Showing posts with label academic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label academic. Show all posts

mendeley 1.19.1 crash - QFSFileEngine::open: No file name specified

Personally, using the Mendeley Reference Manager is not easy, I really prefer to use the Desktop instead of the manager. From my point of view, providing the Mendeley Reference Manager only and giving up the support for both Desktop and Smart phones/pads is really disappointing. The more I use the Reference Manager, the more I feel in this way.


After upgrading to the Ubuntu 20.04, I tried to reinstall Mendeley Desktop, and it always gives the error with a crash: QFSFileEngine::open: No file name specified


After googling for some while, I found the relevant issue, and the corresponding solution. Running the command below to reset the Mendeley Desktop indeed saved my day.

$ mendeleydesktop --reset

After this, I needed to redownload and sync from Mendeley server, which is not a problem for me as I've been syncing local update to the server.


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Questions to prepare for academic job interviews


This post summarizes a list of questions that can be asked in your academic job interviews. If you are already passed the CV screening process and landed to an interview, it is already a great progress as you might be in the limited number of candidates out of hundreds of applicants. 

On top of your great progress so far, the interview normally aims to find out whether you are a good "FIT" of the job post that you have applied, and whether you are a good colleague, mentor, and teacher that the University is looking for with a set of prepared questions with a limited time. Therefore, we need to try to meet the requirements that the interviewers looking for with short and neat answers.

Interview is indeed a nervous situation, but remember, it is also a situation with new opportunities, and, it is OK to be not perfect.

In the following, we have a set of curated interview questions that might be useful to think of and prepare before your interviews, which are categorized into four aspects below:


  • General questions
  • Teaching related questions
  • Research related questions
  • Questions related to admin duties



General questions

  • Introduce yourself 
  • Why are you excited about the position?
  • Why you choose to apply our institution?
  • Describe the skills you have that will make you a good lecturer?
  • How do you organize your day?
  • When are you available to start? 

Teaching

  • Your teaching philosophy 
  • What’s your teaching style as a Lecturer? Tell us about your teaching style
  • Describe the skills you have that will make you a good lecturer?
  • What can you teach? What would you like to teach? What do you want to teach?
  • What experiences do you have working with and teaching diverse students?
  • Do you think you have diverse teaching experience?
  • How do you feel about teaching other foundamental courses that might out of your expertise?
  • If you design the degree, what kind of modules will be there to construct it?
  • What do students say about your teaching?
  • Tell me what you like and dislike about teaching, and in particular, being a University lecturer?
  • What is the difference or relationship between traditional algorithms and ML algorithms?
  • Tell us how you deal with a classroom of students with different abilities and levels of motivation?
  • How do you deal with developing a new course?
  • What types of projects can students do in your group?
  • What are your thoughts on technology in the classroom?
  • Tell me what you like and dislike about teaching, and in particular, being a University lecturer?
  • How will you deal with less motivated students?
  • How do you deal with disruptive students in the classroom?
  • Share some specific successes and failures in the classroom
  • If you could develop a new course, what would it be?
  • What is your teaching related experience?
  • What is your supervision related experience?
  • What is the difficult part for you during educational experience? 
  • What did you learn about it?
  • What is your opinion about online/offline learning?
  • What is your opinion about assessment formats such as assignments and final term exam styles?
  • What are the final exam covers that assignments do not cover?
  • What have you learned about our student body that excites you/concerns you?
  • If you are teaching 3 courses and a faculty member comes to say if you can teach 4th one for help due to an emergency? What will you do?


Research

  • What kind of research metrics do you think is the best for evaluating a faculty, e.g., h-index or impact factors?
  • How do you select good PhD candidates?
  • What is your approach to mentoring?
  • Understanding of national funding landscape
  • What types of fundings you would like to apply for your research
  • How do you choose the venues to submit for your research
  • What are top venues that you didn't make it but would like to have in the future
  • What is your top paper and why, what is the impact / What do you think are your most significant research accomplishments?
  • What do you consider to be your best paper/work and why? What are your most important publications? What are the two best papers of yours?
  • What did it change about the way people approach the field?
  • What has been the impact of your research?
  • Who here might you collaborate with?
  • What are the resources will you need to be successful? 
  • What papers do you have coming through in the next year?
  • What is the status of the grant you listed on your CV?
  • How will you excite students about your research?
  • What do you see in 10 years? Where is your research heading in the next 5-10 years?
  • What new techniques/approaches will you be developing?
  • What is innovative about your research? 
  • How is your work distinct from your supervisor’s/principal investigator’s? How intellectually independent are you? How will you distinguish yourself from your mentor?
  • What influences have you been exposed to?  Who has influenced you the most?
  • Do you think you have enough breadth of experience?
  • What has been your role so far in developing research ideas and carrying them forward?
  • If we gave you the position, what might go wrong? How will you manage the risks?

Admin duties 

  • What kind of admin duties are you aware of and would like to contribute? What department/school committee work interests you?
  • What kind of admin duties have you contributed to?
  • What do you know about our University’s EDI policies


In this post, we have summarized a list of interview questions for those who are seeking academic jobs with respect to general, teaching, research, and admin duties. Hope the list will have you to some extent with your faculty job search.

If you have other interesting questions worth to mention during your academic job interviews that might be helpful for others, please also leave a comment below.

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Source or dataset link placeholder for double-blind review

Double-blind review is a reviewing process in academic conferences or journals for submitted papers where the ideintities of authors and reviewers should remain anonymous for each other. An alternative adopted instead of the double-blind review is single-blind review where the reviewers know the authors but the reviewers' identities remain anonymous for authors.

One of the most important thing for double-blind reiview is that, as an author, you should not reveal your identities in any manner, e.g., using "in our previous work [1]" in the Related Work or including your source code or dataset link with a URL might contain your identity information (e.g., link to your shared Drive with some of your information can be disclosed).

An interesting solution discovered recently is adding the link http://www.omitted.link/ for the reviewing process and simply replace the link later with actual link. For example, in the latex of your article:

\footnote{\url{http://www.omitted.link/}} 

Specifically, the link will point to a dummy page with the following information:







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How to center p column values in a LaTex table?

First we need to use the array package and define a new command P 

\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
Afterwards, we can use the command P instead of p as follows when we define column type in the LaTex table 

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{|P{2.5cm}|P{2.5cm}|P{2.5cm}|}
    \hline
    Reconstruction strategy & aa          & bb( \%) \\ \hline
    Classic                 & 3342 voxels & 68 \%   \\ \hline
    VC                      & 4296 voxels & 87 \%   \\ \hline
    V m=7                   & 4745 voxels & 96 \%   \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
  \newline\newline
  \caption{title}\label{tab1}
\end{table}

This will give you the following output:


 

[Source]: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/157389/how-to-center-column-values-in-a-table
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Finite State Machine (FSM)

What is Finite State Machine?

Finite State Machine (FSM) is an abstract machine (reffered to as automaton), which is from the Automata Theory of computer science from 20th Century. Simply stated, automata theory deals with the logic of computation with respect to simple machines, referred to as automata. 

An FSM is abstract since it does not physically exist, and it was invented even before the first computer exists. Through automata, computer scientists are able to understand how machines compute functions and solve problems and more importantly, what it means for a function to be defined as computable or for a question to be described as decidable.

There are four major families of automaton where FSM as one of them: 

  • Finite-state machine 
  • Pushdown automata 
  • Linear-bounded automata 
  • Turing machine

Many things in the real-world are FSMs, e.g., traffic lights are a FSM with several (light) states which will change state when it receives an input, typically just a fixed timer that decides how much time the traffic lights should be green, yellow and red. Also, a turnstile is oftern referred to as an easy example for FSM, where "locked" and "un-locked" are two states, and arrows indicate transitions between states.

from https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/rise-state-machines/



Example Usages?



An FSM contains 5-tuple $(Q, \Sigma, \delta, q0, F)$ where:
  • $Q$ is a finite set of states, e.g., "locked" and "un-locked" in the above example
  • $\Sigma$ is a finite set of alphabet, e.g., "push" and "coin" in the above example
  • $\delta$ is a transition function: $Q \times \Sigma \rightarrow Q$, which maps states and inputs to another state
  • $q0$ is the initial state which is one of the finite state set $q0 \in Q$ ("locked" in the example)
  • $F$ is the final state(s) which also is(are) in the $Q$ ("unlocked" in the example)

JFLAP is software for experimenting with formal languages topics including FSM.





More formal definition and examples can be found in nice blogs below:
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Salaries of PhD students, postdocs, and professors in Europe and Switzerland


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How to insert LaTex equation in Powerpoint PPT?



One thing was not convinient when preparing slides for classroom or academic presentation is inserting equations if you are used to LaTex. Recently, I found that the equation feature in the latest Office is improved with the functionality of adding an equation with LaTex syntax, which can be achieved with the following steps:

1. Click the Insert option

2. Click the Equation, which will let you insert equations

3. Now you can write down the equation in LaTex syntax

4. Finally, click $e^x$ Professional highlighed below, then your writen equation in LaTex will be converted to the right format of equation in the slide



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How to crop figures in LaTex? 



It is common when we inserting figures in the papers in LaTex where some of them can have a white border taking up a lot of space. The trim option in \includegraphics aims to crop the figures inside the LaTex environment, which makes manipulating figures easy. For example, 
\begin{figure}[!bh]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth,
trim=0cm 0cm 0cm .4cm, clip=true]
{images/user_difference.pdf}
\caption{The relationship between the number of favorites and retweets for two different users in a log scale.}
\label{fig:user_diff}
\end{figure}

The four locations after trim= are [left bottom right top] respectively, and [0cm 0cm 0cm .4cm] means we are trimming top for .4cm of the figure.

We can also use the clip=true or clip=false to turn on and off the trimming of the figure.
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How to make thicker or thiner lines in LaTex tables?



Sometimes when we are writing articles with LaTex, thicker or thiner lines in the tables provide good and clear view on those tables. For instance, the one from the paper "aschern at SemEval-2020 Task 11: It Takes Three to Tango: RoBERTa, CRF, and Transfer Learning" at SemEval 2020 in the below, where the top and bottom lines are thicker than the middle line.


This can be simply achieved by using the makecell package and the corresponding command below:

First, just declaring we are using the makecell package

\usepackage{makecell}
Second, we can use Xhline command instead of the hline with the thickness defined

  
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\Xhline{1.5pt}
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Academic Resources

  


This is a curated list of resources related to PhD, doing research, writing, doing peer reviews, and career development, etc., which can be helpful for people at different stages of an academic trajectory from the github repository.

There are several ways you can engage with the list of resources if you like it.

  • Star the repo
  • Share the list
  • Suggest resources that you liked a lot but are missing from the list
  • Point out broken links of the resources

How to apply PhD


How to do that PhD


How to write


How to review


How to do research


How to develop your academic career

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Industry vs Academic Research

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Job Application Summary After PhD


After spending four years of Ph.D, it is again time for starting a new journey, which reminds me the time like in South Korea after my master's degree. At that time, I applied around 20 jobs and ended up with Hyundai. However, I'd like to work in research environment rather than management job, and pursued the PhD. Therefore, the goal of this time for job seeking is to find a research job in an industry lab or academic position.

  • Academic
    • UCD Postdoc RecSys group, Ireland -> Interview -> Offer
  • Industry
    • IBM NLP, Australia -> Phone Interview (22/03) -> Final Interview (24/04) -> No Update (20/06)
    • Bell lab, Dublin -> Phone Interview (08/05) -> Final Interview (28/05) -> Offer (20/06)
    • Telefonica Internship -> Interview -> Offer
      • could not go since I'm affiliated to the Uni. until August while the offer is until Nov.
      • it's really a pity to me as internship is a unique opportunity for a student...
    • Amazon UK -> Interview#1
    • IBM Research Intern, Ireland
    • IBM U.S.
    • Spotify User Research, London, UK 
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EECS Colloquium - Prof. David Patterson - 11/18/15

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지도교수 찾기 (해외유학, 석사과정, 박사과정)




석사과정을 졸업하고 유학과 취업사이에서 고민했던 시간도 있었고 직장생활을 하면서 부단히 자신의 하고 싶은 일, 혹은 좀 더 재밋는 일을 고민했었고 안정한 직장생활을 때려치고 박사과정을 선택하는 과정까지 많은 지도교수를 컨택했었다. 



1.그렇다면 석사과정, 박사과정을 진학하기 위한 지도교수를 어떻게 찾는 것이 좋을까?

How to find right institution & advisor for your research from foreveribmer

슬라이드에서 보여주다 싶이 지도교수는 학사가 아닌 이상 연구를 하기 위해서는 특히 박사과정을 위해서는 자신이 재밋는 연구분야의 성과있는 지도교수를 찾는게 중요하다. 무엇보다 박사과정은 1,2년이 아닌 5년 내지는 훨씬 긴 기간이 될 수 있기때문에 펀딩을 받는 것이 마음 놓고 연구에 몰두 할 수 있는 중요한 조건이기도 하다.




2.어떻게 자신을 지도교수 한테 어필해야 될까?

1).지도교수를 찾는 관건은 아무래도 이메일 및 이력서일 것이다. 자신을 소개하고 자신의 석사,박사과정을 교수님 지도하에서 하고 싶다는 동기를 어필하고 Resume을 작성해서 이메일을 보내는 과정은 취업시 원서 넣는거랑 흡사하다. 실제로 몇백대일의 경쟁을 뚫고 살아남는 이력서를 작성하면서 취직준비를 했던 학생이라면 지도교수 한테 이력서 넣는 다고 생각하고 준비하고 잘 어필할 수 있을 것이다. 취업에서 늘 하는 말이지만 이력서는 찾는 지도교수의 흥취(연구분야, 프로젝트, 경력)를 불러일으켜야 회신을 받을 확율이 높다. 자신이 했던 프로젝트, 논문, 경력을 최대한 연락하고자 하는 지도교수님의 연구방향에 맞는 부분을 많이 어필해야 된다는 것이다.

2).연구방향이 다른 지도교수를 연락하고자 한다면 그에 대한 충분한 이유가 있어야 한다. 아무 연관성이 없는 학생을 받기 쉽지 않으므로 최대한 연구방향을 바꾸려는 동기 및 그에 대한 경험이나 앞으로의 계획에 대해서 잘 어필해야 된다. 지도교수 입장에서는 아무래도 학생으로 받아서 처음부터 시작하는 제자보다는 바로 적응할 수 있고 성과를 많이 낼 수 있는 제자를 원하기 때문에 비록 연구분야가 다르더라도 충분히 해낼수 있다는 가능성을 어필해야 된다.


3.메일은 많이 보냈는데 회신은 없다?

경험에 의하면 지극히 정상이다. 당연히 첫눈에 봐도 딱 눈에 티는 분이라면 좋은 학교를 선택하면서 가고 메일 보내면 교수들이 너도 나도 받으려고 할 것이다. 하지만 나와 같은 평범한 분이라면 메일을 몇십통 보내도 달랑 몇통의 회신외 전부 회신이 없거나 거절하는 경우가 많을 것이다. 하지만 분명해야 될 것은 취직할 때도 그렇고 지도교수 찾는 과정도 그렇고 당신이 턱없이 부족해서라기보다는 자신한테 맞는 지도교수를 못찾았다라는 걸 념두에 두고 가장 중요한 것은 낙심은 금물이다.

1).지도교수 지도할 수 있는 T.O.(빈자리)가 없다. 물론 많은 지도교수님 홈페이지에서 학생들을 뽑고 있다고 하지만 뽑은 후에 제때에 홈페이지에 업데이트 안되는 경우가 많다. 이미 뽑았으니 더 뽑을 여유가 없는 경우들도 많으므로 이런 경우는 신경쓰지 말자.

2).왜 거절했을까?를 고민해보자. 거절당한 경우는 분명히 이유가 있다. 그게 외적인 요인 (T.O.가 없거나 당신이 하고자 하는 분야에 관심이 없거나..) 때문이면 괜찮지만 연구분야가 정확히 연관성이 있지만 거절당했을 때는 원인을 짚어볼 필요가 있다. 메일을 보내서 지도교수가 확인 할 수 있는 정보들중 하나가 문제일 것이다.

  • 학부성적, 석사성적
  • 언어능력 (토플성적 등)
  • 지원동기 (왜 석사, 박사과정을 하고 싶고 어떤 커리어를 생각하고 있는지?)
  • 어떤 연구를 하고 싶은지? 
  • 능력 (연구분야에 대한 능력, 논문, IT인 경우는 코딩 등)

알고 보면 몇가지 없지만 위의 모든 조건에 대해서 자신의 생각이 명확해야 된다. 성적은 이미 지나간 거고 능력도 단기간에 늘어날 수 있는게 아니다. 실제로 메일을 많이 보내다보니 외국교수님들은 나의 생각에 대해서 많이 물어봤던 것 같다. 자신만의 아이디어나 연구주제를 가지고 있는지? 왜 그걸 하고 싶고 해당분야에서 어떤 공헌(Contribution)이 있을지? 자신만의 생각을 다듬어가고 물론 박사과정에 실제로 가게 되면 그 생각을 연구주제로 할 지 모르지만 교수님들은 학생의 독립적인 생각(independent thinking)능력을 보려고 했을 것 같다. 그리고 독립적인 생각이 실제로 연구를 함에 있어서 가장 중요하다는 생각도 든다.


4.주관적인 시각

교수님들의 시각은 지극히 주관적일 수 밖에 없을거 같다. 한국학생을 받아본적이 없거나 접촉해본적이 없다면 당연히 학교에 대해서 모를수 밖에 없다. SKY는 한국에서의 얘기라는 것도 명심해야 한다. 실제로 호주의 교수님을 연락했을때 교수님은 전혀 연세대나 고대에 대해 모르고 있었고 강의 중 아마 카이스트와 서울대 학생은 경험해본 적이 있었던 것 같다. 하지만 그 학생들의 퍼포먼스가 교수님이 그 학교학생들에 대한 주관적인 인식이 될 수 있고 그분들의 낮은 퍼포먼스가 교수님이 그 학교 학생들을 받을 때 참고의식으로 동작할 수 있다. 이런 주관적인 시각에 상처받거나 고민 할 필요는 없고 자신의 어필을 잘 하면 된다. 다시 한번 강조하고 싶은 지도교수 찾기 의 가장 중요한 것은 자신한테 맞는 교수님을 찾아야 한다는 것이다.




5.무한도전

수십통의 메일을 통해 교수님을 연락하고 거절당하고, 취업지원때보다 몇배는 더 보낸 것 같다. 하지만 그 과정에서 자신의 생각을 부단히 다듬어가고 원하는 방향을 더 잘 알아나가고 자신한테 맞는 교수님 한명을 결국에 찾으면 노력들은 보람이 있는것이다. 유학을 결심하고 연구커리어를 결심한 사람이라면 지도교수 찾기를 최대한 많이, 계속 도전을 해야 하는 이유는?

1).어차피 메일 쓰는 건 돈이 안든다.

2).여러 교수님들과 연락하면서 자신의 생각을 다듬게 된다. 가장 인상깊은 것은 외국교수님들이 내가 작성한 자료에 온 페이지가 빨강으로 물들 정도로 수정을 해서 코멘트를 해준다. 이런 경험과 코멘트들은 자신의 자료들을 다듬는 소중한 것들이다.

3).앞 교수님들과 연락하는 과정에서 다듬은 생각은 점점 더 나은 경험으로 Resume이나 어필시에 많은 도움이 된다.

4).가장 중요한 것은 이 노력들이 당신이 원하는 교수님 및 펀딩까지 연결할 수 있다면 Why not?이지 않을까?

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