How To Do Grad School

Tahiya Salam is a PhD student studying robotics in the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests lie at the intersection of multi-robot teams, dynamical systems, and machine learning. On this episode, we talk with Tahiya about some of the different ways one can have a social impact on the world through research and reflect on what it was like for us to transition from college to grad school. We also dive into research and briefly talk about her work on creating systems for robots to collaborate with each other and close with some advice for grad students starting this fall. Music: Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Kiri Wagstaff works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, as a researcher in the Machine Learning and Instrument Autonomy Group, investigating ways that machine learning can be used to increase the autonomy of space missions. From 2013 to 2017, she also served as a tactical planner and uplink lead for the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. She's also an Associate Research Professor at Oregon State University, where she is teaching classes in Computer Science and doing research on competency-aware machine learning. Kiri is a prolific researcher and an expert learner. Her career is an example in how awesome life can be when you love going to work and love the challenges you get to tackle every day. Talking to her made me feel much more optimistic about getting to shape my own research career, if I decide to go down that route, and I hope our conversation will leave you with a similar feeling. Links: Read your Kindle highlights: https://read.amazon.com/notebook Kiri's website: https://www.wkiri.com/ Music: Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Aaron Parness is a Principal Research Scientist at Amazon Robotics & AI, where he focuses on robotic manipulation, developing new capabilities for the fulfillment process both inside and outside the warehouse. He helps set the direction of the Robotics & AI organization, consults with other teams across Amazon, and owns technical deliverables like new end of arm tools, workcell designs, and process flow concepts. Prior to joining Amazon, he spent 9 years at NASA JPL, where he founded and built the Robotic Prototyping Lab into a group more than 20 strong with funding from multiple agencies. They embrace iterative design principles and rapid prototyping processes to quickly invent and develop robotic systems for mobility and manipulation. His final project was leading the Moon Diver Discovery Mission from concept through Step-1. YouTube videos of climbing robots: NASA Climbing Robot Scales Cliffs and Looks for Life Crash Proof Rotary Microspine Robot 1:30 min Gecko Tool Summary NASA JPL Robotic Microspines Rock Climbing Robot Music: Changing World by Ben Beiny (www.premiumbeat.com)

Hannah Kerner is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on developing machine learning solutions for remote sensing applications in agricultural monitoring, food security, and Earth/planetary science. She is also the Machine Learning Lead and U.S. Domestic Co-Lead for NASA Harvest, NASA's agriculture and food security initiative run out of the University of Maryland. She completed her Ph.D. at Arizona State University on machine learning methods (especially novelty detection) for planetary exploration missions. Learn more about Hannah on her website. Links and References (not affiliate links): Deep Work African Independence The Professor is In Homegoing Obama's Memoir, A Promised Land -- Music: Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Akash Trivedi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford where he recently obtained his DPhil (or PhD) in Engineering Science. His research focuses on the impact behavior of soft polymers and composites. Akash also aspires to be an astronaut for the European Space Agency, works with younger aspiring engineers as a mentor, coach and tutor, and has supported more than 950 students through their education, graduate studies and personal development. Check out his website and Interstellar Academy tutoring. Also follow him on Twitter @MrAkashTrivedi Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Julia Gonski is a post-doctoral physicist at Columbia University, and a recent Ph.D. graduate and from the Harvard ATLAS group. Her research applies novel machine learning techniques to find interesting events in the terabytes of data produced by the Large Hadron Collider. Her work led to the first neural net-based tool to find evidence of high momentum Higgs particles that decay in a common way via data produced by the ATLAS detector. Learn more about her work on Twitter @JuliaGonski and check out her Forbes 30 Under 30 feature. Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Matthew Clarke is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. His research focuses on the development of tools to design, analyze and optimize non-conventional, supersonic and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Reach out to Matthew via his website, where you can find his email, or on Twitter @matthew_ac. Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Naia Butler-Craig is an Aerospace Engineering PhD Student, NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellow and GEM Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a member of the High-Power Electric Propulsion Lab. She obtained her B.S in Aerospace Engineering with special concentration in Astronautics and a minor in Computational Mathematics Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She hopes to become a mission specialist astronaut and to contribute to deep space exploration. Check out Naia's website! She was also recently selected as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Science Fellow.

Kwesi Rutledge is a PhD Student at the University of Michigan's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His research focuses on an area called Correct-By-Construction Control. Check out Kwesi’s website and find him on Twitter @FerventEcrivain Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Jennifer Polk, PhD, is a career coach and expert on PhD careers. She launched From PhD to Life, a career coaching and speaking business, in 2013. She co-founded Beyond the Professoriate in 2014, a business she exited in 2020. Jen writes on graduate education and careers for doctoral-degree holders. She is also a guest speaker on university campuses and at academic and professional conferences throughout North America and beyond. Her University Affairs blog is a three-time gold winner from the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Jen earned her PhD in history from the University of Toronto. Follow her on Twitter at @FromPhDtoLife.

Kaila Crosse recently completed her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2020, closing out her dual degree program after spending 3 years at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, one of the premiere historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the nation. In this conversation, we get a look into HBCU life as we talk about Kaila's development at Spelman as well as her transition to Michigan and what she's learned about herself and working with others as a budding engineer and designer.

Lester K. Su is a lecturer at Stanford University. He obtained his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1995. He was a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin as well as Stanford University before serving as a Congressional Fellow (through the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) in the U.S. Congress in 2000-2001. Before returning to Stanford to teach, he was a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. "Quantification of diversity in engineering higher education in the United States"  Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Announcing a change to bi-weekly episode releases + a framework for thinking about research.

Alec D. Gallimore is the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering and Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education from 2011 to 2013 and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering from 2014 to 2016. He is a member of the Applied Physics graduate program, and from 2005 to 2011, Professor Gallimore served as an Associate Dean at the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies where he was the Graduate School liaison to Michigan’s graduate programs in engineering, the physical sciences, and mathematics. Professor Gallimore’s primary research interests include electric propulsion, plasma diagnostics, space plasma simulation, electrode physics, nano-particle energetics and hypersonic aerodynamics/plasma interaction. In our conversation, we talk about Professor Gallimore's youth and early career, including his dream to be an astronaut, his passion for justice and for building a culture of inclusivity at Michigan, and the people who have had the most positive impact on his life. This episode is part of the Black History Month Audio Series we worked with Michigan Mechanical Engineering to put together. -- Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Kaitlyn Mallett earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in at the University of Michigan in 2017. While completing her Ph.D., Kaitlyn worked to experimentally characterize native ACL and replacement grafts to elucidate their material properties. Her work led to the development of accurate theoretical constitutive models that capture the mechanical response of biological specimens. Kaitlyn then went on to work on an innovative team at Intel Corporation, looking to address problems at Intel sites and ahead to the future of the company. In our conversation, we talk with Kaitlyn about her early education as a home-schooled student, some key lessons she learned as a graduate student at UM, and what Black History month means to her. This episode is part of the Black History Month Audio Series we worked with Michigan Mechanical Engineering to put together. -- Check out the new website(!): how2dogradschool.com Robotics Makathon: (1) Questionnaire for prospective makeathon participants (undergraduates at UM) (2) Questionnaire for volunteers (grad students at UM) (3) Questions? Email robotics-makeathon@umich.edu -- Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

This episode is part of the Black History Month Audio Series we worked with Michigan Mechanical Engineering to put together. David Kwabi is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Michigan. He obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. His research group investigates the interplay between electrochemical charge transfer reactions and bulk phase transformations, involving expertise in mechanical engineering, physical chemistry and materials science. In this conversation, we talk with Prof. Kwabi about what it was like to grow up in Ghana and move to the United States for college and grad school. We also discuss his research, his thoughts on the role we can play to mitigate climate change, and how he has benefitted from the kindness of his community. -- Check out the new website: how2dogradschool.com Robotics Makathon: (1) Questionnaire for prospective makeathon participants (undergraduates at UM) (2) Questionnaire for volunteers (grad students at UM) (3) Questions? Email robotics-makeathon@umich.edu -- Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Amanda X. Chen obtained her PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT in 2020. While there, she worked on "microlivers," which could enable next-generation cell therapies that could help, or maybe even replace, organ transplants for end-stage diseases. She is now a scientist at a Cambridge startup called Satellite Bio. Amanda was also recognized by the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Science list for her work. -- Check out the new website: how2dogradschool.com References: MIT Communication Lab – https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/ Blog posts: Grad Life: 45 Dreams Deferred, The Qualified Match Approach to Personal Statements -- Robotics Makathon: (1) Questionnaire for prospective makeathon participants (undergraduates at UM) (2) Questionnaire for volunteers (grad students at UM) (3) Questions? Email robotics-makeathon@umich.edu -- Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Nia Johnson is a PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Howard University and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellow.  Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Ram Vasudevan is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan with an appointment in the University of Michigan's Robotics Program. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and an Honors Degree in Physics in 2006, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering in 2009, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2012 all from the University of California, Berkeley. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Locomotion Group at MIT from 2012 till 2014 before joining the University of Michigan in 2015. His research focuses on the development and application of novel data-driven optimization and systems theory to quantify and improve human and robot interaction with one another and the environment. http://www.roahmlab.com/ Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Applying to graduate school can be a maze with questions that are difficult to find answers to. On this episode, we try to answer some of those questions with some help from current grad students, Chelsea Onyeador and Wilka Carvalho. Chelsea is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, with plans to continue to receive a Ph.D. with the Hypersonics Research Group. Her current research interests lie in fluid mechanics, computational methods, hypersonic boundary layers, and aerodynamics. She is also heavily involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advocacy work at MIT. Wilka is pursuing a PhD in Machine Learning at the University of Michigan where he studies how object-centric representation learning and reinforcement learning can bring us closer to human-level artificial intelligence. He is interested in developing computational and mechanistic cognitive theories of learning that help us understand how humans infer, reason with, and exploit the rich structure present in realistic visual scenes to enable sophisticated behavioral policies. Resource for Personal Statements Resource for Research Statements Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Anita Shao is a PhD student in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Originally from Tianjin, China. she earned her B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on electrochemical sulfur recovery from anaerobic effluents to facilitate fertilizer production.

Yves Nazon II is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan and received the MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University. During his time as an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), he participated in the Meyerhoff Scholars and the MARC U*STAR trainee programs. He also worked in the Energy Harvesting & Design Optimization Lab and did summer research at Purdue University, MIT, and University of Southern California. Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Emily Roberts is an entrepreneur whose mission is to inspire and empower early-career PhDs to make the most of their money. She obtained a PhD in biomedical engineering from Duke in 2014 and now engages with graduate students and postdocs through her Personal Finance for PhDs seminars, coaching, and websites, Personal Finance for PhDs and PhD Stipends. Learn more on the site: http://pfforphds.com/

Alejandro F. Azocar is an engineer and scientist experienced in cross-functional projects spanning mechanical, electrical, and software, with a background in the biomedical and aerospace industries. He is currently a Robotics and Biomechanics resident at (Google) X. He holds a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University, a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he developed an open-source bionic leg. Find out more about Alejandro on his website: https://www.afazocar.com

Lorelay Mendoza is a PhD student in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from San Diego State University. She is interested in resource recovery from waste, environmental justice, and the fate of contaminants in electrochemical treatment systems and the environment. MARC U-STAR: Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research - https://www.nigms.nih.gov/training/marc/pages/FAQs.aspx Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Hang (Lucas) Dong is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. He was born and raised in China and holds a PhD from Lehigh University. His research focuses on the combination of electrochemistry and ion exchange for selective water treatment and nutrient recovery.

Allison Okamura is a Professor in the mechanical engineering department at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in computer science. She received the BS degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and the MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University. She is an IEEE Fellow and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Her awards include the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Distinguished Service Award, and Duca Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Her academic interests include haptics, teleoperation, virtual reality, medical robotics, soft robotics, rehabilitation, and education. Learn more about Allison’s work on the CHARM Lab website: http://charm.stanford.edu/

Daniel Bruder is a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. His research interests include robotics, dynamics, and controls with a specific focus on soft robots. Currently, he is exploring physics-based and data-driven modeling and control methods for soft robots in an effort to make such systems more capable and reliable. He is originally from Farmington Hills, Michigan and received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University in 2013. After graduating, he worked as a math teacher at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy in Detroit, then earned a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan in 2020. Dan’s website: www.danielbruder.com Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Jessica is a PhD student in the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford, researching the cannabis industry. Her research explores how cannabis companies influence cannabis policies. More specifically, she looks at the business decisions, investment deals and commercial relations that informally shift the law, morality, perceptions, and stigmas. She is an official delegate for cannabis related meetings held at the UN and WHO and is Managing Director of an international cannabis consultancy, The Global C. Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com EMERGE: https://emerge.engin.umich.edu

Devin Guillory is currently a PhD student in computer science at UC Berkeley advised by Trevor Darrell. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. His research areas of focus are Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Devin’s active research interests include problems of learning with less labels and improving Out-of-Distribution model performance. Prior to UC Berkeley, Devin worked as a Staff Data Scientist at Etsy where he served as Technical Lead on Search Ranking and Computational Advertising teams. As a founding engineer of Blackbird Technologies, Devin joined Etsy in 2016 by way of acquisition. Having worked on a variety of machine learning problems (Computer Vision, Robotics, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Computational Advertising) in real-world settings, Devin is passionate about areas where theory and practice diverge. MAE Leaders Site: https://sites.google.com/view/maeleaders Black in AI site: https://blackinai.github.io/ Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Timnit Gebru is an AI researcher on the Ethical AI team at Google. Prior to working at Google, she did a postdoc at Microsoft Research in the FATE (Fairness Transparency Accountability and Ethics in AI) group after getting her PhD from Stanford University. Before her PhD, she also worked at Apple designing circuits and signal processing algorithms for various Apple products including the first iPad. She is an advocate for diversity in technology and is the co-founder of Black in AI, a community of black researchers working in artificial intelligence. There has been a lot of media coverage about Timnit’s work, so a Google search of her name is sufficient to learn a lot more. Here is an article to get you started: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nvidia/2018/07/10/ai-innovators-how-one-woman-followed-her-passion-and-brought-diversity-to-ai/#676ae3b5286d Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Gerald Higginbotham is a PhD student in Social Psychology at University of California-Los Angeles. The article we discuss is called “’Reparations?’: A case study of White Americans’ psychology toward past racial wrong-doing” and can be found here: https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2019/9/22/reparations-a-case-study-of-white-americans-psychology-toward-past-racial-wrong-doing Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Heather holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During her time in graduate school, she began working with MIT D-Lab and developed a passion for STEM education and indigenous innovation. At D-Lab, she co-founded and co-instructed D-Lab: Education in addition to mentoring students from other D-Lab classes. While at MIT, she began developing the Practical Education Network (PEN) with a team of fellow students and others. They won numerous competitions including the MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Business Plan Competition (2015), IEEE/IBM SmarterPlanet Challenge, 1st Place Curriculum (2012), and the MIT Global Challenge/IDEAS Competition (2011). Since graduating in 2015, Heather has been leading PEN in their pursuit of scaling experiential learning in resource-limited settings. She has worked with hundreds of students and teachers from Boston to Ghana to Peru.   PEN website: https://www.practicaleducationnetwork.com/   Heather can be found on Twitter @esibeem   Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Uriah Israel holds a PhD in Applied Physics and Complex Systems from the University of Michigan and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. We discuss the setup of our research accountability group, the Mutual Improvement Society, reading, writing and how to build research skills. Whitesides’ Group: Writing a Paper - https://www.tulane.edu/~lamp/whiteside.pdf Changing World by Ben Beiny: www.premiumbeat.com

In this bonus episode, I read from an essay called “You and Your Research”  in Richard Hamming’s book, “The Art of Science and Engineering.”

Korie Grayson is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University. After undergrad, Korie worked at a biomedical device company called CryoLife in Atlanta, GA manufacturing the HeRO Graft, the only fully subcutaneous graft clinically proven to maintain long-term access for hemodialysis patients with central venous stenosis. Shortly after, Korie was accepted into the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Degree program at Cornell University and was awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and the Alfred P. Sloan Diversity Fellowship. She was awarded the Robert Mozia Graduate Distinguished Service Award by the Diversity Programs in Engineering (DPE) office for using her education, skills, and experience to make outstanding contributions in the Cornell community and beyond. Furthermore, she was named Graduate Student of the Year in 2017 for her significant contribution to DPE, the College of Engineering, and the lives of others by demonstrating initiative and positively contributing to the college’s climate toward diversity and inclusion. Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

William Tarpeh is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. We discuss a wide range of topics including contextualizing your research in the literature, PhD accountability groups, and the importance of mentorship in grad school. Will is the Director of the Tarpeh Lab, which develops and evaluates novel approaches to resource recovery from “waste” waters at several synergistic scales: molecular mechanisms of chemical transport and transformation; novel unit processes that increase resource efficiency; and systems-level assessments that identify optimization opportunities. You can find more information about the lab at: https://tarpehgroup.stanford.edu/ or @TarpehDiem on Twitter.

Omolola (Lola) Eniola-Adefeso is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. We discuss how she got involved in research through undergraduate opportunities, some of her feelings about writing and some great advice for newly minted grad students. She is currently a Professor and Miller faculty Scholar in the University of Michigan's Chemical Engineering department. She serves as Vice Chair for Graduate Studies and has appointments in Biomedical Engineering as well as Macromoelcular Science & Engineering. She earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and spent 2 years at Baylor College of Medicine in the department of pediatrics as an NIH postdoctoral fellow. Read about her recent work related to COVID-19 immune response: https://news.umich.edu/how-rod-shaped-particles-might-distract-an-out-of-control-covid-immune-response/ Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Jessy Grizzle is the Director of the Michigan Robotics Institute. We discuss how his experience as an undergraduate researcher led him to pursue a research career and he shares some useful ideas about scientific writing. He received the Ph.D. in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1983. He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, where he holds the titles of the Elmer Gilbert Distinguished University Professor and the Jerry and Carol Levin Professor of Engineering. He jointly holds sixteen patents dealing with emissions reduction in passenger vehicles through improved control system design. Professor Grizzle is a Fellow of the IEEE and IFAC. He received the Paper of the Year Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 1993, the George S. Axelby Award in 2002, the Control Systems Technology Award in 2003, the Bode Prize in 2012 and the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award in 2014. His work on bipedal locomotion has been the object of numerous plenary lectures and has been featured on CNN, ESPN, Discovery Channel, The Economist, Wired Magazine, Discover Magazine, Scientific American and Popular Mechanics. See some of his work here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMfDV8rkQqWhUwnTAYAq0tQ Changing World by Ben Beiny: www.premiumbeat.com

Launching on July 16th, the How To Do Grad School Podcast's mission is to uncover the habits and systems grad students need to produce great research. We’ll talk with successful current and former graduate students across the world and try to get a sense of what habits, systems and tools they've developed to start and sustain great research projects. Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com