Anti-Disciplinary: doing a PhD when you like too many things

PLMW 2017 keynote

Transcript

1. anti-disciplinary doing a PhD when you like too many things Chris Martens PLMW 2017 Oxford, UK
2. about me • Assistant professor (UK equiv: lecturer) at 
 North Carolina State University • Postdoc UC Santa Cruz, 
 Expressive Intelligence Studio • PhD CMU, Principles of Programming Group
3. about me, real talk • went to grad school thinking i only liked theory, no applications • assumed i probably wouldn’t finish • couldn’t stop playing with logic-based encodings of interactive fiction games, you know, for fun • turned it into a thesis, graduated, got a tenure- track job
4. about you • PhD, BS, masters, industry?
5. about you • 1st academic conference?
6. about you • 1st academic conference? • Giving a talk? • …for the first time?
7. about you you’re in a beautiful city with fellow nerds relax and enjoy your time! 
 take down time if you need it.
8. how many of you have felt like…. You can’t decide on a thesis topic because too many things are interesting?
9. how many of you have felt like…. You can’t decide on a thesis topic because too many things are interesting? Or, you’re not quite sure if [name of your department] totally describes the thing(s) you want to focus on?
10. my research computational narrative
 +
 procedural generation
 +
 programming language design
 + 
 formal methods (algebra, logic)
 +
 game design
11. my lab
12. research my thesis: Ceptre, a linear logic programming language that I showed could be used for modeling interactive narratives my 1st PhD student’s project: using epistemic modal logic to codify how agents’ beliefs and meta-beliefs inform their goal-directed actions
13. research undergrad projects: * creating an executable model (in Ceptre) of how group conversation works based on sociolinguistic theories * modeling the mechanics of Minecraft and showing how the achievement tree can be algorithmically derived from their structure
14. research active projects: * Villanelle, a framework that aims to democratize AI for narrative designers, enable them to create virtual worlds with autonomous agents * Using linear logic programming for mathematical models of biological systems (w/Belinda Akpa)
15. research fields that currently or aspirationally inform my research: - visual narrative theory (comics, film)
 - cognitive science
 - systems biology
 - linguistics
 - sociology
 - history
 - theater
 - category theory
16. too many things! hard to fit into disciplinary boundaries
17. in search of a label computational creativity? human-computer interaction? (they want human subjects eval, not proofs)
18. in search of a label PL? formal methods? (more concerned with the minutiae of programs than in what they are enabling)
19. in search of a label AI? (synonymous with machine learning in most people’s minds; ambiguous connotations)
20. anti-disciplinary a phrase I stole from Golan Levin (CMU) who stole it from the MIT Media Lab i think
21. anti-disciplinary not combining 2+ disciplines but lying outside of discipline boundaries entirely overlapping or containing other “established” disciplines
22. anti-disciplinary who winds up here? anecdotally:
 often people who already feel like outsiders in traditional disciplines (women, URMs, LGBT+)
23. identify your values some of mine: * basic research * fields outside of CS (and STEM) have valid and valuable research methodologies
24. what’s worked out so far 1. LUCK: the US job market was really bullish for digital games research when i entered it 2. PEOPLE: i’ve found kind, inspiring collaborators & mentors who helped me out a lot 3. INTEREST: students flock to my lab; lots of public interest (i.e. Twitter) in my work; people know to ping me if logic/PL + creativity comes up
25. what’s still hard 1. what grants to apply for? what conferences do i submit to? (ALL OF THEM) 2. is it even fundable? 2. where are like-minded collaborators? 3. language barriers: identifying connections between fields means having to explain yourself 2+ times in different ways
26. Q&A / discussion Chris Martens
 martens@csc.ncsu.edu
 http://go.ncsu.edu/martens twitter: @chrisamaphone