Interdisciplinary Research: Opportunities
and Challenges
Nancy Amato
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Texas A&M University
Lori Clarke
The Department of Computer Science
U. Massachusetts
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What we’ll talk about
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
Why consider interdisciplinary research?
What are the benefits and drawbacks?
◦ The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
◦ How to address the pitfalls as a graduate student

How to make sure you'll get a rewarding job
when you graduate?
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• Great ideas often transcend boundaries
• Computer science provides
 new ways of thinking about and seeing our
world
 new technologies that are fundamentally
changing our world in ways we barely
understand
• There are incredible opportunities!
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In Grad School:
 Parallel algorithms for computational geometry
Since then:
 Computational Science
◦ Designing parallel algorithms and data structures for
particle transport, seismic ray tracing, etc.

Simulating Molecular Motions
◦ Outgrowth of work on motion planning, originally applied in
robotics (apply same algorithm to bio problems)
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In Grad School:
 Software engineering, symbolic execution and testing
Since then:
 Verification of distributed systems, req. eng., dev. env.
 Recently
◦ Applying SE techniques to different domains
 Medical Safety- verification and safety analysis of life-critical
processes; Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists, Industrial Engineers
 Scientific Workflow - modeling support, data provenance;
Ecologists
 On-line dispute resolution - trust and security,
experimentation platform; Mediators, Legal Studies,
Psychologists
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
An opportunity to significantly impact
another field
◦ Exciting and invigorating

Provides a new perspective on your research
◦ New issues, new opportunities
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Often receive more appreciation than from
the computing community
Helps attract students
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
Need to be sure that there is an interesting research
contribution
◦ Don’t want to just provide programming support

Can take a significant amount of time to cross the
terminology and technology divide
◦ Delays progress and publications

Funding may have difficulties
◦ Other disciplines may have different expectations for
research assistants
◦ Other disciplines may be more interested in evaluating
the use of technology, not developing the technology
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
Publication Venues
◦ Hard to determine the best venues where to publish the
interdisciplinary work
 Consider the Impact Factor
◦ Other discipline interested in result, not the cs
contributions

Authorship can get messy
◦ Different communities have different expectations
 Ecology and Medicine: long list of authors
 Legal studies: single author

Citation systems may not consider non-cs disciplines
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Impact on future jobs?
◦ Interdisciplinary research is becoming more widely
accepted, BUT CS departments still want CS background
 Need to be able to teach CS courses and do CS research
 Need to have published in CS venues
◦ Hard to please multiple communities
 Each may assume your real contributions are in the other area
 Researchers outside of CS may not feel qualified to evaluate
the CS research contributions, and vice versa
◦ Usually, decision to be hired by a department is made by
ALL the faculty, not just those in your research area
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Realize there is a risk in pursuing
interdisciplinary research
Be aware of pitfalls and plan accordingly!
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Have a strategy to build your research portfolio
◦ Put all your eggs in one basket
 esp. if the interdisciplinary area is well-respected by the cs
community
(e.g., bioinformatics)
 Both communities will still need to appreciate your contributions
◦ Hedge your bets
 Present your work to each community
Medical community
 Medical safety research
Software engineering community
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Carefully pick your cs advisor
◦ Want an advisor who is aware of these concerns and
can help you deal with them
◦ Look at their publications and where their students
publish and take jobs
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Discuss and decide authorship policy
◦ Revisit the policy frequently
◦ Decide on authorship for each paper before writing the
paper
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Make sure there is a community that will praise and
acknowledge your cs research contributions
Pick interesting, difficult, and enduring problems that
will have an impact
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