Getting Involved in Undergraduate Research Katherine Sittig-Boyd - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Getting Involved in Undergraduate Research Katherine Sittig-Boyd - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Getting Involved in Undergraduate Research Katherine Sittig-Boyd Data Analyst Former DREU and CREU participant WHO AM I? Who am I? Professional database wrangler and data analyst Graduated from Simmons


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Getting Involved in Undergraduate Research

Katherine Sittig-Boyd Data Analyst Former DREU and CREU participant

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  • Who am I?

Professional ¡database ¡wrangler ¡and ¡data ¡analyst ¡ Graduated ¡from ¡Simmons ¡College ¡in ¡May ¡2016 ¡ Currently ¡living ¡in ¡Boston ¡

  • How I got involved in undergraduate research

My ¡mentor, ¡Nane@e ¡Veilleux ¡ WanDng ¡to ¡go ¡beyond ¡coursework ¡ ¡

WHO AM I?

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TOPICS

¡

  • Past research experience and how I got involved
  • How to seek out undergraduate research opportunities
  • Beyond undergrad: research in the real world
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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

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CREU EXPERIENCE 2013-14: Gesture Analysis

Team: Sarah Elmore, Hillary Fundin, Laura Haenchen, Katherine Sittig-Boyd; Mentor: Nanette Veilleux

  • Human gestures are difficult to quantify and analyze
  • Implemented a gesture categorization system
  • Developed an experiment to identify which gesture categories

are used in accordance with verbal communication tasks

Presented at Grace Hopper 2014 poster session!

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CREU EXPERIENCE 2014-15: Conversational Context

Team: Jillianna Farietta, Patcharaporn Israsena, Maria Romero, Katherine Sittig-Boyd; Mentor: Nanette Veilleux

  • Investigated pitch contours in verbal communication settings
  • Speech recognition, speech synthesis
  • 67% of our prompts produced the intended result
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CREU EXPERIENCE 2015-16: Clinical Narratives Team: Rebecca Haralson, Katherine Sittig-Boyd, Stephanie Worobey; Mentor: Amber Stubbs

  • Used real medical records for a text/data mining project
  • Investigated discrepancies in clinical narratives

For ¡instance, ¡only ¡67% ¡of ¡the ¡narraDves ¡menDon ¡that ¡the ¡paDent ¡ in ¡quesDon ¡is ¡diabeDc ¡

  • Discrepancies between program-based predictions and actual

gender; 24 records made no mention of gender

  • 320 records did not mention age; 36 had age disagreements

Presented at 2016 Tapia Celebration!

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DREU EXPERIENCE 2015 School: University of Southern California Mentor: Maja Matarić

  • Got to combine language AND robotics
  • Created a speech detection node for the Robot Operating

System (ROS) at the University of Southern California

  • Identified who was speaking in a multi-party interaction

Featured as a short paper at IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN '16). Authors: Elaine Short, Katherine Sittig-Boyd and Maja J. Matarić.

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CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSES

  • Data sets - gathering, designing, analyzing

Also ¡challenging: ¡Working ¡with ¡data ¡sets ¡that ¡weren’t ¡my ¡own! ¡

  • Translating real-world phenomena into computational ideas

Speech, ¡gesture, ¡group ¡conversaDon ¡dynamics, ¡human ¡language ¡

  • Working with robotics, which was not available at my college
  • Contributing to the quantification of gesture and speech
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WHY PARTICIPATE IN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH?

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GRADUATE SCHOOL

  • Graduate programs love to see that you have

research experience

  • “Trial run” before a longer commitment
  • Gain a sense of what YOU like to study
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INDUSTRY/DEVELOPMENT JOBS

  • Creative, flexible approach to unsolved problems
  • Data analysis skills, new programming techniques
  • Comfort with uncertainty
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PERSONAL REASONS

  • Getting to know professors beyond the classroom
  • Gauging interest in various research fields
  • Skill set building
  • Contributions to computer science - NOT problem sets!
  • Chance at conference attendance, publication
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HOW DO I GET INVOLVED?

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CREU - ASK YOUR PROFESSORS

  • Ask around: who is studying what?
  • Find peers who are also interested in the topic

Important: ¡interdisciplinary ¡projects ¡are ¡legiDmate! ¡ ¡ ComputaDonal ¡_________________ ¡can ¡be ¡a ¡great ¡way ¡ to ¡start ¡brainstorming ¡projects ¡ Deadlines: usually the spring. Check cra-w.org/creu for more details! ¡

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DREU - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RESEARCH?

  • Are you particularly interested in genomics? High-

performance computing? Population dynamics?

  • DREU is a great way to explore beyond your own

undergraduate institution

  • Personal statement should focus on research interest

Applications are open and can be found at cra-w.org/dreu

For mentor and student applications

¡

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cra-w.org/DREU

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BEYOND CRA-W

  • NSF-funded REUs
  • All over the U.S., HUGE variety in topics
  • I have also participated in an NSF REU

...and ¡ended ¡up ¡with ¡a ¡year-­‑long ¡paid ¡internship, ¡which ¡I ¡ was ¡able ¡to ¡conDnue ¡remotely ¡while ¡in ¡college! ¡ Deadlines usually in February, March https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp ¡

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CONQUER – Computer Science Undergraduate Research

  • Conquer is an online resource provided by CRA-E for

students and faculty interested or currently participating in undergraduate research. – Resources – Research Opportunities – Exercises

Go to: conquer.cra.org Check out: cra.org/crae

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Resources ¡ ¡

Visit ¡CRA-­‑W.org ¡for ¡more ¡resources ¡for ¡all ¡levels ¡of ¡your ¡career ¡ ¡ Join ¡our ¡CRA-­‑W ¡mailing ¡list, ¡CRA-­‑W ¡Updates, ¡by ¡going ¡to ¡bit.ly/1McQCDd ¡ ¡ Follow ¡@CRAWomen ¡to ¡find ¡out ¡about ¡upcoming ¡events ¡or ¡programs ¡ ¡ Don’t ¡forget ¡to ¡take ¡the ¡feedback ¡survey! ¡ ¡