Cross-Disciplinary%20Research

1
Cross-Disciplinary Research

• Nick Feamster and Alex Gray
• College of Computing
• Georgia Institute of Technology

2
The Role of Research

• Proposing novel ways of solving problems
• Reducing systems to practice
• Then, move technology to industry
• Beware the steamroller!
• Cannot compete withan army of coders

3
Finding the Right Problems
Identifying the right problems to address is
usually the hardest part of research. What do you
recommend to young researchers? My main advice
is to avoid incremental work. You should be aware
of what others have done and take advantage of
it. But rather than thinking of small ways to
improve it, try to think of how to solve the
problem differently, or how to apply the
technique to a different area, or how to abstract
from what has been done to come up with something
thats broadly applicable.
-- Barbara Liskov on Programming, Career, and the
Future, IEEE DS Online
4
Avoiding the steamroller

• Work in areas where industry does not have the
  resources to devote
• Industry is driven by bottom lines
• New, out-of-the-box thinking may take away from
  exactly what the customer is asking for
• Our advantage We can propose innovative ideas
  that are unencumbered by current constraints

5
The Intersection The Best Chance to Innovate

• Where ideas from one area meet another
• Research areas can become mired in a set way of
  thinking (directional)
• Working at intersections permits
• Leaps in new directions (active networks)
• Opening up new fields (network tomography)
• Creation of niches (Network Economics, SysML,
  etc.)

6
Challenges

• Many possible places for intersections
• Where to look?
• Every area has their own language
• Must overcome impedance mismatch
• Need to break down barriers
• Techniques/analogies may not apply across areas

7
Methods for Finding Intersections

• Break down barriers Reverse/drop assumptions and
  see if the problem is still solvable
• Try brainstorming apply random combination of
  ideas (e.g., use assignment 1 as a seed)
• Interact with diverse groups of people (e.g.,
  this class, happy hour)

8
Todays Lecture Two Parts

• Example cross-disciplinary research (20 min)
• Application of epidemiology techniques to assess
  the cause of network illness
• Speaker Mukarram bin Tariq, 4th year Ph.D.
  student
• More general lecture on connections/intersection
• Speaker Tom McMail, Microsoft External Research
  Programs