How to get unstuck?

"It doesn't work." 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

In most research projects, ~99% of the time your experiments DO NOT work. What should we do to get ourselves unstuck? 🤔

Sharing some tips I found useful. 🧵 *Help your mentors help you*

Tell them:
1⃣ WHY did you do the experiments?
2⃣ HOW did you do the experiments?
3⃣ WHAT did you see from the results?

Your mentors have more experience than you and are willing to help.

But you have to help them help you.

How to draw an overview figure?

Creating a clear and informative overview figure is crucial for visualizing HOW your method works.

But how? 🤔 Let's deep dive with 🐢 *Choose the right level of abstraction*

Simplifying complex procedures helps improve clarity.

Ask yourself what the key message you want to convey. Don't overwhelm your readers with unnecessary details.

How to write a rebuttal for a conference?

Writing an effective rebuttal helps answer questions, address reviewers' concerns, clarify misunderstandings, and help the AC make an informed decision.

But it takes work to write a good one. 😟

Sharing some tips I found useful. 🧵 *Start positive*

Start with summarizing all the strengths noted by the reviewers and adding quotes to provide evidence.

Remind the reviewers and AC of
"Why should this paper be accepted?"

How to meet with your advisors/mentors?

If you are a grad student, having effective regular meetings with advisors or mentors is absolutely crucial for your success!

Here are some tips on how to make the most of it! 🧵 *Present results*

❌ Collect and present the results you got in the last week? Terrible idea! 😱

Your advisor sees your results for the first time in the meeting? It means they don't have time to understand and think about them.

✅ Share and discuss results async FREQUENTLY.

How to do experiments?

Junior students often feel stressed before the weekly meeting with their advisors because their experiments do not go well. 😩😰😱

Some tips on why, what, and how to do experiments. 🧵 *Why? 🤔*

❌ Do an experiment to get improved performance.
✅ Do an experiment to test a hypothesis.

Many students trying to show improved results with experiments are missing the point.

Your goal of experiments should be to validate/test your research questions.

How to multitask?

Feeling overwhelmed with multiple tasks on your to-do list? 😩

How do we effectively manage and juggle between tasks? 🤹 🤹‍♂️ 🤹‍♀️ Some tips below.👇 *Calm down*

Don't panic! With good prioritization and strategy, I am sure you will nail this!

How to write math in a paper?

Math allows you to convey your idea precisely and concisely. But how to write them clearly? 🤔

Check out some high-level tips (with examples). 🧵 *Make it readable*

Math writing blends both NATURAL and MATH languages. It should be *readable*.

Excited to share our #CVPR2023 on synthesizing new views along a camera trajectory from a **single image**!

How?
💡 The good old epipolar constraints in a pose-guided diffusion model!

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2303.17598
Project: poseguided-diffusion.github.io How does it work?

We train a diffusion model conditioned on 1) relative camera pose and 2) source image via a cross attention layer.

BUT, we don’t need to attend every location!

Fantastic correspondences and where to find them?

Epipolar geometry!

How to write the Introduction?

As a junior student, writing the introduction of a research paper is arguably the most daunting part of paper writing. 😱

Here is a simple template I find useful:

3 Figures 🖼️ + 5 Questions 🤔 *🖼️ WHAT figure*

Start with the paper with a WHAT figure (known as the "teaser").

This figure shows only two things.
1⃣ Input
2⃣Output

This helps the readers understand what your work is about. Here are some of my favorite examples.

How to decide what to work on?

So many exciting ideas, so little time! How can one narrow down to a specific idea to work on? 🤔

Sharing some strategies I found useful. 🧵 *Find your position*

Understand your unfair advantages over others, what the community cares about, and how you can best contribute.

Avoid crowding the ball (aka chasing the hottest problem in the field).

How to find research opportunities?

Finding opportunities to gain experience is arguably the most challenging part for students wishing to pursue grad school, particularly for those who don't have resources/connections.

Some tips on approaching potential mentors. 🧵 *Lead with value*

❌ "I am very interested ... I want to grow ... I want to get the experiences... I have many prior experiences ... me, me, me, me, me, me, me!"

✅ "Here is what I can contribute to your team. I can do this bc my experience/skills on blah blah blah."

How to create a good table?

While in grad school, I thought my job writing the paper was done after dumping all the numerical numbers from my experiments in a table. 🤦‍♂️

Check out some tips that will help you improve the quality of your tables! 🧵 *1⃣ Avoid vertical lines*

Having vertical lines in a table almost always makes the table less readable. Avoid them at all costs.

How to write a reference letter for graduate admission?

After writing and reviewing many recommendation letters, I gradually learned what makes a good letter.

Here are some tips for people new to writing recommendation letters for the upcoming application season! 🧵 *It's your job*

If the student works closely with you on research projects, it's your RESPONSIBILITY to write the letter.

Don't ask students to write a complete draft so you can just sign your name.

How to prepare supplementary material?

Accompanying your paper submissions with supp material has become standard. But why/what/how to prepare good supplementary material remain unclear to many junior students. 😕

Sharing some ideas below 🧵 *Why supplementary material?*

When R2 reviews your paper, the only question in their mind is:

"HOW CAN I KILL THIS PAPER? 🧐"

• Unclear exposition?
• Insufficient details?
• Unconvincing validation?

Don't give them any reason.

How to work with your senior advisor(s)?

Many students find it challenging to navigate grad school when working with senior professors as they are often extremely busy and hands-off in research.

Check out below for some tips. 🧵 *Pre-process Your Input*

Your advisor is an INPUT-OUTPUT machine.

https://twitter.com/jbhuang0604/status/1546361369469001728

Senior professors won't keep track of all the latest papers. But they sure know the fundamentals.

Pre-process/abstract/simplify your work so that they can give you great feedback.

How to handle questions in a presentation?

When I was a student, I always feel stressful during the Q&A session after my presentation. 😵‍💫 In many cases, I didn't know how to respond well and just froze up there! 🥶

Sharing some tips I learned from others. 🧵 *Reframe the question*

Repeating and summarizing the key questions help
1⃣ ensure the audience feel heard,
2⃣ confirm that you are answering the right Q,
3⃣ let other audience understand what the Q is, and
4⃣ give yourself a bit buffer to think and plan your answer.

How to end a presentation?

You have kicked off your talk with a fascinating story and presented an amazing body of work. 🤩

So now how do you end your talk? 🤔

Check out a simple template I like! 🧵 *Look back*

Remind everyone what the KEY POINTS are.

Remember that your audience's memory buffer is very limited (typically no more than 3 phrases). 😵‍💫

👉 Make it visual! Make it concise!

How to start a presentation?

Most people start with all the boring info (e.g., repeating everything your host just said) and unmotivated technical details. 🥱

After a few mins, everyone starts checking their phone! 😱

How to avoid this? Here is a simple template. 🧵 *Hook*

❌"Hi, my name is .. I am a .. from .. My research .. I am happy to be here. Today I am going to present this title on the slide."

✅ Start your talk with a story, a picture, a surprising statistics, a quote, a question, a poll from audience, or a guessing game.

How to work with your advisor(s)?

Working effectively with your advisor is the no doubt the key to success of your research! However, junior grad students often don't have a clear idea on how to do so.

Sharing some tips that I found useful. 👇 *Know the Role of Your Advisor*

Your advisor is an *INPUT-OUPUT MACHINE*.

You throw them sth in and get sth out.

❌ In-only: You do everything and report final results.
❌ Out-only: You do everything they told you to do.
✅ In&out: You get frequent and valuable guidance.

How to Ask for a Letter of Recommendation?

Another round of graduate school, award/fellowship, job applications is coming!

Recommendation letter is arguably THE most critical component in your application package.

How do you get a strong letter? 🤔 *It's their Job*

Many students are afraid to ask for letters and think the faculty is *doing them a favor*.

It's *their job*! (They probably have asked for hundreds of letters to get their current role.)

👉 If a faculty can provide a detailed assessment about you, just ask!

How to communicate clearly?

Majority of our time goes into emails, slack messages, and loads of meetings.

Yet, as a student, no one taught me how to communicate well. (I must have annoyed a lot of people along the way ...😬)

Here is a template for organizing your message. *(1) What?*

What's your key point? Please don't tell a convoluted story that graaaadually leads to your main point. Ain't nobody got time for that!

👉 Identify your main message and put them up front.