Confessions of a researchaholic

April 9, 2023

The potential of being on both SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia technical papers PC in the same year

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:40 am
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I have already served on the SIGGRAPH 2023 technical papers program committee and just got asked to do that for SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 as well.
I have not yet decided (at this moment of writing) whether to turn down the latter or do both at the same year, but either will be the first time in my career, and I will feel bad about potentially disappointing the paper chairs or spending another month’s worth of evenings of reviewing papers.

April 6, 2023

Benefits of reviewing papers

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 2:44 pm
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Reviewing papers can take a lot of time, but also has the following benefits:

It is a good way to build reputation and relationship with the research community, especially if you can do a good job and write a good review on time and participate in the discussion phase to help reach the final decision if that is part of the review process.
If you submit to a venue, it is only fair to review for that venue, especially if you have complained that your submissions have not received good/fair reviews due to lack of expertise or efforts from the reviewers.

It is a good way to learn about the latest research in the field, especially if you are assigned to review papers outside your main research areas.
Writing a good review (see above) requires deep enough understanding of the paper beyond the usually more cursory catching up of published papers.

It is a good way to learn how to get your own submissions accepted in the future by looking at how decisions are made and what the reviewers are looking for.

Accept only reviews that you think you have the time and expertise to do a decent job, and do not feel bad about declining reviews otherwise, preferably within a few days of receiving the request with suggestions for alternative reviewers so that the organizers can find replacements in time.
Other things being equal, prioritize review requests from higher-quality venues for which your reviews would tend to make a relatively bigger impact.

March 29, 2023

ACM authorship policy

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 2:41 pm
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So ACM is updating their authorship policy in response to generative AI tools.
You can find more about that in this survey.

I do wonder, though, what if a paper is written entirely by AI without any humans involved?

March 24, 2023

SIGGRAPH 2023 paper committee meeting

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 4:45 pm
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Some random thoughts after just finished the SIGGRAPH 2023 paper committee meetings:

The shorter papers in the conference track submissions took me less time to read, but not as much as the page numbers would suggest; many papers were either harder to read due to condensed texts or would require extra time to go over the supplementary materials.

The virtual meetings (started during the covid pandemic) are more efficient in terms of travels and moving people in and out of the conflict and break-out rooms, while the physical meetings are more fun (e.g., the snacks and food) and sociable (reading people’s facial expressions and body languages while discussing papers, and chatting about research and life in general).

After serving on the SIGGRAPH/SIGGRAPH-Asia PC a few times, I felt that it is more suitable for either beginning folks who have a lot of energy (e.g., can read 3 papers in one night without getting tired) or retired folks who have a lot of time (e.g., have time to read 3 papers in one afternoon without many work/family duties) than folks in the middle (like me) who are not as energic as they used to be and yet have more work/family commitments.

Both of my managers also happened to be on the committee, so they will understand why I haven’t spent as much time on products as I am supposed to.

March 22, 2023

Monotile sampling

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:01 am
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As (half) joked in this FB comment today, I can totally imagine someone (like Victor Ostromoukhov or Abdalla G. M. Ahmed) building a sample set upon this recently discovered aperiodic monotile for an upcoming SIGGRAPH paper.
(I know how to do that already, and thus not planning to do it myself.)

February 12, 2023

A quickly way to identify representative works of someone

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 11:50 am
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I was trying to identify representative works of a friend, so I just went to his FB profile to see what he has bragged about recently.
🙂

January 23, 2023

Asian competitive advantage for SIGGRAPH

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:30 am
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I liked to joke that Asian folks have a competitive advantage for SIGGRAPH since its deadline is usually before the lunar new year, but this year proves a rare exception.

Neither matters that much to me anymore, though.
🙂

January 3, 2023

2050 is as close as 1996

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 6:28 pm
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When I started my PhD study around 1996 I felt that I have some basic intuition about the different fields of computer science. Nobody understands everything, but at least I felt that if I want I can dive into any particular subject when the need arises.

Now, I am overwhelmed by what is happening inside graphics and HCI, my main focus, not to mention other fields, in particular ML and vision.

With this (hyper?) exponential rate of knowledge growth, I cannot even imagine what would happen in 2050. (I have nightmares about this several times already.)
I doubt any individual human brain can handle these without some biological or computational assistance.

Below is ChatGPT’s response to the above:

It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed by the rapid pace of knowledge growth in the field of computer science. It can be difficult to keep up with all the developments and advances, especially in specific areas like graphics, HCI, ML, and vision.

One way to deal with this is to focus on staying up-to-date in your own area of expertise, while also being aware of developments in other related fields. It may not be possible or necessary to be an expert in everything, but having a broad understanding of what’s happening in the field can be valuable.

Another approach is to make use of tools and resources that can help you stay informed and keep track of new developments. This might include subscribing to relevant newsletters, following key researchers and organizations on social media, and using search engines and databases to find the latest research and information.

Finally, it’s important to remember that it’s okay to not know everything. No one person can possibly keep up with everything that’s happening in the field, and it’s important to recognize and accept the limits of your own knowledge. Instead of trying to know everything, focus on staying curious and continuing to learn and grow as a professional.

December 25, 2022

Frame-by-frame handdrawn FX

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 7:32 pm
Tags: ,

I belatedly completed this course on hand-drawn secondary dynamic effects, such as smoke, fire, and fluid.
The exercises were quite time-consuming, which I finally found the time to work on during my sabbatical + holiday break.
While automation would certainly be beneficial, it remains an open research question on how to autocomplete the varied effects that are covered in the course.

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