The final week at CMU tied up this transformative experience. Looking back from week seven it is difficult to comprehend the number of incredible people met, experiences, and personal skills gained. This is a summary of key meetings with Dr. Danks and Martial Hebert (Roboticist/A.I world-renowned expert), list of next steps for the research project, and reflection on skills gained.
The final meeting with Danks took place on Friday, July 6th 3:26- 4:12 PM. I wanted to use this rare opportunity to clarify next steps on the project, and listen to Danks advice on reading articles and writing papers. Danks started by going full circle to the beginning of this research experience. He wanted me to see research for what it is. You engage with an area of interest, question that conversation, seek to answer that question, and share your findings. Additionally, research is not for everyone. Many people prefer predictable and straightforward projects. Research is far from that. You may spend years on a project only to find out you asked the wrong question. As mentioned earlier, Danks works at the intersection of mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and computer science. You can create more interesting questions and answers because of the broad selection of disciplines. Knowledge is composed of all the disciplines. If you ask questions and answer those questions with research conventions across disciplines then a more accurate picture of the world emerges. These ideas propel Carnegie Mellon forward as a leading research institution in all major disciplines. Danks majored in Philosophy but is expected to publish in science magazines, psychology, and tech. Working under Dank’s guidance opened my eyes to this truth. Next, Danks discussed challenges of research article reading and writing.
Danks explained research skills simply take time. He has done this as a job for 23+ years. What about me? Six weeks… He shared a story from grad school. It was time for thesis writing and he struggled with reading abstracts and writing. Frustrated, He asked his advisor for help. “I have done this for 35 years, much longer than you were even born,” replied the advisor. These skills simply take time and you will feel grossly incompetent. Be patient with yourself.
Finally, we outlined next steps for the publication draft. After I applied feedback from draft #1, Danks said my updated outline accurately addresses problematic areas he identified. Now that I know what we are arguing I can re-write the argument section. As mentioned before, Danks gave me full writing responsibility. There is one twist: Danks will re-write each drafted section. This is valuable because I will struggle through the process, and then see how an expert approaches the same ideas. Danks does this with graduate and Ph.D. students and now with me. With only six weeks before classes, we should aim for a completed first draft beforehand (As I write this post there are only 4.5 weeks remaining and I have not started any other sections). I thanked Danks for this incredible opportunity, and lessons learned.
On my last day at CMU, I met with Martial Hebert director of the robotics institute at CMU. His research falls under the areas of computer vision and perception for autonomous systems with interests in the interpretation of perception data (both 2-D and 3-D), including building models of environments. Although not directly related to my project, I wanted to gain Hebert’s perspective on my research. He explained that A.I and autonomous vehicles are possible, but they are nowhere near full autonomy or safety standards. There simply is not enough road data and training for the A.I systems. Also, regulation and deployment policies are difficult to agree on. Hebert recommends “phased deployment.” That is, AVs are tested in small controlled areas and slowly expanded out. One key to achieving maximum benefits of AVs is public ride sharing. Hebert used UBER and Lyft as examples. The next generation may prefer ridesharing and the reduced costs associated with it. Without private ownership, these benefits can be achieved. Hebert recommends I think through a future without private ownership as a new way to approach this project.
Reflecting on the past seven weeks, I see incredible growth in three main areas. First, meeting preparation in professional settings. Prior to this experience, I just showed up to meetings without the background information of all participants or clear questions/goals. I also talked about projects and asked for help without first helping myself by working through them. Through trial and error, this skillset improved. I know have deliverables prepared, key questions, learning goals, and background knowledge of who I am meeting with.
Second, improved reading and writing skills. As Danks said, these skills take time and practice. Comparing where I was prior and after motivates me to keep moving forward. I used to just read articles/books from beginning to end or write papers without a guiding structure. Know I am confident scanning books and articles to find key arguments and supporting reasons/evidence. I discovered every genre of writing follows general guiding frameworks. Once I learn the framework I gain a bird’s eye view and can catch information relevant to research without getting lost in the details. Consistent daily journaling, blog posts, emails, and publication drafts changed how I think about writing. I discovered that writing is thinking. Without continual writing, my thoughts become stagnate. Engaging in these multiple genres of writing improved thinking of myself and the research process. I see these genres as a writing hierarchy. Journaling is the bare minimum and gets ideas flowing. Blogging takes those general ideas and imposes structure as related to a project or personal journey with a professional twist. Publication writing takes all your thoughts and imposes well-defined conventions and methods to create a professional polished product. The higher you go, the more complex the ideas and editing processes become. Experiencing all main writing genres at once gives me the confidence to just write without fear. Journaling gets my ideas going, leads to blog posts, emails, and publication drafts.
Third, I gained a broader perspective on learning. Cal State University Monterey Bay is primarily a teaching institution whereas Carnegie Mellon is a research institution. The work at CMU is the behind the scenes work for teaching institutions. Engaging in research and exploring ways to create new knowledge excites me because this is what teachers use to teach in classes. Most important of all, I discovered just how much I don’t know. The world is a complex place and the discoveries are limitless. There are over 70+ academic disciplines and I only scratched the surface of four. If anything, this was the most important lesson I learned from this research experience. Paradoxically, this acceptance of ignorance opens the door to learning far more. I look forward to exploring and discovering new knowledge and giving back through teaching and public outreach.
In conclusion, this research experience was truly transformative. I worked with incredible faculty, experienced the research process, and deepened my passion for learning. All of this would not be possible without the support of family, friends, mentors, UROC team, fellow scholars, and peers. Thanks to all who made it through the blog posts. I will post updates on research and give a detailed description as drafts improve. Thanks!
Timothy Geary Portfolio 
Hi Tim,
Welcome back! It looks like you had an incredible time at Carnegie Mellon. I really enjoyed your talk at the Summer Research Symposium, but it was interesting seeing each of the steps you take from your blog. I think it’s fascinating (and terrifying) how changing to an AI driver drastically shifts the moral responsibility from a human driver. Also, the writing portion is absolutely brutal (I…may be guilty of the “bloatedness” part). While frustrating, it is just another part of the learning process (as heartbreaking as it can be), especially regarding research. I hope you can share more stories of this experience back in class!
Cheers,
Laura
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