How to move forward when facing confusion in scientific research? How to give full play to women's advantages in scientific research?

This article is reproduced from Microsoft Research Institute under the official account AI headlines （ID：MSRAsia）

“ In the process of scientific research, we are confused about how to move forward ？”“ How to give full play to women's advantages in scientific research ？”“ How to quickly switch research directions with ease ？” stay Ada Workshop 2022 Of “ Topic sharing and Discussion on female students' career development —— Special session for researchers ” in , Outstanding female researchers from Microsoft Research Asia shared their research path , On the scientific research direction that the students are concerned about 、 The problems of road choice and growth confusion are discussed in depth . today , We will share with you the wonderful Q & A in the discussion session , I hope I can answer the questions for the students ！

 

Ada Workshop 2022 The full playback video has been online Bilibili “ Microsoft China video center ”, Click the following address to view ：

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Rv4y1K7AE

Xu Yong ： Everybody knows , Scientific research is not an easy path , There will be many problems in this process , Facing some difficulties . The first question is about three researchers , When we encounter confusion or difficulties on the road of scientific research , How to deal with ？

 

Zhang Ting ： I think this situation can be summed up in one sentence , Namely Calm down and do things . In particular , The main task is to accomplish the following three points ： The first is to accept yourself . When encountering difficulties or feeling confused , I think it is very important to accept all this first , To accept yourself . You may need to talk to yourself , You may realize that you may not be as smart as you think , Then you need to face and accept yourself with an optimistic and positive attitude .

 

The second point is to believe in yourself . Although you may not be the smartest 、 The most capable one , But believe that you have paid enough time and effort , It must be able to achieve a good result . therefore , After accepting yourself , A very important process is to believe in yourself , Reshape self-confidence .

 

The third point is to focus on yourself . This means focusing on the work at hand , Devote yourself to the progress of work every day , Don't pay too much attention to other people's comments . Although it may not be successful in the end , But success or failure , As long as you put your energy into it 、 Time and effort , You will eventually grow from this experience , Be able to know yourself better .

 

Chen Qi ： In fact, I've been down before , Then I did some immature things , Such as changing directions . I think the most important thing is We should adjust our mentality in time , Try not to be disturbed by the outside world , For example, the students around me are too excellent 、 Everyone else is going well 、 The teacher gave some pressure and so on . When encountering difficulties, you may first need to calm down and think about , What is the problem with this progress , Is it possible to solve , What kind of help should be sought .

 

in addition , In my submission It's important to increase communication opportunities , Because sometimes a person can't always have ideas . Maybe some students are not very interesting to communicate with their tutors , Then you can try to communicate with the surrounding senior brothers and sisters 、 Younger martial brothers and sisters, communicate more , You can even communicate with teachers in other groups . They may focus on different areas , Or they may have had similar problems before , These communications will help you broaden your perspective , Broaden the knowledge reserve , So as to better cross the dilemma .

 

Deng pan ： It is quite common to meet a trough in the process of doctoral or scientific research . I think we can solve this problem both in the long term and in the short term . For a long time, we should straighten out our mentality . When we first started to read blogs , Especially in biology , Maybe they all think they can win the Nobel Prize , Then I read it and gradually found that I couldn't do it at all . So the first thing to do is to accept failure , And accept “ Failure is the norm ” Fact . Once you accept this normality , You will encounter some results of failure , You can calm down a little .

 

short-term There are two main points , One is what Chen Qigang just said Communicate more with you . Because when you talk to people, you will find , In fact, everyone has had this frustration and confusion , This is not your problem alone . The other is that you can Try to develop some other hobbies , Don't let yourself get into a corner , Immerse yourself in “ Why can't you ” In this matter . such as , During my doctoral study, I suddenly felt that karate and rock climbing made me very happy , It can keep me free from the pressure of scientific research . Later, a friend who read psychology told me , This is entering a state of mindfulness .“ Mindfulness ” You may have heard the word , But in fact, it is very difficult to reach this state directly . So you can find some hobbies or other activities you like to improve your ideas , So as to help yourself get out of this confusion as soon as possible .

 

Finally, add a little , In fact, I think if you do scientific research , Stress is always with you . Many of my friends have been very successful , But it will still talk about the pressure on our own scientific research with us . So scientific research is indeed a relatively lonely road , The pressure is also great , You have to believe what you do , To be able to stick to it . I hope that after you have this expectation , You can also adjust your mind as soon as possible .

 

Xu Yong ： Has the role of women had any impact on your research path ？ For example, change the research direction 、 Age anxiety 、 Family influence, etc .

 

Chen Qi ： Because I worked at Microsoft after my Ph. D , Microsoft has provided a relatively fair environment , So I haven't encountered many gender related problems . Before, when I participated in the activity , I have also encountered some students' concerns about women's need to balance their work and life . In my submission , When we say that women are having problems in this industry , Also consider Women also have many advantages in this industry .

 

First , Women's ability to work under pressure is generally strong . secondly , Women are good at multithreading , You can coordinate several things at the same time . in addition , Women are more careful , We can often find some potential deficiencies and defects in our work . So in fact, girls have advantages in this field , Don't worry too much .

 

in addition , Speaking of family and work balance , In fact, this is the problem of concentration just mentioned .Work hard, play harder. such as , When I am with my family, I will go to play with them , Then concentrate on your work while you work . In this way, the highest efficiency can be achieved , And won't be distracted by other things .

 

Deng pan ： I want to share my own experience . I am a biology major , There is a very interesting phenomenon in our major . When we were undergraduates, there were more girls than boys , At that time, the ratio of men to women was 0.72, namely 72 A boy and 100 A girl . Then, there are actually more girls when I am a doctoral student . I have participated in some academic exchange activities for doctoral students in school , I found that there were many excellent girls inside . But at the stage of opening an independent laboratory , I found that the ratio of men to women has changed a lot , You rarely see good female scientists . Why? STEM There are so few women in the field ？ There is also a lot of discussion in academia , People will still feel that this is inseparable from the deep-rooted stereotypes at the social level . So from this point of view , Women are more or less influenced by social prejudice in the process of growing up .

 

As far as I'm concerned , I'm still lucky , Along the way, I haven't had much gender influence . But I have also met friends and relatives in my life “ Care for ”, When I was just going to study for a doctor , Someone told me , Why should a girl study for a doctor , Just get married . therefore , I suggest that girls try to get close to the environment suitable for their own growth , such as , Microsoft has some platforms that specifically encourage women to get more career opportunities , It provides a more healthy and comfortable environment for women's growth .

 

in addition , I want to talk about my thoughts on age anxiety , This is also the biggest change since I went abroad . When I was studying abroad , I found that many students are in their 30s and 40s , Some of them came back to study after serving as soldiers , Some of them have children and it takes several years to study , There are also some who studied other majors or even played bands before . These experiences made me start to look down on the influence of age on me . For example , In the field of biology, there is a very famous Chinese female scientist named zhuangxiaowei . Both her undergraduate and doctoral degrees are in physics , It was not until postdoc that he turned to Biology . She said in an award-winning speech , Even some of the most basic biological concepts were not particularly clear when she entered the laboratory as a postdoctoral student , But there's no denying it , She is doing very well in this field now . So I think , Age is not a limiting factor at all , Just the shackles of society and yourself . As long as you dare to explore , Dare to break through these limitations , You still have many different possibilities .

 

Zhang Ting ： I think the performance at work still comes down to personal , Instead of putting on the label of a woman , such as , It's not that you are careful because you are a woman , It's also not that you are a woman, so you must not be suitable for this field . Although most women go through the process of procreation , It takes a lot of time and energy from pregnancy to lactation , In the short term, this will indeed have a certain impact on work and career , But in the long run, it may not necessarily , I think it still depends on women's personal choice . I hope you can Make choices freely according to your strengths and weaknesses , And less affected by social stereotypes .

Audience questions 1： How to improve yourself if you have a bad math background ？ And how much mathematics should be learned to be more suitable for the computer field ？

 

Zhang Ting ： On the first question , I think I need to judge why my math background is bad . such as , It may be a subject that is not very good or a subject that is not very good , It may be necessary to find some relevant books to study , Or communicate more with senior brothers and sisters .

 

On the second question , If you're in the workplace , Maybe it's more about what kind of basic mathematical knowledge you need to do now . such as , If you want to do scientific research , You may also need some knowledge of optimization theory , Some knowledge of matrix or linear algebra, etc .

 

In my submission , It's hard to be completely prepared before doing something . Maybe it's more about what you need in the actual situation , Then try to make up for this piece of knowledge .

 

Audience questions 2： If you find that the other party has stolen your ideas in the process of communication , What should I do ？ Have you ever encountered a similar situation ？ How to promote the follow-up cooperation in the process of communication ？

 

Chen Qi ： It's really possible that this thing will happen , But the probability is small . I still think , Don't stop exchanging ideas with others for such reasons , This will limit your own development .

 

On the second question , I think we should take the initiative . Just like I participated in many projects , But I actually took the initiative to find many projects . When I found the project that someone in our group was doing was very interesting , I will take the initiative to find him / She talked . Waiting for someone to invite you to do a project is actually more difficult , But it will be much easier if you take the initiative , Maybe others just want to find more people and more power , So don't worry about being rejected .

 

Zhang Ting ： I would like to add a little bit . In addition to the initiative to find people to communicate just mentioned by Chen Qi , I think I can take part in more activities at ordinary times . Whether you are interested in academic sharing , Or communication Talk, You can actively participate . You can make connections through these activities , Get familiar with each other , Then you can get to know him / Her direction , After that, it will be more smooth to find someone to cooperate with .

 

Audience questions 3： How to quickly switch between multiple research directions with ease , At the same time, it can also efficiently complete a number of test tasks ？

 

Chen Qi ： Most of the directions I have done before are actually based on interest , I will look for relevant information , Then go and talk to the people concerned , After slowly understanding the background of this direction , Then go to see the paper and master it deeply . Of course , I can't master every direction in a day or two , It also takes time to study and master the history of relevant research 、 The present and the future . All of these require time to precipitate , But first and foremost, it must be interest driven , You have to be interested in this thing , Then you will have the motivation to do these things .

 

in addition , When faced with little research data 、 When it is lonely to do scientific research alone , I suggest you seek cooperation , Be proactive in communicating your ideas with colleagues around you . This will allow more people to join your research team , You can also have more people to help you , So it is easier to get some new breakthroughs .

 

Audience questions 4： What is the future of bioinformatics ？

 

Deng pan ： Now biological research is moving in the direction of biased computing , It can also be seen that more and more laboratories will use computing tools in some of their research projects . After the rise of omics , There will be a lot of data generated including single-cell omics , This leads us to rely on some computing tools to process and understand these data . So I think if we take the biological direction , Some methods of partial calculation or information will certainly account for an increasing proportion in the future . But on the whole , In my submission Choosing a job depends on your interests . Because at present, bioinformation mainly makes some tools and pipeline Work in direction , If you're not interested , Even if this field develops well in the future , You can't get a sense of self fulfillment in it . So it still depends on which direction you want to do most , Each direction can create different values .

 

Audience questions 5： How to realize whether what you have done is positive or may be biased towards your future scientific research path ？ How to see if your current direction is correct ？

 

Deng pan ： In fact, I am not aware of this . Tell the truth , My decision to study for a doctor's degree did not stem from my academic pursuit , It was just a choice to follow the crowd . After I read the doctor , I just wonder why I want to read this doctor , And what I really want to do . At first I had no idea where I was going in the future , under these circumstances , Every step I try , It all comes from interest . At least these attempts are not a very negative thing , As for whether we have made a detour , I was not able to judge .

 

I don't think there is a fixed goal in life . Maybe standing at this node now , You'll feel like you've taken a wrong step , But in five or ten years , Maybe your direction has changed , At the beginning, you felt that the detour you took might be the experience that helped you most . I think this is a wonderful part of life , Only in this exploration , You can really know what you want to do , Can also find a lot of fun . Even if no one suggests you do , Or we won't see some dawn in the near future , But you are still willing to do . If you can find such a thing , In fact, I am already very happy .

 

Audience questions 6： I would like to ask three researchers , How do you keep your research level ？

 

Zhang Ting ： I think we need to keep learning to maintain this level of research . The first is Be curious , Often go to see some new fields and new research directions . This is an internal stimulus , The excitement of curiosity , There is also an external stimulus , Namely Communicate more with people , Find your own shortcomings in communicating with each other , Drive yourself to find out and fill the gaps .

 

Deng pan ： Tell me a little about my recent thoughts . I have been looking at many different directions recently , After all, biology is a very big direction , We also want to explore some different fields in computational biology , So I will read some published in high-level journals （ Such as Nature、Science etc. ） Leading edge research on . I find these studies have very different perspectives . After reading a lot of these studies , Your research taste or some ideas will change .

 

Chen Qi ： I also think it's about being curious , Pay attention to some new fields and new jobs in the fields you are interested in . You can also listen to the sharing of colleagues and the introduction of research work , Try to find something new . in addition , In my submission Scientific research level also includes writing ability and story telling ability , These abilities are also important in the computer field , You need to make your ideas acceptable . For that , I think we should learn more from high-level scholars , Or learn from colleagues . for instance , Maybe some students' papers are all introductions like boiled water , But when you communicate with people who have written well, you will find that , The paper cannot only introduce how to do , You also need to think about why you do this . You can't just tell people that it's the right thing to do , It's about telling people why it's the right thing to do . I think this is the trait of many high-level researchers , This kind of thinking can stimulate you to constantly revise your thoughts , Promote you to ponder the significance of research , And can help you to explore more research topics .