/sci/ - Science & Math

I'm doing research in relativistic astrothermodynamics but I'd rather not talk about it. /sci/ doesn't seem to like the topic.

>>5765875
Sounds interesting, I'd love to hear details

>>5765830
>tfw when you realize that no one on 4chan does any research otherwise they would not be here.

>>5765883
We're working on a simulation of celestial collisions at very high speeds and very high temperature differences. For example consider a sun made of ice and a sun made of lava. Do you know what happens when they collide? Neither do I.

I'm developing the analytic properties of diversities, a generalization of multiway metrics. See
http://arxiv.org/abs/1006.1095
for the paper which introduced them.

Worked on a project my second year helping to develop a transmission grating spectrometer setup for a telescope my university operates down in AZ. Helped the senior we were working with finish a poster and got to go with them to the AAS conference in Austin in 2012 (great experience).

Spent a year helping some of the faculty develop a new astronomy lab curriculum (lot of fun)

Currently starting a new project investigating the production of negative ion plasmas with one of the professors here, it's my first serious exposure to plasma physics so I'm really excited.

>>5765893
...

I'm in the synthesis stage of a physical organic project making photovoltaic donor molecules.

Just got a research project for a year+ studying the dehalogenation of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins by microorganisms.

>>5765830
just perfected antigravity.

My shitty 2.9 gpa has kept me out of research and will keep me out of grad school as well as a job... so yeah no research for me not matter how much I beg or show interest in a topic.

How does one acquire research positions? I'm a junior in my undergrad and I want to get involved in research (preferably paid). My GPA is not that terrible but not spectacular either. Otherwise I know my shit pretty well. Where should I look first?

>>5765830
Just started an internship position as research assistant in conditional (machine) learning. trying to wrap my head around the probability and linear algebra stuff I hadn't encountered yet as applied to probabilistic models for PCAs, MLPs and RBMs. Anyone got experience with that stuff?

>>5766856
There are probably some undergrad research grants lying around. Use google or something. Aside from that, check out whatever info you can get your hands on regarding professors at your college, their curriculum, their current occupation, etc. Out of those professors which are researchers, select those which seem to be working on interesting subjects. Find out what that subject entails if applicable and make sure to learn at least the basics. Proceed to contact the professors you have selected by email asking if they're willing to take on a research assistant (you're better not seeing them in person as they're mostly very busy). If all goes well, you will probably be asked to meet them for an interview. Good luck.

>implying id ever share my research with anyone and risk being scooped

anyone working on anything worthwhile isnt going to be sharing their projects

a bunch of music-related signal processing

not at a university; I'm just doing it for fun

>>5765875
>>5765883
>>5765893

10/10

>>5766856
Step 1. Do some research. Most of your faculty will maintain web pages on your department's website with links to papers they've published and information on conferences they've been to, talks they've given, research they're working on, etc.

Step 2. Go to colloquiums and seminars. Most departments will have regular presentations by faculty or visiting researchers discussing research they're working on. Go, listen, learn about what people are doing and what's involved.

Step 3. Ask. If while doing research on what the faculty at your department are doing you find something that looks like a project you want to be a part of - email the professor involved, ask if you can come by during their office hours or some other time to talk to them. Be up front - tell them you want to get involved with research in the department and that you were particularly interested in the work they were doing. Most faculty will be glad to bring on undergraduates to help with a large project - you'll start off doing mostly grunt work like taking down measurements, sorting and plotting data, checking derivations (if you're working with a theorist), etc... but over time most professors will reward your hard work with more responsibilities and opportunities within a project.

Most faculty doing research will also have access to some kind of grant. They might be able to pay you, they might not. Don't let a paycheck be a sticking point though. If you've got a chance to do some research that genuinely interests you - take it.

so, is it actually possible to make a living off of research or is it true that even a mcjob is a better idea if you don't want to live in the streets?

>>5765893
top lel.

>>5768277
please respond.

>>5768277
What is grad school?

Living off research. Afterwards I don't know I drink and try not to think about it.

>>5765830
doing the good ol' magnet down a copper pipe experiment. Pointers appreciated

>>5768537
So, how is grad school exactly and how does it work?

>>5768553
you make about $14,000 a year to do research and possibly teach 60 hours a week for 5 years

Working on information security research. Right now we are doing some experiments with BGPsec.

>>5766883
you using dem wavelets or other related transforms? im a sig processing person myself but no experience with sound really

>>5768277
that's what being a professor is, although you have other responsibilities like teaching. there are tons of research jobs in industry.

>>5765875
>>5765893
fucking lol'd

>>5765899
>implying you didn't just find a fancy-sounding paper on arxiv to sound cool
but if not cool for you
i just submitted my first paper.
>tfw nervous about it getting rejected, it's mediocre

>>5765893
Huehuehue

I'm working on recommender system, matrix factorization model. Submitted my first paper this month.

But I'm more in love with data analysis. My dream being unification of Machine Learning a.k.a strong AI

>>5768572
Are research jobs in the industry worth it? How are they different than research position in universities?
> although you have other responsibilities like teaching
pls no.

>>5768595
I've seen plenty of mediocre and even shit papers that had been published...

>>5768563
>grad student
>put in 40 hours a week TAing astronomy labs
>$22k stipend
Feels good... feels real fuckin good

>>5768688
>Feels good... feels real fuckin good
>grad student
>40 hours TAing
>$22k
S-stop, you're scaring me ;_;

>>5768681
>are they worth it
depends on if you like doing research in industry...
typically you can get paid pretty well but you might need a PhD to get hired doing something cool most places.
there's also the government labs like los alamos or your country's equivalent

>>5768640
i do compressed sensing stuff so sort of related. ive been reading up on machine learning since "data science" is the big thing nowadays

>>5768697
Good rule of thumb:
Commercial research are more likely to be satisfied with an MS
National labs are more likely not to accept people without a PhD or at least a grad student on a PhD track.

> Being in Germany
> 2k euro salary by month after tax
> No teaching hour, only research
> Research assistant
> Getting paid to get a PhD

People just don't try

>>5768685
of course. i'm still nervous though. it's partially random depending on who gets assigned as your reviewer
>tfw i've reviewed papers for some IEEE journals that i probably wasnt qualified to review, and hope some dumbass 4chan-browsing grad student like myself isn't reviewing my paper

this is my dream job basically
http://www.adobe.com/technology.html

>>5768703
sure you can get away with having an MS some places, but it's getting harder and harder. at least in some fields academia is oversaturated so there are a ton of PhDs going into industry and if you're a new hire trying to get a research position you have to compete with them

>>5768697
>>5768703
I'm asking because even though I've only just started my internship a few weeks ago, it's been very fun thus far. Unfortunately, one doesn't live on dreams and hope, and I simply cannot into teaching either. If industry research is similar to university research, I might want to go toward that. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'm going to do...

>>5768712
i'm a 5th year grad student and i have never taught, i had a part time job in industry for the first couple years then I got a research assistantship once i had an advisor and an established research direction. i have no interest in teaching or going into academia.

how do I probabilistic inference? Suppose I have a set of test samples for the distribution of vectors of randomly distributed variables which approximate the true distribution, I guess the total inference graph in the first pass is simply the one vector taken from the test sample (for example), and then I want to infer P(f(xj)|xk) which means k and j are both the part of the graph containing the lone vector. I then insert x0 as f(xj) within the graph, and there's no barren nodes wrt xj so I don't need to trim anything yet, but what about arc inversion? In fact? And I suppose if I want to sample a variable from f(xj)'s distribution, once I'm done for the first step I can just sample from the distribution obtained with the inference graph via bayes' theorem, right? So I could approximate xk (maintained as the original test sample's vector)'s distribution by gibb's sampling this way until a satisfactory level, is that correct?

>>5768712
It's a lot like university research with a couple of very key differences. It's much faster paced and it's much more well structured.

University research tends to meander and progress at whatever rate the professors and students working on a project can manage in between classes/work/etc. You get some free time during the week, you stroll into the lab, you spend a couple of hours working on something, and then you call it a day.

With industry research you're on a much more well defined timetable. You've got very clearly established deadlines to meet, you're there working on your project(s) from when you punch in to when you clock out.

>>5769569
Both seem to have their pros and cons. To be honest, the lack of structure is having me second guessing what I'm doing a lot right now (I come in at 9 and leave at 5 because I'm pretty much free all day, but that's not the case for the other students so I usually aren't supervised and I haven't been formally introduced to the project I'll be working on nor to the student who'll be supervising me, so I read papers to try to better understand what has been done and exactly what I'll be doing all day pretty much, and I have no-one to really tell me if what I'm looking into is alright or what, and when I'm suggested some papers, they usually assume I have read other papers or have knowledge I don't have so I spend one day or two on arxiv and wikipedia trying to wrap my head around what I'm reading), but on the other hand, I assume the more relaxed nature would probably provide a better atmosphere than industry research, and surely, as a non-intern, I would probably have a better idea of what's going on...

I suppose grad-levels (almost) all do some kind of research, is that right? Are grad-level courses usually paced like pre-grad ones, and would one usually take 5-6 a semester as before graduating?

Ok, I have a question:

How possible is it to be a "gentleman scientist" nowadays?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman_scientist

By this I mean getting papers published without being directly involved in a formal institution (University, etc.).

I really like the idea of doing research, but I really hate the idea of the obligation of teaching (I cannot teach), so I don't want to become a professor of an university.

Please respond.

Also, I live in a third-world country, if that's relevant to the question

>>5770194
Others in this thread have suggested that teaching is not mandatory to do research. I assume most researchers do teach because of the income it generates compared to research alone. As for getting papers published without doing research in a formal institution, although I'm no expert, I assume it doesn't matter. All you should need is to complete a paper and then submit it for peer-review at some reviewing committee.

>>5770194
Oh, and good luck getting anything done without external funding. I.e.: it's almost certainly impossible to be a financially independent researcher these days. Not entirely impossible, but then again it's also not entirely impossible that you are da vinci on steroids.

I am doing Haldane pseudopotential calculations for the 5/2 FQHE state in hopes of further elucidating whether the Pfaffian or Anti-Pfaffian states are realized in a realistic system.

>>5770177
Well, there's nothing really preventing you from coming in 9 to 5 and working on your research if you've got the time. Most undergraduate researchers just choose not to because they've got other things going on - coursework, a job, writing books, building boats, whatever. Most of the time you set your own hours outside of days where you're meeting or working alongside other research assistants or the faculty you're working with so those hours can be as loose or as rigid as you want.

Yes, generally all grad students do some kind of research with faculty in their department, usually it's with the person you chose as a mentor when you applied but not always. You're going to have to do some kind of research if you want to get a thesis out. As far as coursework, I imagine it varies between programs and institutions but from what I've heard most grad students take like 2-3 classes a semester on top of whatever research/TA/whatever work they're doing.


>>5770194
Possible but not easily. I'd imagine probably a lot cheaper and easier if you're doing theoretical work though. One of the benefits of doing research within a department, even if its a project you're doing by yourself, is that you have a ton of highly qualified people you can approach for ideas on how to overcome a problem, second opinions on an idea, etc.

>>5770272
>like 2-3 classes a semester
That's precisely what I was aiming for. This seems like it would both allow to properly understand what's being taught while leaving time to do research instead of trying to cram factoids and lay them out on the exam before forgetting everything.
Guess I'll do just that. Thanks.

>>5770279
Keep in mind graduate level courses are going to be a lot more time-consuming

Also if you're going for physics be prepared to spend a semester having your ass raped by Jackson.

>>5768563
I make 30k a year, and teach 4 hours a week. Pic related

>>5771226
>having a decent fellowship and not just a shitty TA position at a mid tier state school
haha faggot

>>5770234
Actually, yes, it is. There is no way to do real research without studying the current state of the art

>>5771198
>keep in mind graduate level courses are a lot more time consuming
that actually wasnt the case for me. grad school as a whole, with research and teaching load, was busier than undergrad, but i spent a lot more time on homework and projects for classes in undergrad

>>5771232
what does that have to do with your funding source

>>5771229
Thinking of dropping the 4 hours, but then I go down to 20k. Pic related

>>5771238
Funding is not really the issue. Official affiliation with a department which gives you access to profs time is.
Funding in itself is important too, because research takes up all of your time.

>>5771232
>There is no way to do real research without studying the current state of the art
Which requires access to research that's happening which requires spending dosh to try to maybe get access to papers that might or might not be useful, and then some more dosh to get access to the software and hardware necessary to perform the experiments, and then even more dosh to hire people so you can complete something before your research becomes deprecated.
Good luck with no funding, bro.

Just started working on SAGE glass. Shit's neat.

>>5771226
>>5768563
>>5768688
>>5768691
it depends on what tier school you get into and for what subject. My friend going to Brown for CS is getting 30k and has no teaching. I'll be getting about 22k with minimal teaching, and not all years.

Keep in mind that your tuition is often covered too, so you are really making stipend + about 20k, but that goes right into your tuition if you don't come in with funding.

I also like teaching, and am somewhat used to living in squalor after going to school in NY and not being rich as fuck. i.e., do what you like, if you get into a good uni they will definitely take care of you, and don't worry about the dollar amount it comes with.

22k doesn't look like a lot, but if they are paying for all your flights, your research, etc., it's more than livable.

A top/high mid tier uni (in US, at least) will rarely let you in if they cannot offer you enough to live at least somewhat comfortably in that location.

>>5765830
I am using high res. CT scans to analyze morphology of limbless lizards.

>>5771357
Man $20k would be more than twice what I make a year as an undergrad... that's like getting bumped up from lower to upper lower class.
>tfw movin on up in another year

>>5771850
>irradiating crippled lizards
take your evil nazi science elsewhere

>>5771357
I guess what I'll do is research (no teaching: I hate that shit) until I get my MSc or PhD (depending on how far I'm required to go), and then move on to industry research. 20-30k is quite good while studying, especially if tuition is all paid for, but it's not something I'd live off of for the rest of my life.

Undergraduate here, practicing CASA 4.0 with some ALMA data of TWHya. Later on my real data will be coming from the Sub-millimeter Array in Hawaii. It's astrochemistry if you have no idea what I'm talking about, but it looks like pretty much everyone in this thread is doing some sort of astrophysics, so...

I've been told I'll get paid something. We'll see how that goes.

>>5768277
It is possible, barely, but pay is low and job security before tenure is zero. Basically you slave away for a PhD, then 2 or 3 rounds as a research assistant for a period of 2 - 3 years each before you realistically have a chance of getting tenure. Entry level tenure is still low pay, only when you get professorship is pay adequate.

Illo from PhD comics.

>>5768712

With a PhD you become a lot more mobile. I got a job at a Japanese national research laboratory where a PhD was a requirement.

Culture in academia, national research labs and companies are all very different.

>>5767135
>Carl !!dFf2PUolAtC 05/18/13(Sat)02:04 No.576
undergrad chemistry student here

in my first year i just did like this guys said. Now i am in second year and i am working on Crossbonding Styrene polymers via click chemistry.
It works just this guys said. Mostly stundents doesnt want to work in lab. or shits so it is actually easy to shine

>>5770194

Fairly specialised but yes, in astronomy many of the comets are discovered by amateurs.

I'm currently doing research in experimental magma dynamics. I think I'll be presenting a poster at a conference this fall, and hopefully I can get a paper published within the next 9 months or so. Undergrad here, by the way.

>>5773079
>$70k
>bad
What?

ctrl+f
"cansa" no
"can s" no
"can-s" no
"sate" no
no can-sat?

>>5771239
why so many pictures of delicious beverages my friend? not that i didn't save em, just why?

>>5773229
$70k comes after 5 years as a PhD student plus 5 - 10 years as a research assistant followed by 5 - 10 years as non-professorial tenure. Basically you are pushing 40 before you make $70k.

>>5773326
Oh, I didn't consider it would take this long. That is indeed pretty bad. Do these figures only apply to university research, though?

>>5773388
>Do these figures only apply to university research, though?

Well, professorships are related to universities though there are national institutes that have academic connections. My limited impression is that national institutes have better paid as they have commercial contracts, at the cost of slightly lesser academic freedom.

Then again academic freedom is rather irrelevant if you don't have the funding to exercise your freedom.

>>5765903
Finally heard back from the department today - we got the grant we were shooting for!

>>5775611
grats anon, that's a big deal

>>5765830
Before I graduated, I was working on a novel compound similar to thalidomide from niacin, used to treat cancers by inhibiting the ability of the cancer to develop entrenched blood vessel growth.

I'm hoping I can appeal to him to let me keep doing work for him in this. It was my child.

>>5773079
In an idiocracy this happens.

My research involves B. subtilis, and the molecular mechanism by which they regulate tryptophan biosynthesis. Currently focusing on the TRAP-antiTRAP interaction.

Of course, that's just the three second explanation. If I were to talk about what I'm actually doing on a day-to-day basis, it'd sound a whole lot less interesting.

>>5765830
I'm getting pussy

>>5775926
What exactly are you doing day to day?

>>5775926
Yea, I'd actually really like to know more details.

>>5767135
This. What's INCREDIBLY important is being persistent. Faculty that does research travels A LOT and will rarely respond to e-mails, especially if they're older. Show up in person if it's in any way possible for a first impression. Some schools will allow you credit for a research project, go for it.
Another great way to search is look at certain groups at your school and speak with their coordinator to see what labs do what and if you can get involved in any of them.
repeating go to seminars. The majority of the people at them are grad students that have to go there for credit and professors in related fields. It's a good way to make yourself known as "that undergrad that's interested", it grants you a foothold in the science outside of the textbook, and you know the names of faculty.

>>5776094
>It's a good way to make yourself known as "that undergrad that's interested"
Carl's advice about colloquiums and seminars helps a lot with this too - I don't know how it is at other universities but at mine I was one of the only undergrads who attended the talks regularly. I asked questions every time (admittedly there were usually more rudimentary questions than the professors were asking but still) and talking with people afterwards.

It got me noticed and it eventually had professors asking ME if I'd be interested in working on their projects!

Getting noticed and getting your foot in someone's door is the hard part. Once you're in if you find yourself working for a really good mentor they'll be more than happy to take you under their wing, show you all the ins and outs of the work their doing, guide you through the material you might not know yet, etc.

Got a job working with my astro professor over the Summer, we're gonna be looking at spectroscopic data for exoplanets to see if we can develop a way of modelling their atmospheres.

>>5765830
my research is in chemical engineering. At my uni, I'm working on a project that is trying to find a better alternative to the polymer systems found in fracking, by comparing the rheology of the system currently used to a proposed alternative.

This summer I am doing an internship at a top 5 chemical engineering school, where I will be looking into new polymeric nanoparticle solutions in enhanced oil recovery

>>5775932
>not fooling anyone.

>>5775932
You wish

>>5765830
I support this thread. /sci/ very often have little too share because of the lack of scientific discussion.

>>5775932
Engineering research goes on >>>/lgbt/

I want to do a study examining ticks' behaviour when not attached to a host, but I'm having a hard time finding relevant literature.

>>5780827
Then why don't you write this literature?

>>5780993
Seconding this - make sure your literature review is thorough but if there really aren't a lot of papers on the subject - take the initiative and write some of your own. Break some new ground, man.

>>5780993
Seconding this - make sure you're literature review is thorough but if there really aren't a lot of papers on the subject - take the initiative and write some.

Keep that research coming /sci/

>>5770194
It depends on the field and the size of your wallet

>>5770194
In astronomy it's easy. If you've got a decent scope and a lot of free time you could go hunting for comets and asteroids.

Otherwise it's pretty hard. Most research nowadays requires lots of expensive, specialized equipment and/or supplies

OP's pic
which cosplay?

>>5766881
>>implying id ever share my research with anyone and risk being scooped
>anyone working on anything worthwhile isnt going to be sharing their projects
Something like this, especially because it's private(ly funded) research. However, I will say that it is in neuroscience.