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