at a new campus of the University of Haiti, we met with
the university administration about potential collaborations. Aside from those
three main items, we made several short trips, including a day at the most
popular tourist site in Milot, mass at the Cathedral in Cap-Haitian, and a
morning at a beach. The trip was a wonderful experience for all of us, and we
continue to meet and recall our Haiti experience.
Some
current projects really started when we were in Haiti. There is so much to do
in Haiti, it’s
hard to know what to do first. We are addressing the lack of electricity and a
new approach to reforestation. The goal is to provide solar power to families,
starting with basic cooking and lighting. I want to have a few units of a
prototype that can be tested by Haitian families, starting in February or
March. Fortunately, several BME students are very excited about working on
these projects, and of course, they contribute their own ideas.
Fiona commented: I guess seeing their knowledge
being applied to help people was more rewarding than getting a good grade in
class.
Dr.
Thomas: We are also working on some specific plans for collaborative projects
with the University of Haiti in Limonade. The university has a nice new campus,
but it suffers from a lack of faculty. Many courses do not have teachers, and
students cannot complete their degree requirements. We are looking at ways that
we might use graduate students or postdocs to go to Haiti for 1-2 semesters to
teach courses. That could relieve the current crisis and maybe allow the
University to reach its potential.
Fiona: If you were a junior faculty like me, I might
look at the outreach as a preparation toward NSF funding or tenure. But for
someone who has just retired, it shows how a scientist and engineer is tied to the
human society. What you have been doing matters, Dr. Thomas, and I’m proud of you
as a colleague.
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