

Pursuing the Next Level of AI - limeade
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/technology/03koller.html

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petercooper

      In recent years, many of her graduate students have gone to work at Google.
      However she tries to persuade undergraduates to stay in academia and not 
      rush off to become software engineers at start-up companies.
    
      She acknowledges that the allure of Silicon Valley riches
      can be seductive. “My husband still berates me for not 
      having jumped on the Google bandwagon at the beginning,” 
      she said. Still, she insists she does not regret her 
      decision to stay in academia. “I like the freedom to 
      explore the things I care about,” she said.
    

It worries me how many people _do_ take the easy option of heading off to
"chair warmer" jobs at places like Google rather than work in lower-paid, but
ultimately more rewarding, academic and research jobs. What's even more odd is
how few people when exposed to the commercial world actually _return_ to the
academic world.

There's a lot of work to be done in the fields of computer science and
computer engineering, and a lot of the people who could be making the
breakthroughs are instead chasing the dollar. We can't blame them, but instead
perhaps we should be looking for ways to ensure the cream of the crop have, at
least, an appealing alternative in doing research.

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neilc
AFAIK, the rate of PhD production in US CS programs is actually quite healthy:

<http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may07/taulbee.html>

Admittedly the rate of new graduate student enrollment has decreased recently,
but that's after a few years of record PhD production.

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petercooper
Interesting statistics. I'm actually surprised how few PhDs there are each
year compared to what I'd have estimated.

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pchristensen
She entered university at 13 1/2 yrs old, taught a course at that university
when she was 17, and got her Master's at 18. Thank goodness she's not lured by
the money - this is an intellectual powerhouse!

She's also firmly in my list of successful women in tech.

