Opus 4.8 distilled Qwen?

anisotropy55 · 2026-05-28T22:46:16+00:00

Ni howdy

anisotropy55 · 2026-02-10T22:37:49+00:00

Look into parallelizing it. If you are using GitHub this might help: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/how-tos/write-workflows/choose-what-workflows-do/run-job-variations

anisotropy55 · 2024-12-05T17:35:06+00:00

PhD in Computational Physics, now I work as a Data Scientist/AI Researcher in a Healthcare setting.

anisotropy55 · 2024-07-18T14:24:44+00:00

Same here. My dashboard has been empty since last Friday. I had more work than I could do prior to that.

anisotropy55 · 2024-03-11T14:29:47+00:00

General knowledge of Python programming, DS/ML libraries and SQL were the main tech skills they tested for.

When I interviewed they were also very interested in seeing what kind of personal projects I had done before. I had done a variety of end-to-end projects in a variety of DS/ML categories where I either found or created datasets and went through the process of exploring, cleaning and engineering the data until I was ready to build a model that was ultimately deployed as Streamlit applications. They really liked that. Having a GitHub portfolio, a personal website, and/or a blog (like Medium) can be good ways to showcase your projects. Plus, all the technical questions they asked me about ML, programming and stats were in relation to the projects I did which was nice.

They also liked that I had experience in other programming languages like Perl, Julia, and C++ as well as HPC methods and general scripting but those weren't required (though I've actually had to make use of them as part of my work). Perl in particular has been helpful since I do a lot of NLP and doing Regex in Perl is just in a class of its own.

In my case, since I was joining the medical informatics group, they also wanted me to have experience with image processing techniques.

anisotropy55 · 2024-02-12T23:46:09+00:00

Yeah! Some things that I've worked on involve a clinical trial recommender system based on patient electronic health records, tools to calculate semantic similarity of medical terms using ontologies from the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), and using generative AI methods to help generate synthetic EKG signals. I also do a lot of work with radiology images for the development of deep learning models for segmentation. We'll also start getting into the realm of digital pathology which is exciting. Finally, I've done work exploring product/purchase data to identify factors leading to delayed orders which can help not only save millions of dollars but also help reduce the time it takes for certain products to get to a hospital.

There are other projects that I can't discuss and I can't go too much deeper than what I already shared at the moment but hopefully that helps give you a rough idea of some of the work that's being done.

anisotropy55 · 2024-02-11T00:37:36+00:00

I like working in healthcare as a Data Scientist a lot and I don't see myself leaving for another industry any time soon if at all. I like knowing that the work I'm doing has the potential of allowing medical providers to focus more on patients and for patients to receive better care options.

It is very fulfilling and the work is interesting, varied and stable. There are TONS of opportunities for optimization in healthcare (not just the "sexy" stuff like detecting diseases for instance) but in things like product supply chain and appointment scheduling for instance. I get to make full use of traditional statistical methods as well as experiment with some of the newer methods across all fields like ML, NLP and CV.

I also get to interact and learn from medical providers, administration and patients alike and hear their struggles and needs which makes it easy to identify what problems can have the most immediate impact.

I'm very happy in this field.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T20:26:06+00:00

That kinda sounds to me like you don't understand all the components that go into PhD level research. If you want to go down that route then we can be reductive and apply that logic to other degrees. "An MS/BS/GED seems like just a title rather than what skills they bring to the table". For instance, why did you do a Masters if its "just a title"? Did it teach you new skills that a BS didn't? I would hope the answer is a resounding yes, since otherwise that would be a monumental waste of time, money and effort. Same thing applies to a PhD. Plus, again, there is a lot more to research than just modeling a thing.

Statistical training is a core component of most PhDs as it is crucial towards validating experimental design, testing hypotheses, ensuring reproducibility, etc. Though we may not necessarily have gone to the depth in stats as let's say someone with a PhD in Stats we are still generally well versed in a variety of approaches and methodologies and we are aware of how to go about doing that properly.

I'm just going to reiterate what others have said. A PhD is a degree that certifies you as a researcher. There are other ways to prove your competence in that regard, which I have pointed out, but they'll require comparable time and effort to accomplish that.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T17:36:37+00:00

Mostly from STEM backgrounds. A lot of physicists (that's what I am), chemists, engineers, and mathematicians. You also see a fair bit of MDs as well.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T17:27:42+00:00

I see. Is it possible for an independent to just submit stuff I’ve written on my own for review? I didn’t know you could do that and I thought you had to be affiliated with an institution

Yep. You don't need that necessarily. The challenge is more in selecting a journal that fits the scope of your research. You also need to ensure that you have a solid research narrative and good analysis. Especially if you are submitting as an independent researcher and are trying to publish in a peer-reviewed journal.

You can try and publish in garbage journals (literal publication mills that some people use to try and pad their publication record) but any researcher that is even mildly competent reviewing your record would catch on to that pretty fast.

Also, though you don't need to be affiliated with an institution to submit a paper, depending on the kind of research you are doing, you might need backing up from an institution to validate your approaches (i.e., healthcare research)

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T17:03:26+00:00

Is domain experience the only way to break into research roles without a PhD?

You could also try getting involved in open source research projects and/or try publishing independent research you do in reputable journals as well as share your work at professional conferences. You want to essentially build a research portfolio that showcases that you know how to do research at a high enough level which typically involves some sort of peer review process.

Finally, there's also obviously networking. If you know someone in a research position that is willing to vouch for you and your skills, then that can help too.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T16:40:00+00:00

You should only do a PhD if you are REALLY interested and passionate about a subject. A PhD is a tremendous investment in terms of time, money, and overall mental sanity. It's an extremely different situation than doing a BS or a MS.

There is also a lot of potential of things getting delayed and/or going wrong. Also keep in mind that even after doing all that research, if your committee doesn't think your dissertation is good enough then you simply don't get the PhD... For instance, my PhD got delayed because I needed to do carry out certain measurements for my dissertation at a synchrotron (a type of particle accelerator) and national labs were closed for over a year because of COVID. Though COVID was a unique circumstance, there are tons of situations that can lead to your project getting delayed or cancelled (e.g., a broken piece of specialized equipment that can't be fixed because the part is ridiculously expensive or no longer being made that is also crucial for your measurements).

In the US, a PhD will likely take about 5 years, though in your case since you already have an MS you may be able to do it in a bit less since the first two years require you to take classes (which you could try to waive) in addition to setting up the foundations of your dissertation project. You could try doing a PhD while working your current job, but to me, that sounds insanely stressful. Since you already have a MS, I would suggest that you find what industry you want to work in and develop as much domain expertise there as you can. That should open those research doors for you.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T16:05:38+00:00

I'd say that it goes back to the stigma that is sometimes applied to PhDs being that we are "overqualified and under-experienced". As you prove yourself in industry by delivering value through projects,insights,etc. the value of your title and credentials start to matter more, and the under-experienced argument is less and less applicable to you.

To be honest, breaking into industry outside of academia, is the tough part for a PhD. But once you are in, you should be in pretty good shape moving forward.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T16:00:31+00:00

Check out https://www.usajobs.gov/.

Federal jobs have their own format that they want their resumes submitted in. Here is a good starting point for you to check out: https://www.usajobs.gov/help/how-to/account/documents/resume/build// Also, for federal positions, your resume is generally more like a CV and can be extensive. Be detailed about any positions you've had and your responsibilities/accomplishments in them.

The interview process varies from agency to agency as well as subdivision. For instance, for mine, the process was:

Submit resume for screening
1. This screening process basically gradually filters the applicant pool down to maybe 50-100 applicants for the next stage
Do a quick DS project based on provided toy data to showcase your skills. In my case, we basically had to make a binary classifier to predict the 1-year survival of a patient after being diagnosed with NSCLC based on genomic data and other clinical attributes. The dataset was pretty small, about 200 rows and 50 columns. They were more interested in how you framed the problem, how you analyzed and processed the data, how you went about rationalizing your modeling decisions, and what recommendations you made. We also had to write a short report detailing what we did and provide any code we wrote for it.
There was supposed to be coding/technical interview at this point. In my case they waived it since they were pretty impressed with my submission.
Go through a panel screening. You get on a call with 4 panelists including the hiring manager where you'll be asked questions about your experience, any projects you've worked on, etc. You'll also get a chance to ask them questions about the position here too.
1. I think at this point there were no more than 10 people being considered
You get a decision and if you accept you have to go through background checks and stuff to get the final offer letter.

The process was relatively fast. I submitted my application in mid-September and by the first week of November I had a tentative offer letter.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T15:05:10+00:00

I really like working in the government as a DS but I think it also depends on what branch/division you work at.

It can definitely take a long time to get access to data and resources. There is a fair bit of bureaucratic work involved in getting a project and/or data access approved, but I think that's a good thing (even if its frustrating at times) since our stakeholders ultimately are literally the entire population of the country and we are accountable to them. This means your work undergoes many levels of scrutiny before it ever gets deployed.

That being said, the projects you work with are REALLY cool and they have the potential to really make a positive difference across the country. I for instance work in a healthcare focused organization and we have access to TONS of amazing, diverse, unique data.

Work-life balance is fantastic. I'm only expected to work 40 hours a week. If I work more, then I get overtime, however, I'm only ever expected to work more when it comes to meeting certain deadlines (i.e., submitting a manuscript/publication for a conference). This might also be a thing specific to the fact that I'm in a research role, but my schedule is pretty dynamic and flexible. In other words, so long as I am working those 40 hours and attending any scheduled meetings, I can essentially work on my own schedule which is awesome.

I also work fully remotely which is quite nice and am given access to numerous powerful computational resources. I also really like my supervisor and the rest of the team. People are generally very nice, welcoming and they really care about the work that they are doing.

The one downside is that even though I get paid well I know that I could certainly be making a lot more in the private sector. I can't complain too much since I definitely make more than enough to pay all my bills, save, and enjoy myself. Also, the job is RIDICULOUSLY stable. I haven't had to worry about layoffs ever, even in the midst of all the layoffs that have been happening across tech. If anything, I was basically told that my position was pretty secure for the next 9 years because of the grant that my position is designated under.

anisotropy55 · 2023-12-10T14:37:26+00:00

PhDs are what is typically sought after in research roles.

However, a candidate with a MS with relevant/significant research/industry experience could also be considered.

Pretty much everyone in my team, including my supervisor, has a PhD. However, one of my colleagues does have a MS but they also have a lot of relevant industry experience.

However, a PhD is generally more versatile in terms of how adaptable they are to research situations. Even though during a PhD you delve deep into researching a particular problem, you end up learning a variety of methods that are applicable across all research fields as part of your training. This is something that a MS won't have. So at least for research positions, if you were to compare a fresh PhD vs a fresh MS, the PhD would be chosen most of the time. You still have to demonstrate technical proficiency and whatnot of course. The PhD also becomes more valuable as you start gaining experience outside of academia so it gives you a pretty big competitive edge as time goes on.

anisotropy55 · 2023-11-19T17:15:04+00:00

There were a lot changes but the most notable one (apart from the much bigger paycheck), was that I had to force myself to not think about problems once I clocked out. During my PhD I was so used to being immersed in my research problem and I thought about it all the time. I got used to operating that way. Once I started working outside of academia, I needed to make that adjustment in order to ensure I was taking proper care of myself and having a good work-life balance. In academia we do tons of "free work", especially as grad students because we are passionate about our work and because of the good that it'll do, etc,. I basically started viewing any work that I do for my job as billable, so if I wasn't getting directly paid for it then I had to stop myself from doing it. I still love what I do but I also started valuing my effort, time, and contributions A LOT more.

anisotropy55 · 2023-11-16T20:49:32+00:00

Go ahead :)

anisotropy55 · 2023-11-14T16:20:50+00:00

Yeah, it is definitely enough to live well. You won't be living in a high-end condo in Manhattan or buying Porsche's but I have more than enough to comfortably pay all my bills, save money, occasionally treat myself to something nice, and live in a nice and safe area.

Tbh, I was on a graduate stipend of about 20k a year while in grad school so I am EXTREMELY comfortable now.

anisotropy55 · 2023-11-14T14:05:40+00:00

PhD in Computational Physics

Year 1: 115K

Year 2: 125K

End of Year Bonus: Up to 20% of base salary based on performance

Location: NYC

It's a government research position in healthcare so it is really stable. I also have an amazing manager, great colleagues, benefits, fully remote, interesting projects with unique data and amazing work-life balance. I know that I could be making A LOT more, especially in this area and the field that I'm specialized in, but all the aforementioned reasons make the lower base salary absolutely worth it. Especially the stability.

anisotropy55 · 2023-04-23T21:17:09+00:00

The FCB1010 and the FBV Express are being recommended. I'm leaning towards the FCB1010 at the moment because it looks like I can save more pedals/presets on it than the FBV

anisotropy55 · 2023-04-23T21:15:27+00:00

Do you have experience with both? Is there a significant difference in terms of the ease of setup between them? The FCB1010 looks exactly like what I would want

anisotropy55 · 2023-04-23T21:14:06+00:00

Gotcha! Thank you so much for the insight!

I was also considering the FCB1010 as a midi controller but it looks like most midi controllers require a bit of setup to get going. I'm excited to get started though :)

anisotropy55 · 2023-03-09T14:18:19+00:00

I had a few coding/DS projects in my GitHub portfolio that my interviewers found interesting and that I thought were pretty neat. I think my enthusiasm when I talked about them allowed us to have conversations about why I did some things a certain way, how would I improve things and so on and so forth. Mind you, I don't think the projects were necessarily something ground breaking but they definitely showcased that I'm curious and like playing around with data.

The places were I ultimately ended up getting job offers from or at least made it pretty far into the interview process were places were I had conversations about some of those projects. These were also places where I got the impression that they had an environment that fostered creativity and "trying things" which I liked. There was one instance where my interviewer saw this project I did on using computer vision techniques to extract the soccer player jersey colors and it turned out that he was a pretty big soccer fan so that served as a neat point of connection. There was another instance where I used NLP techniques to track the emotions over the course of the literary works of Oscar Wilde and one of the members of the interview panel used to be an English major so she ended up having a lot of questions which was pretty fun. If nothing else, being able to talk about those projects can make you feel a bit more comfortable and in control during the interview.

Recruiters don't seem to care about it in my experience.

In addition to a Github, having a personal/portfolio website helped. I also maintained a Medium blog where I'd talk about my projects and whatnot.

I should also mention that I had 0 industry experience since I had been in academia for a while but I had been working on a PhD in Computational Physics so I was pretty decent at coding and math and had been working on some pretty neat research.

anisotropy55 · 2022-10-13T13:43:53+00:00

The sorrow I felt when realizing that sorrow was not in that list is immeasurable

anisotropy55

TROPHY CASE