My Experience on Research
Collaboration with China
Songwu Lu
UCLA Computer Science
Outline
• My experiences
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DragonStar program
CSC funded Ph.D. students
MSRA
UCLA-PKU Joint Research Institute
New US-style Research Center: PKU CECA
Misc.
• Some observations
– Misperceptions on Research in China
– University vs Industry
– Strategy: Short term, Long term, Best of both?
DragonStar Program
• First experience at USTC in 2005
• 200+ graduate students from various regions of China
• Good: Excellent program to introduce US style graduate course
education to China
• Headache: too much work; not enough time to touch base on
research
• Suggestion for next-step:
– Establish research summer camp
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A group of US researchers
PhD students who have worked on research topics
One-one research interaction on topics students work on for 3~4 weeks
Joint effort by NSF and NSFC?
CSC Funded PhD Students
• Worked with 5 Ph.D. students + 2 young faculty
members from three top Chinese Universities for
one year each
• Good: 3 worked out well
• Bad: 4 did not work out as expected
• Lessons:
– Helper not lead: Team up with our senior PhD
students
– 1 year is not enough
– Students work out better
– Say NO to some Chinese professors on student rec
MSRA
• 1-year+ sabbatical during 2007~2008
• Best experiences so far
– 3+2 top conference papers over time
• Tips:
– Work best with those with solid background but a
little hazy on directions & research styles
• Keep track of top conferences, work
– US-styled research environment in China
– Natural hierarchy with one or two junior talents
– Do NOT bring your own students with you
• Easy to go back to old areas
UCLA-PKU JRI
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Joint research institute started in 2009
Sent students to PKU for summer interns
Establish ties with PKU professors
1~2 visits to each campus
• Good: leverage local infrastructure &
undergraduate resource at PKU, long-term driven
• Hazy: span many areas, CS is only a small part
Center for Energy-efficient Computing and
Applications (CECA) at PKU
• US-styled research center at PKU, headed by Prof. Jason
Cong at UCLA
• Strong support from PKU leadership
• Funding from PKU and local companies
• 15 faculty slots (tenure-track system)
• Global recruitment mainly from US-educated fresh
PhDs
• Advise PhD students from the start
• PKU student interns in the summer
• US tenure evaluation
• 4 adjunct faculty members so far from US schools as
mentors
• Research Focus: Green computing
• More info: http://ceca.pku.edu.cn
Other Activities
• Regular interactions with people @ Tsinghua
– field trials of green 3G & 802.11n this summer
– Guest lecture in courses
• Organizing conferences
• Local companies in China
– Industry research project, consulting, …
Strategy for Short Term
Best short-term practice
• Can see immediate results
• Research centers/labs by US/European
companies
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100+ of them in Beijing and Shanghai
Leaders are mostly US educated PhDs
Similar research culture and technical language
Very focused, hard-working and talented local PhDs
• Best local PhDs tend to go to industry rather than stay in
academia
Strategy for Long Term
Best long-term: Chinese University
• Research centers start to show signs of problems
– US/European faculty visitors
– Student interns (best talent kept in schools now)
– University research quality improving
• Unique features of Chinese university research
– Half research, half engineering
• More deployment, field trial opportunities, more accessible to
operation traces
– Rich and flexible funding support
– Top schools are trying hard to improve their ranking in the world
stage
• Be patient with multi-dimensional uncertainty factors
Best of Both?
• New US-styled research centers within
Chinese university systems
– Similar to the 4 “Special Economic Zones” in China
established 30+ years ago
– Very flexible policies and US-style
management/evaluation systems
– Examples in CS: Andrew Yao’s center @ Tsinghua,
CECA @PKU
Misperceptions
• US & china are complementary in research
– “Lots” of (cheap) students in china: not any more
– Lots of equipment funding: facility management is
@early stage
– Infinite deployment/trial possibilities: policy/political
issues
• Shortcuts
– Experimental versus theoretical research
– Top journals versus conferences
– IP cores owned by China: Industry standards, patents
etc.
– Priorities: national prize, inner circles, …
Industry vs Academia?
• Interesting contrasts:
– Best local PhD graduates go to industry
– US trained PhDs join Chinese universities
• Chinese companies are another source for
collaboration
– Local companies set up research centers in US
– More funding for US schools
– Some of the best talents
– More aggressive work style
Misperceptions
• Results
– “Easy” & “productive” collaboration on the surface
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Very welcomed by local universities
Speak the same terms/buzzwords, but mean different things
Local people love the hot topics in US we tell them
Much nicer local receptions each time
Different national and regional programs to support
overseas researchers visiting China
• Ease of local funding support
– You help on the proposal, they get the funding and credit, you get
the various honorary positions/titles offered by various programs
in universities
Things we can do
• Send your own PhD students to Chinese
universities after graduation
– The best group to work with in the future
• Identify complementary interest/expertise
• Be more patient
– When working with Chinese universities
– Finding the right person is challenging
• Senior versus junior people
• People with resources are not hands on any more
– Taking time to build “personal” relations on top of
technical collaboration