AI Scientist, Professor, Leader
In my previous post, I outlined how artificial intelligence (AI) poses an existential threat to higher education. That article sparked many conversations, and one recurring question stood out: What should universities actually do to prepare? This post is my answer. Even before AI, college enrollments were projected to decline, driven The post Universities Must Embrace AI or Face Extinction…
I ve been a professor working on the frontiers of AI for about a decade. I consider training and mentoring the next generation of engineers and scientists to be a great privilege, and I think conducting scientific research is one of the most noble of pursuits towards the advancement of humanity. The post AI The Existential Crisis Facing Higher Education appeared first on Christopher Kanan .
The film “2001: A Space Odyssey” turns 50 this year. In the movie an artificial general intelligence (AGI) named HAL 9000 (Hal) performs many of a spaceship’s functions. Hal explicitly says he is “foolprool and incapable of error,” but later the crew determines he has made an error and decides The post How Well Did 2001: A Space Odyssey Predict Advancements in AI? appeared first on Christopher…
Jeff Huang posted a bunch of computer science professor hiring statistics on his site. Unlike the statistics I gathered previously (see this post and this one), he had his students use crowdsourcing so he has a much larger database consisting of over 2000 professors at 51 top US universities. Consistent The post Statistics on Computer Science Professors at America s Best Universities appeared…
What s it like being a professor at a teaching institution? Professors at teaching institutions do a lot less research than professors at research universities. In the United States, these professors work at community colleges, small liberal arts colleges, and four year colleges that typically lack Ph.D. programs. To pursue this The post Post-PhD Careers: Teaching Professor appeared first on…
Scientist Entrepreneurs In general, research is only capable of actually making people s lives better if it is incorporated into a commercial product or service. Several of the scientists I most look up to have taken their work commercial. I ll give two examples: Craig Venter and Rodney Brooks. Craig Venter was The post Post-PhD Careers: Entrepreneur appeared first on Christopher Kanan .
What is a Science Policy Advisor? Politicians at the federal, state, and local levels need to make scientifically informed decisions, but they may lack competent scientific advisors. One way to help alleviate that problem is by becoming a government scientific policy advisor. A scientific policy advisor helps legislators and others The post Post-PhD Careers: Science Policy Advisor appeared first…
I previously estimated faculty job candidate statistics by estimating what the CVs of professors looked like when they got their jobs. I thought it would be interesting to do a similar analysis with the faculty candidates interviewed by UC San Diego s Computer Science and Engineering department (CSE) in 2013. They The post Statistics on UCSD’s Computer Science Faculty Candidates appeared first on…
UC San Diego s Cognitive Science Department is one of the top departments in the United States. In 2013, they interviewed four faculty candidates from the Salk Institute, NYU, UC San Francisco, and Stanford. I briefly went through their CVs to get an idea of what traits the Cognitive Science department The post Statistics on UCSD s Cognitive Science Faculty Candidates appeared first on Christopher…
I love science, and I’ve long planned to stay in academia after finishing my PhD. Last summer I decided to estimate how many years I would need to do a postdoc to have a good chance of getting interviews for assistant professorships at top-50 research universities. I’d also be happy The post Are You Ready to Apply to Assistant Professor Jobs? appeared first on Christopher Kanan .