Starting and Growing Your Own Research Program

Cecilia AragonAssociate Professor

Dept. of Human Centered Design & EngineeringUniversity of Washington

Seattle, WA

Outline

• My background• Defining a research agenda• Advice for the newly independent

researcher• Proposal writing• Starting a research program• Questions

My backgroundCecilia Aragon, University of Washington

• Education– B.S. mathematics, Caltech– M.S. and Ph.D. computer science, University of California

Berkeley (1987 and 2004)• Jobs

– Bell Labs, DEC, Sun, other; NASA Ames (1987-2004)– Interlude: Airshow pilot– Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2004-present)– University of Washington (2011 present)‐

• Research– Human computer interaction– Visualization, visual analytics, scientific collaboration

• Personal– Married with a 16 year-old daughter and 11 year-old son‐ ‐

Defining a research agenda

1. What is the theme of your research?2. What are your short, medium and

long range research goals? How do ‐these relate to your career goals?

3. What steps do you need to take to achieve these goals?

Defining a research theme

Come up with 1 2 sentences describing your research ‐theme.• How?

– Pick three of your papers, tell a coherent story about how they are related.

– Pick three of your students/reports, tell a coherent story about how their research fits under your research theme

– Look for ideas / connections with current funding initiatives

• Use research theme as a filter for prioritizing what collaborations you decide to pursue, what grants you go for, networking opportunities to pursue, etc.

What are your research goals?

• Short term (6 mos)‐• Medium term (2 – 5 years)‐• Long term (5 – 10 years)‐

Advice for the newly independent researcher

• Networking• Collaboration• Funding

“Organic” networking

• Go to research workshops that appeal to you; better, propose one yourself

• Go to seminars you find interesting• Prepare posters on your work• Mentor other women (or men)• Hang out with your friends• Talk to students• Volunteer in your community (“old soccer

moms network”, children’s schools)

Collaboration

http://sciencewatch.com/nov-dec2007/sw_nov-dec2007_page1.htm

Collaboration: Dos and Don’ts

• Do:– Be a responsible collaborator– Develop the ability to multi task‐

• Don’t:– Be a programmer for someone else’s project– Take it personally when a collaboration

doesn’t work out– Pretenure: take care how much you

collaborate with your advisor, how you handle interdisciplinary collaborations,etc.

Funding

• Federal agency funding• National laboratory funding • Private industry funding• Private foundation funding• Internal lab directed R&D Funds• Internal university/college research

funds

Funding Criteria

• Why are you the right person to do this work?

• In the case of multi investigator ‐projects, do you have the right team?

• Do you have the appropriate facilities to conduct the research?

• Why is this program or agency the appropriate one to fund your work?

Proposal Writing DOs

• Watch for opportunities• Identify the relevant program and talk

to the appropriate manager(s)• Read the program announcement

carefully (all the way through)• Understand the rules and evaluation

criteria• Present your ideas clearly and

succinctly

Proposal Writing DOs

• Provide adequate explanation & highlight the significance – reviewers are technical peers

• Make it clear you know the literature• Ask an experienced investigator to critique

your proposal• Keep within agency guidelines for proposal

format• Read abstracts of awards; read proposals and

reviews of successful proposals• Volunteer to be a reviewer

Proposal Writing DON’Ts

• Don’t submit an identical proposal to several programs

• Don’t miss proposal deadlines• Don’t request unrealistic items in the

budget• Don’t exceed program budgetary guidelines• Don’t wait until the last minute if you need

institutional sign off (human subjects ‐protocols)

• Don’t give up if your proposal is declined

Starting a research program• Good relationships with support staff• Marketing– You MUST advertise your work– Have a good web presence– Email colleagues about papers, software,

datasets, etc.– Through networking– Make it easy for people to find and cite your work

• Collaborations– Within department, within university, locally, with

companies, nationally and internationally

Standing on the shoulders of giants (acknowledgments)

Many slides borrowed from• Andrea Danyluk, Lise Getoor, Ashley

Stroupe• Carla Ellis and Tina Eliassi Rad‐• Debbie Crawford• Jan Cuny• Mary Jean Harrold• Susan Landau• Caroline Wardle