Thread by @CSAalto

Father and Assistant Professor Arno Solin on stage today at @CSAalto speaking about the challenges of balancing the responsibilities of fatherhood and a career in academia. How does one manage time and priorities to find fulfilment in both? @arnosolin @AaltoUniversity @FCAI_fi

‘I don’t think I’ve ever been to a talk about this topic within #academia and it’s wonderful that we have places to share these experiences, although I don’t have clear-cut answers.’

‘This is how I would usually present myself in an academic talk. I won’t be doing that today.’

‘This is me as a father.’

‘The usual challenges we face in academic life can be impostor syndrome, lack of support, time management, productivity, identity crisis, financial pressure, career issues and uncertainty. These are actually very much aligned with the challenges one meets in parenthood!’

‘There’s always something you could do more – spend more time or be more engaged with your children or putting in extra effort for a research paper.’

‘So how do you combine academia and parenthood? I’m still figuring it out, but here are some thoughts.’

‘Involve your kids with what you do. In 2020, I needed some movement data. I found the perfect example when spending time with my son. This picture is actually my son learning how to ride a bicycle from our research paper.’

‘We’ve also played around with image generators with my three-year-old daughter. She drew a child holding a balloon, which we fed into #StableDiffusion. I showed her how the machine would think a slightly older child would draw the picture, and how an adult would draw it.’

‘Later, I went to a workshop where @vdutor from @CambridgeMLG was giving a talk about Diffusion Models. Suddenly, this picture was brought up in the talk. If you read the small text, it says: Source - Arno Solin’s daughter using #StableDiffusion.'

https://twitter.com/arnosolin/status/1570328910755143683?s=20

‘I also asked my 7-year-old son for advice for this talk. His advice to academics is to work less on your laptop and play more with kids, and sit up straight to avoid back pain.’ #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter