Blog Archives

Networking Thursdays - Volume 18

5/25/2017

Jauwairia Nasir likes to think of herself as a researcher in pursuit of impact with a nomadic soul. She received her M.S. degree in electrical engineering (robotics) from KAIST where she co-founded the International Students and Scholars Academic Council. She has been in various leadership and networking roles in Korea and Pakistan in causes related to international students, education, women, cultural exchange, Pakistan, and misconceptions about Islam.

I believe that one good thing leads to another. At the end of my third year of undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, my friend Fahad and I were part of the team that won the biggest robotics competition in Pakistan. Ironically, we only participated in the competition because it was a requirement of our course. However winning led us to have a particularly strong interest in robotics.

The problem was that we couldn’t find an appropriate professor who could supervise us for our final year project since our university did not have a specialized robotics program or a professor with robotics specialization at that time. Then Fahad attended a seminar by Dr. Yasar Ayaz, a young enthusiastic robotics and AI professor at another university. Fahad suggested that we contact him about supervising us. Dr. Ayaz seemed like the right choice but the decision was still difficult because he was affiliated with another university and, in some cases, that can disqualify students from winning the best final year project award because as widely known but not explicitly stated, the award only goes to groups who have their project supervisors from within the university. Looking back now, not even for a single moment did we regret our decision to work with him. His undying spirit and motivation led us to publish international conference papers as undergraduates, become the first Pakistani undergraduate students to publish an ISI indexed Thomson Reuters journal paper, get nominated for a gold medal, and to have our algorithm cited and extended in a PhD thesis at MIT recently. Not only this, his continuous guidance led us to eventually win full scholarships in universities with top robotics programs.

I have recently finished with my Master’s degree from the Robot Intelligence Technology Lab at KAIST under Professor Jong Hwan Kim, who is known as father of football robotics and ubiquitous robotics. Working at this lab further provided me with laurels I could never have imagined, like my work appearing at World Economic Forum 2016, networking opportunities with top scientists, startup/PhD opportunities, and interviews with top AI companies like Google Deepmind, Apple, etc. Hence, I’d say that meeting Dr. Ayaz was one of the best things that happened to us and it opened many doors for opportunities and success.

If you have a networking story to share, please send it to [email protected].

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Networking Thursdays - Volume 17

5/18/2017

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This week's story is from Jean Gray. Jean has been working as an English language teacher in Korea for about 7 years. She and I worked together at KAIST and she is still a Visiting Professor in the Language Center. In this story I got to pay it forward.

Networking isn’t necessarily the purview of extroverts.I first encountered Tim Thompson at a language school orientation. He was giving a presentation to a group of incoming teachers that I happened to catch. During that presentation he made a statement about teaching that eventually led to a profound change in my perception of my role as in a language classroom. He said, "When you teach middle school students, you are preparing them for high school. When you teach high school students, you are preparing them for university. When you teach elementary school students, just don't break the kids."

I was, and still am, very introverted, so only a powerful statement could have made me go introduce myself to a complete stranger and thank him for making me think in a new way. I did that and we parted ways, but I left with his business card in my pocket.

Life moved on, time passed, and that job ended for me. I went home to the USA for a short-term teaching job. Later that year I was preparing to return to South Korea for a new job teaching adult students. I had previously only taught children, but I was interested in teaching at the university level. This new job was a step toward getting the experience necessary to moving into university teaching in South Korea. Tim and I had stayed in touch via social media. I was thinking about what I might miss from home that I could take with me to Korea. No matter where expats live there is something they miss. During my previous contract in Korea, I had developed a deep and unexpected craving for peanut butter cups. So many American products had become available in Korea, but at that time peanut butter cups weren’t. I was chatting with Tim on social media and happened to mention that I was bringing some back with me. I asked him if he wanted some as well. He did, of course, so we met for coffee and the transfer of guilty pleasures after I returned to Korea.

A few months later his university had an open position for a language teacher and Tim thought of me and got in touch to let me know and encouraged me to apply. I did apply, got an interview as a result of his advocacy on my behalf, and have been working here quite happily for the last 3 years.

If you have a networking story to share, please send it to [email protected].

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Networking Thursdays - Volume 16

5/11/2017

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Claire Maloney, MA, PME, Celta, taught English courses in public schools, universities, and private languages schools in South Korea and Ireland. She has a Masters in Modernist and Postmodern literature and pending Postgraduate Masters in Post-Primary Education.

I was a teacher in South Korea for 5 years. In that time I got to experience a number of different jobs and I feel I was given every opportunity to expand my own skills and experience.

As a Guest English Teacher, I had to teach my basic 22 classes each week in a public school and any extra classes my school wished me to teach. The local department of education also offered me part-time teaching positions as an English instructor to Korean elementary, middle and high school teachers which would take place after school. As I was a newly certified teacher, without teaching experience, I was surprised when I was asked by my coordinator to teach Korean teachers. I had two months of teaching experience at this point, but as I only had to teach the English language, I felt I could step up to the task. I received good evaluations from the teachers and after a couple of terms was asked to instruct them on useful active teaching and learning methodologies one could use in a CLIL classroom. This was a lot more challenging for me as the masters I hold is in literature, not in EFL. I had not learned the necessary methodologies that would support the learning of the English curriculum in Korean schools. I also felt I was teaching people who knew a lot more about the topic than I did. Again, I probably would not have searched out this work myself, but having been asked by the department, I decided to step up again to the task. I educated myself on the topics and received good evaluations, thankfully.

While I technically had the basic qualifications in place to teach these classes, I know I would not have had the confidence to apply for the positions without being asked by my coordinator. I found I was used fully by the department while I worked in the public sector and I personally and professionally developed an enormous amount. “Who you know” can work both ways. People can gain employment opportunities if they are in the right position and know the correct people while employers can find staff they know will work very hard.

If you have a networking story to share, please send it to [email protected].

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Networking Thursdays - Volume 15

5/4/2017

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Ling Liu is a former student of mine at KAIST.

Not all career paths are linear. After completing my BS in Electrical engineering at KAIST in Daejeon and then an MBA at KAIST’s Seoul campus I got a job as a product manager at one of Korea’s top companies but I wasn’t happy. The problem was not the job itself, it is more organizational problem. I was managing a product line which was not one of the primary business areas and the management was just pushing growth targets even when the whole market was going down. My product could not get much support at the organizational level which left me helpless but they still pushed for higher numbers and more reports. I spent more time reporting rather than doing something useful. Also, since I am a foreigner, I didn't see much chance to change to a better opportunity in Korea. I thought about going back to China, and I realized for my next job, I wanted to focus on something where at least I could control my work at some level and I always wanted to keep some power to find a better job. I started talking about my issues with a friend from high school who was working in the US. He suggested I look into computer science. Since EE required some programming and math knowledge and all I needed was a computer to get started I began practicing programming on the weekends and talked to more friends in the industry. They provided me with a lot of suggestions about how to quickly pick up CS-related skills. After I practiced programming for several months and took some CS courses on Coursera, I applied for a CS Master’s program and got admitted. Quitting my job and switching paths wasn’t easy but it will pay off in the long run.

If you have a networking story to share, please send it to [email protected].

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What No One Tells You About Publishing Your Research

5/1/2017

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I was listening to a rebroadcast of This American Life Episode 583 "It'll Make Sense When You're Older" and it inspired me to write this post. The theme of the episode was that we don't know what it's like to be in a certain situation until we're there.

These days I've been working with researchers who need to publish their results and grad students who need to present their PhD research proposal and sometimes I feel like the advice I'm giving seems too obvious, but then I remember that I had to learn those same lessons the hard way myself. The advice focuses on two key areas: 1. Who are you writing for? and 2. What inspired your research?

When I was in grad school and trying to get my papers published I would write first and then look for a publication to send it to second. This works when you are writing papers for your grad courses and then looking for places to publish edited versions of them. However, when you are writing up your research results and your job security rests on getting published in top-tier journals in your field, you need to pick a journal before you start writing. That being said, a researcher friend reminded me that it's okay to have an outline of what you want to cover before selecting a journal.

Picking your journal before writing helps you identify your target reader (are they specialized in your field or is the publication for a broader range of readers?). It also gives you a opportunity to look at that journal's style guide which includes reference and citation guidelines, how to format charts and tables, and provides word counts for titles and abstracts. Additionally, you can look over sample articles to find out what topics have not been covered recently (or have been covered but could be improved on) and the average length of the articles they publish including the format and length of the individual sections.

Writing an article that looks like a typical article from that publication will increase your chances of being accepted. Following the rules for submission helps your article get an unbiased read. When I worked on the editorial board of a journal as a front-line editor, going over word limits and not following our prescribed referencing style was an easy way to clear that file off my desk (and into the trash can). After all, this was unpaid work and I didn't have time to critically read articles from authors that didn't have time to read our submission guidelines.

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Regarding the inspiration for research, I remember planning the survey items for my MA thesis and choosing topics and questions that interested me. During my defense, my committee crushed me for not basing my survey items on previous research. Sure, they could have mentioned this MUCH EARLIER in the process but it was a valuable lesson that I have tried to pass down to my students.

Last week, a student was practicing her presentation for her PhD research proposal and her labmates were being very critical about the experiments she was planning. They were asking her why she thought it would work and were pointing out very specific critiques. When I asked which articles led her to want to run these experiments, she looked stunned. I think she just thought they would be interesting to try. It took my back to my MA thesis, since that was a version of what I told my committee members. I was curious to see what the results of my survey would be. The problem is that academic research needs to stem from previous research. Budding researchers need to let peer-reviewed studies guide them to holes in what is known in that field that need filling. They need to read everything they can get their hands on for the topic they plan to research.

If you are reading this and thinking that this advice is all common sense, you might be as surprised as I was when I found out how many people didn't know it even at a time in their academic careers when you would think they should. But I'll ask you to think back to that moment when you figured out that you need to pick a publication and an audience to write for and that you can't just try an experiment that pops into your head and expect to get it published in a top-tier journal. I would wager that many of you, like me, were not taught these lessons in a classroom but were smacked in the head by reality when your article was rejected and learned them the hard way.

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Networking Thursdays - Volume 18

Networking Thursdays - Volume 17

Networking Thursdays - Volume 16

Networking Thursdays - Volume 15

What No One Tells You About Publishing Your Research

Tim's Thoughts

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