Monday, July 25, 2011

So are you an application man or an algorithmic man

Have you tried the Microsoft's Kinect?
Regardless your opinion on Microsoft's products, it is hard to argue that the Kinect isn't a good piece of technology. The sensors it boasts are quite good and the algorithms it uses are state of the art human recognition algorithms. (Andrew Blake was working with the Kinect team)

So, if you were part of the Kinect team, would you like to play with the cameras and sensors, or would you like to see your algorithms in action? 

Most of the times, there are 2 sides of a research story, the application and the algorithms you used. Mathematicians and Statisticians work is focused on theory and algorithms. Grad students on Maths or Statistics are sure to develop an extension of an existing algorithms or, in a good case scenario, a new algorithm or theorem. Engineers, however, focus in the application part. Few times you'll see an engineering thesis and find a new algorithm, or a deep mathematical analysis of whats happening in a system (Control Theory people are an exception). You'll find, though, a really good explanation of the hardware and the best way to do an implementation on it.

But what about computer science, and of course Machine Learning?

While some researchers view Machine Learning as a tool, others view it as an end. This primal statement will shape your research in ML. If you view Machine Learning as a tool, you'll probably will want your research to focus in a specific application. Let say computer vision, robotics or bioinformatics. In these applications the algorithms you'll use are already developed and tested by the theory people. You'll find yourself that while your papers may not easily get accepted in conferences like NIPS, ICML or COLT (though they do have application tracks), they might be accepted in things like IROS (for the robotics people) or SIGGRAPH (For Computer Vision). And while your insight of the algorithms might be less than perfect, you'll know a lot of your specific application.

If, however, you see machine learning as an end, and want your graduate thesis to be an extension over an existing work, or an entirely new algorithm - then you'll have to study hard math. You'll have to read dense books, such as convex optimization, learning theory, computational complexity , game theory, etc. Reading this books will give you an insight on how to create a new algorithm and will also allow you to understand how the algorithms are really working. By the end, you'll have an algorithm that might be applied to all kinds of different problems, yet you'll probably will focus in a very shallow problem to confirm your expectations. Remember Nash wasn't even aware his equilibrium could be used in so many applications before they told him.

All of this is advice to new grad students, some tenured professors like Mike Jordan and Alex Smola are behemoths in application and theory, and have accepted papers in both kinds of conferences and journals. And serious Machine Learning Professors have a really good grasp on the applications and theory. But this is something you'll be able to do only after long years as an academic.

So going back to our kinect example, the algorithm people probably created the human detection algorithms - which can be used for a ton of different applications. And the application people were busy implementing those algorithms for the case of the Kinect, its sensors and the architecture of the processors.

Both approaches have their merits and advocates, you just have to be sure it is what you want to do.

In the next post we will discuss how to approach an application path, and after, we will discuss on how to pursue an algorithm path.

Take Care


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2 comments:

  1. I love my Kindle, even with the small screen it is possible to read PDF papers quite comfortably.

    The e-ink screen is great, it is pleasant to eyes. I can highlight or write notes and search them later without reading the whole book or article. It is possible to copy and paste files directly also.

    One tool that I love is Instapaper.

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  2. I actually disagree with your main point. I think as a researcher you may have preferences but the best people as you mention do both. This isn't a comment on their talents, I just think when you are comfortable with both you do better research.

    Experience obtained applying the algorithms lends insight into where the theory needs to be developed further. Experience working with the theory helps in writing better applications. While everyone has their focus if you focus on only one side you run the risk of doing irrelevant research which is unlikely to get cited.

    So get cited and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

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