IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2015 - 162

That makes it feel like much less of a
work-life dichotomy.
SH: I am happy with it.
RJW III: Not having kids yet, I
feel as though anything I could say on
this topic would sound a little trite-
particularly when I think about colleagues who had twins early in their
faculty careers, yet are still managing
to succeed bountifully in both family
and academic life. I have felt in balance much more often than not in my
early career, but many people face
much greater challenges in this area
than I have.

Q: What is the advantage of a carrier
at the industry over the academia in
your case and academia over the
industry for the others?
LT: In my case, I am able to choose
where I live (geographically) and to
focus upon a smaller set of stakeholders
(as opposed to spending most of my
time writing grant proposals and
reports). That gives me more time to
spend on actually doing the research
that I love. I miss working with students, but I still do get to mentor
interns and research assistants.
SH: Frankly, I never considered
industry to be a suitable option for
me personally. However, it was not a
conscious decision against industry,
just a very active one in favor of
research and academia. I am convinced that the freedom to work on
novel research questions, develop
new technologies that may at some
point act for the greater good, and
decide for yourself (obviously within
the many real-world boundaries in
research) what you want to be passionate about, is the core of being a
researcher. And this is what I always
wanted to do, be a scientific explorer
and developer of new technologies. I
am also absolutely convinced that in
particular, robotics needs the strong
and fruitful collaboration between
academia/research and industry to
fulfill its ambitious goals. In particular, I really love the enormous
robotic energy that is currently
being created by robotics startups all
over the world.
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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

RJW III: For me, there are at
least three things that make academia
attractive. First, the ability to shoot for
the Moon in research. As an academic,
I can pursue high risk/high reward
projects that might or might not
work-but that would be truly transformative if they did. Second, the ability to talk about what I do. In
academia, the goal is to tell everyone
who will listen what you are working
on, so that the community can make
progress together. In contrast, in the
medical device/medical robotics
industry, one typically has to keep
what one is working on under a
shroud of total secrecy for many years,
to preserve a competitive advantage in
a marketplace. Last, the ability to collaborate with surgeons without trying
to sell them anything. As fellow faculty
members, the surgeons I work with
and I are 100% on the same team, and
there can be very tight research interactions, since we live on the same
physical campus a 5-min walk from
one another. Of course, in industry,
you have the big advantage of a much
quicker turnaround until you can say I
built that of a product that is helping
real live patients, which is pretty profound. Thus, I do not think either
career path has a decided intrinsic
advantage in my area of research.
Q: What would be the most important message you'd send back in time
to your former self five years ago?
LT: Chill out, passing up great
opportunities is just part of carving
your own path forward.
SH: On a personal level, I am
happy and think that I should not ask
for anything more.
RJW III: Let me go back about
eight years instead, to when I was
making my decision about whether to
go into academia or industry. My plan
all along had been to go into industry-I never had a grand career strategy to become a professor. What I did
not necessarily realize at the time is
that the best way to view a pretenure
faculty position is like a first job. How
many years do you expect to work at a
first job in industry? Probably, less

DECEMBER 2015

than five years. If you do even moderately well, you're
likely to be
allowed to stay
The 2015 recipients
in your faculty
joined the RAS
position at least
five years before
Young Professionals
the tenure deciLuncheon held at
sion comes. So,
what if it doesn't
ICRA in May 2015.
work out? If you
can land a faculty position, it means somebody is
willing to give you a big pile of startup
money to do whatever you want for
five years, with some of the best and
brightest students and postdocs helping you. What is not to like about that?
Take the pressure off, realize that there
are lots of fun jobs out there and if you
fail to get tenure you don't fail in your
career. Understand the goals and
metrics academia sets out for you, but
do not be bound by them. The worst
case scenario in taking an academic

The Department of Computer
Science and Engineering at the
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
invites applications for multiple
tenure-track faculty positions in
cyber security and in support of a
University-wide initiative (MnDRIVE)
on robotics, sensors, and advanced
manufacturing
(http://cse.umn.
edu/r/mndrive-minnesota-discoveryresearch-and-innovation-economy/).
Specific topics of interest for the
positions include cyber security,
sensing and networking, machine
learning, computer vision, robot
design,
manipulation,
mobility,
human-robot interaction, planning,
algorithmic
foundations,
and
embedded systems. Applicants from
other areas will be considered as
long as they address how their work
fits into the security or MnDRIVE
themes.
Senior applicants will
also be considered. We encourage
applications from women and underrepresented minorities. Candidates
should have a Ph.D. in Computer
Science or a closely related discipline
at the time of appointment. The
positions are open until filled, but for
full consideration apply at https://www.
cs.umn.edu/resources/employment/
faculty by December 15, 2015. The
University of Minnesota is an equal
opportunity employer and educator.

http://www.cse.umn https://www http://cs.umn.edu/resources/employment/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2015