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SIGMOD 2013 New Researcher Symposium

SIGMOD 2013 New Researcher Symposium . Martin Theobald University of Antwerp, Belgium. Disclaimer. The views and opinions in this presentation are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the actual policies of any of the entities mentioned therein . Outline.

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SIGMOD 2013 New Researcher Symposium

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  1. SIGMOD 2013New Researcher Symposium Martin Theobald University of Antwerp, Belgium

  2. Disclaimer The views and opinions in this presentation are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the actual policies of any of the entities mentioned therein 

  3. Outline • Some Class Photos • Research in Europe vs. U.S. • Do’s & Dont’s

  4. Max Planck Institute Anno 2003

  5. Max Planck InstituteAnno 2005

  6. Stanford InfolabAnno 2007

  7. Max Planck InstituteAnno 2009

  8. University of AntwerpAnno 2013

  9. Research in Europe • Research mostly in public universities/institutes and only in a few big companies. (IBM, SAP, Yahoo!,…) • European funding (EU STREP/FET, ERC) • Very generous and prestigious, but hard to get. • Few companies (Google) competitive to EU funding. • Gap between south/north & west/center/east. • Center/north doing much better than south.

  10. Research in the U.S. • Most research takes place in private/state universities and in company labs. (IBM, MSR, Oracle, Google, Yahoo!, …) • Much stronger startup culture than in Europe. • Funding from both public agencies (NSF, NASA, DARPA) and industry, business angels, etc.

  11. Research in Germany • Germany provides excellent funding options for temporary research positions. • “Excellence Initiatives” at various universities. • Research institutes & societies: Max Planck, Fraunhofer, Helmholtz, Leibniz, … • 1.5B EUR annual budget of the Max Planck Society (~170 institutes) vs. 4.4B USD at Stanford University. • 6-year rule for public employers applies as well.

  12. Research in Germany • Permanent academic positions ( professorships) are very rare. • 1-2 university openings per year in Databases & Information-Systems or Applied Informatics. (10-20 competitors with at least equally strong C.V.’s) • Very few new professorships are being created. • Academic job market might improve in 10 years.

  13. Some Stats • Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. • By 2030, more than 50% of the German population will be above 50. • Only 28% of young people study (compared to 39% in OECD). Source: Wikipedia, Population Reference Bureau 2009

  14. Tenure in Germany • Germany is one of the few European countries that (still) has no tenure-track system. • People do post-docs and habilitations (PD), which means a temporary position (and title for teaching). • Few Junior professorships (W1), which are usually not tenured and have no option to “upgrade”. • You will have to move more often after your Ph.D. than before. 6 years to obtain tenure is usually tight.

  15. Research in Belgium • Europe is much more heterogeneous than the U.S. • 33 countries, 270 administrative regions, 23 languages. • I’m currently learning Dutch  Source: Wikipedia

  16. Research in Belgium • 6 Flemish universities for higher education (at ~6.5 Million inhabitants) • Antwerp • Brussels (2x) • Gent • Hasselt • Leuven • Funding primarily at university-level and by the Flemish research foundation (FWO).

  17. Tenure in Belgium • 4 levels of university professorships, all of which are principally tenured. • Docent • Hoofddocent • Hoogleraar • GewoonHoogleraar • New 6-year tenure-track system. • Hiring based on your level of experience. • You can upgrade (i.e., apply for promotion) at your home university.

  18. Do’s: Ph.D. Students • Focus on your (given) research topic but also grasp beyond your own nose. • Convince your supervisor to let you work on real-world problems, which may also be of interest for your potential future employers. • Big Data, MapReduce, Web stuff, …

  19. Do’s: Post-Docs • If you are aiming for an academic position: • Focus on research, but also try to get involved in teaching and supervision (Ba/Ma, Ph.D.) as early as possible. • Establish your own research topic and try to gradually “decouple” from your advisor. • If you are aiming for industry: • Hey, why are you doing a post-doc? You could probably earn much more money somewhere else.

  20. Do’s: Tenure-Track People • Minimize the amount of teaching you need to do yourself. • Find a trade-off between depth and usability of your research. (No point in doing research on a topic that is already handled by Google at 100,000 times the scale.) • Watch out for funding options and write proposals (Europe), or try to convince industry partners (U.S.) whenever possible.

  21. Last But Not Least • The earlier you know what you want, the better. • Don’t focus on a too broad or too narrow research topic, but establish your own profile. • Interact with other researchers/industry as much as possible. • Stay flexible and always have a backup in mind.

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