writing a career award: think like an educator George Porter – gmporter@cs.ucsd.edu 2018 NSF CAREER Workshop

Brief Introduction My research focuses on high- speed networks and energy- efficient processing of lots of data Graduated UC Berkeley, 2008 Postdoc 2009—2010, UCSD Asst. Research Scientist, 2010— 2014 Asst. Professor, 2014—

My career award proposal

My career award proposal "A Scalable Multiplane Data Center Network" Observation: network switches can’t keep up with server demand due to limits of CMOS manufacturing process Idea: Replace electronic switching with optical switching Activities: Develop novel switches and use them to design new topologies and higher- level abstractions

My career award proposal Circuit-switch enabled ToR switches (~2015) Commercial (~2010) 2D-MEMS (~2013) Non-crossbar (~2017)

Problem: the Environmental impact of “The cloud” To build: Google spends about $3B per year Microsoft spent $15B in total To operate: 1-2% of global energy consumption1 91 billion kWh (34 500-MW coal-fired power plants)2 By 20202: 140 billion kWh (50 power plants) $13 billion in electricity bills 100 metric tons of carbon pollution per year LBNL, 2013 NRDC report

elements of your proposal Select a problem to solve Establish that solving the problem is important and worthwhile Come up with a good idea How to evaluate the idea? Integrating research into your teaching Developing as an educator How will your research have broader impacts to society? Some of these you are familiar with From your Ph.D., writing papers, your dissertation, etc… Some are new Broader impacts, integrating into education Avoid over-focusing on the core idea while under-focusing on the remaining parts of the grant Common problem!

problem selection 5-year plan Manage risk vs. reward Hone the idea Very different than a conference or journal paper Need a line of research goals, not a single result Manage risk vs. reward Related problems in a space vs. problems that build on top of each other Hone the idea Run it by people at conferences, email researchers in your field, … Better to get feedback early than after the panel

Advice 1: know your audience To date, you’ve likely been writing to subject specialists (conferences, journals, dissertation committee) Now need to write to wider audience It is OK to (briefly) summarize the foundation your idea is based on In my proposal, background, motivation, related work, and problem setup was first 7 pages! Technical “meat” began on page 7

Advice 2: Good technical ideas are necessary (but not sufficient!) Grant proposals are evaluated differently than conference papers, journal submissions, etc. Don’t take for granted that the reviewer will see the merit in the idea Be as precise as you can to the benefits and limitations of your ideas Make the case for how your discovery improves your field and/or the wider world Support comes from taxpayer money, so the responsibility for justifying it falls on us! My broader impacts/educational plan was 3 pages

Advice 3: Crafting your educational plan “Professors are educators first, and researchers second” – Randy H. Katz (UC Berkeley) Need to educate your students, your community, the nation (by starting with the review panel!) How can you improve your ability in this area? It is a life-long process Think beyond activities you do already Advising students, teaching classes, … Use the opportunity to potentially think of new ways of teaching For me, maker courses + video explainers of the technology Don’t forget to include in your budget your activities

Advocating and educating the public You need to write an annual and final report There can be many benefits of publishing beyond that, to the general community Video explainers, website, interviews for the media, podcasts Making course materials public or available for online education Who better than us to make the case for our research?

Summary Problem selection Know your audience Good ideas (alone) aren’t enough Crafting your educational plan Educating the public