How do I become a leader in my field?

From Anita Borg Institute Wiki

Speaker: Carla Gomes

Profile: Carla Gomes is an associate professor of computer science at Cornell University, with joint appointments in Computer Science, Information Science, and Applied Economics and Management. Her research has covered several areas in artificial intelligence and computer science, including planning and scheduling, integration of constraint reasoning and operation research techniques for solving combinatorial optimization problems, and randomized algorithms. Gomes is currently pursuing the new research area of Computational Sustainability. Gomes is the the Lead PI of an NSF Expeditions in Computing award on Computational Sustainability and the director of newly established Institute for Computational Sustainability at Cornell University. Gomes is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Words of wisdom, key points:

A. How to become a great researcher

  I. Be passionate about your research - Set high goals to do significant and solid work. 
 II. Be driven and committed - Work hard for very long hours. 
III. Be confident and positive - believe in yourself, challenge yourself.

B. How to choose a research topic

   I. Follow the literature - Read more papers.
  II. Relate your work to the community.
 III. Do not work on very specific area - your work should not be dealing with very specific case, it should solve a class of    
      problems.
  IV. Abstract out some more details of problem.

C. Other important aspects

   I. Ability to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity.
  II. Collaborating and networking -  It could bring new ideas and sell your work.
 III. Promote your work - Expose people to your work.
  IV. Papers are important - Publish Publish and Publish.
   V. Learn how to talk - Try to have a balance the talk, do not make it too heavy, understand what kind of audience you are 
      addressing.
  VI. Spend lots of time in research labs before going to teaching - teaching takes lots of time it may not allow you to fully    
     concentrate on research.

Final Quot : Make your own luck, create opportunities, chance favors the prepared mind !!

Speaker: Deb Agarwal

Speaker Profile: Deb Agarwal is Advanced Computing for Science Department Head and the Data Intensive Systems Group Lead at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Agarwal’s projects involve research, development and deployment of technologies to support collaborative scientific research. Her research focus is on development of data server infrastructure to enhance data browsing and analysis capabilities. Her past research interests include cybersecurity for science, secure and reliable group communication protocols, and collaborative tools. Dr. Agarwal holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Words of wisdom, key points:

How to become a leader

 I. Let other people know what you are doing.
II. Do not be afraid to fail.

III. Researchers are forced to be best - do not get pressurized, do not afraid to fail.

IV. If you think you are a leader you can be.
 V. Look Forward - do not be focused on very small thing look at the big picture try to visualize where you see yourself after 5  
    years. 
 VI. Collaborate with others - leaders has to make difference to the community.
VII. Get your name known by strong publication records and strong funding record.

VIII. Stand out but get everyone rise with you - bring other people with you,

 IX. Give credit to others - understand the importance of other's work.
  X. Respect people you are working with.

By Anjali, Live note taker ....Adding more soon.....