On Wednesday, November 30, I had the pleasure of speaking with Madison Pickering, a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, advised by Dr. Blase Ur. Their current work is at the intersection of security and machine learning, and predominantly involves transformer-based large language models. Prior to joining UChicago, they were advised by Richard Medford and Christoph Lehmann of UTSouthwestern's Clinical Informatics Center, where they maintain an affiliate POI position. Their work has been published under the American Medical Informatics Association, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, and they are hoping to add USENIX Security to that list shortly.
How did Madison get here?
Madison recalls that they were first introduced to the idea of being a computer scientist by their mom, who had been an immigrant from Iran who learned about computer science (CS) as a means of providing for the family. She made both Madison and Madison’s brother promise not to go down a CS path, and yet, they both ended up following computer science as a career. (“I think we both just had a knack for it.”)
In high school, Madison was initially looking toward being an artist, before realizing in their junior year that they did not actually want to create and sell their artwork as a career. After taking a class in CS, they realized that they actually did enjoy computer science, and wound up pursuing CS further.
What does Madison do in a day?
Beyond just reading research papers, Madison indicates that the experience someone has as a PhD student varies largely on their institution and their faculty advisor. For the first couple of years, PhD students typically take coursework and spend a lot of time reading research papers. However, daily work depends largely on “the style of your advisor.”
Madison especially appreciates the freedom and flexibility that is allowed to PhD students to investigate topics in an unstructured manner. This allows students to “take risks and potentially investigate a lot of time in something that may or may not have any payoff.” However, this lack of structure is definitely a stark contrast to the structure of previous education.
In terms of jobs, Madison finds that choosing a subject to study does not actually mean that you know what your day will look like for the rest of your life; rather, they explain, perhaps as an undergraduate student, a typical day can look like writing code, even though as a PhD student, they often spend much of their day reading research papers.
Madison is especially excited about progress in AI; the modern, non-industry view of artificial intelligence seems to place the blame for errors on the systemic nature of AI being unknowable rather than on the code, but Madison believes that this frequently may not be the case.
What advice does Madison have for young scientists?
Madison’s uncle has been a mentor to them for much of their career. Two pieces of his advice especially stayed with Madison: firstly, that you should “say what it is that you’re interested in.” Madison advises that speaking up can help you reach a position where you may enjoy your work more than before. Secondly, Madison’s uncle advised them to “think of application processes as essentially job interviews.” This means that applications are about showcasing your skill sets, even if the application itself is framed as a question about personality.
Madison also finds it important to be able to differentiate between “constructive feedback” and “non-constructive feedback.” Especially if someone may be a minority, feedback can often turn into “judgements or criticism of them as a person,” rather than something that can help someone improve their work.
Madison suggests that if one is interested in research, it is important to “[figure] out how to make yourself accountable for things.” Especially with the lack of structure in grad school and research, it’s important to be able to prioritize and ensure that everything is getting done on time.
What advice does Madison have for someone who identifies as part of a minority group?
In the past, Madison has been “out and gay” in a conservative southern region, working “in a male-dominated field,” through their undergraduate and master’s studies. They found this to be at times “isolating,” and advise that students connect with others who are experiencing similar things. Madison considers that a larger group can have much more of an impact.
Looking toward change, Madison finds that one of the most important things can be “understanding that there is a problem and demanding change where you can.” Madison recalls moments when simply calling out an offhand comment have led to change and progress.
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