being pragmatic about research
Apr. 11th, 2007 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslI'm looking for new research projects.
The ICA project is going well, but there are times when I need input from others when I wish I could be doing something else to make progress towards my ambitious academic career.
Project #1 with William is out of my hands. My role is to guide the undergrads when they need it.
project #2 with William has never left the gee-whiz-wouldn't-it-be-neat stage.
I think the guiding principle in choosing what to work on is the principle of comparative advantage: what is the lowest-hanging fruit (given my skills) that hasn't been harvested by somebody else?
Here is the result of my long-term, un-deliberate brainstorming about things I could be working on.
learning argument maps: I don't know where to find data
authoring tool for games like the philosopher's game: I haven't explored this yet.
mathematical cognition
I'd like to work on cute mathematical problems, but it's very hard to publish anything this way. A good example of this is the fact that Machine Learning class is fun, but all the low-hanging fruit has been harvested. I would need to study for a few months before reaching a level where I can do original research. So I think that, in the case of Machine Learning, this restricts me to working on applications.
One idea I've had for such a project is learning cognitive models from behavior data (this is very close to the project that pays me)
The ICA project is going well, but there are times when I need input from others when I wish I could be doing something else to make progress towards my ambitious academic career.
Project #1 with William is out of my hands. My role is to guide the undergrads when they need it.
project #2 with William has never left the gee-whiz-wouldn't-it-be-neat stage.
I think the guiding principle in choosing what to work on is the principle of comparative advantage: what is the lowest-hanging fruit (given my skills) that hasn't been harvested by somebody else?
ideas of my own
Here is the result of my long-term, un-deliberate brainstorming about things I could be working on.
learning argument maps: I don't know where to find data
authoring tool for games like the philosopher's game: I haven't explored this yet.
mathematical cognition
others' ideas
I'd like to work on cute mathematical problems, but it's very hard to publish anything this way. A good example of this is the fact that Machine Learning class is fun, but all the low-hanging fruit has been harvested. I would need to study for a few months before reaching a level where I can do original research. So I think that, in the case of Machine Learning, this restricts me to working on applications.
One idea I've had for such a project is learning cognitive models from behavior data (this is very close to the project that pays me)