Thank you for your interest in working with me! I've realized that due to the high volume of email, there is very little chance I will be able to respond to every email inquiry, sorry! Here's a general FAQ. Hopefully this is helpful; I apologize in advance if I'm not able to get back to you.
I contacted you before but didn’t hear back. Can I send a reminder?
Yes, it is possible I missed the email. Please send a reminder if I didn’t get back to you after two weeks. If I still didn’t reply, it most likely means I think your inquiry is already covered in this FAQ so please try to avoid repeated pings :)
What’s the best way to learn whether we’d be a good fit w.r.t working styles?
My students should be able to give fair judgement on the pros and cons with me as an advisor! But please be mindful and respect their time if you decided to contact them, and also be prepared that they may not have the time to reply.
Are you recruiting PhD students?
Yes, I will be recruiting students in the 2024 cycle. Please apply to the CMU PhD program.
I see you are primarily in HCII, and I plan to apply to another PhD program (e.g. LTI, MLD, CSD, etc.). Can I still work with you?
Yes, you can! Here any faculty member in the School of CS can advise/work with any SCS students regardless of their departments (CSD, HCII, LTI, MLD, etc.) Each department does their own PhD reviews, so please feel free to apply to the department(s) you find most relevant.
Can we set up a time to chat (e.g. about the alignment of our research)?
CMU is committee based, and there’s very little we can do and/or chat about before your full package is reviewed. As such, it’s probably more fruitful to discuss after you have submitted your applications & the committee has finished their initial reviews. Apologies in advance that I may not respond to emails asking.
I am a undergraduate / Master students at CMU. Can I work with you?
Depending on what my students are doing, I may or may not be looking for undergraduate / Master students. Please feef free to send me an email with (1) your CV and (2) what you are interested in working on. Also, at this stage in your study, it’s usually more fruitful for you to join a well-scoped, existing research project than trying to initiate one. But if you really want to start something new, please also send me a 1-2 paragraph of what you might want to do. If we are indeed looking, I will get back to you! However, please be prepared to not hear back from me — it’s likely that we don’t have something fitting at the moment :)
I am a undergraduate / Master students outside of CMU. Can I work with you?
Unfortunately right now I don’t have the bandwidth to take remote interns. I am sorry about that!
Are you recruiting postdocs?
Right now I am not actively recruiting postdocs, mostly because I don’t have a funded project proposal to budget the position. So, unless you have a postdoc fellowship (which would come in handy regardless of which PI you want to work with so I encourage you to look for opportunities and apply), unfortunately I won’t have the luck to work with you. I am sorry about that!