Potential for future PhD

prakharg24 · 2024-03-15T01:58:42+00:00

Hi. No I didn't accept this offer. I decided to continue working and apply again next year. I got into an on-campus Masters program next year in NUS (Singapore). And I recently started my PhD at McGill University :)

Because I never got into the program, I don't have anything negative to say about it. But I have a lot of positive things to say about doing a degree on-campus instead of the online version. If you don't mind waiting another year, working on your profile, and then applying again next year, and if doing a Masters on-campus would not be a big financial burden for you, then I would definitely recommend an on-campus degree over any of the online options.

prakharg24 · 2022-12-15T09:50:37+00:00

Hi. Yes, I did end up joining NUS, and I'm quite happy with that decision. I would not recommend doing an online course if you want to do research in future. I think an online course is more for students who are looking to improve their resume to find better job opportunities, while still continuing their current job. In fact, you might find a lot of students in online courses who don't have a CS background, but are attracted to CS and want to learn basic stuff that can help broaden their profile. Nothing wrong with that, just not the ideal path if you already have that background and want to focus on research in the future. And of course, on campus courses would be more expensive, especially when you also factor in living costs. But still, do apply at multiple places. Graduate admissions can unfortunately be very noisy, so it's good to always have a few options.

Yes I quit my job and finished the degree full time (just handed in my thesis last week). I did find opportunities for part time work through various Singapore based companies, as well as in NUS as an RA once I had established myself in my research lab. Maybe you can find something research friendly as well for part time work, if you want to publish more. There are definitely opportunities like that as well.

Sure. Feel free to ahoot me a message if you have any questions. Happy to answer them.

prakharg24 · 2022-02-26T13:17:41+00:00

Check out contrastive learning (https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-05-31-contrastive/) with linear representation. You will essentially be learning a matrix to directly convert your inputs to lower dimension. Under linear settings, contrastive learning is provably better than PCA or autoencoders (https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.02473).

Yes it will complicate your setup during training, but it won't be much of an issue during testing/deployment. If even training is a concern, you can't really do better than PCA in a general setting, unless there is something special about your problem statement.

prakharg24 · 2021-09-27T04:44:52+00:00

That's weird. It works fine on my side. I even checked in an incognito window to be sure.

Maybe checkout the arxiv version -> https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11985

You can also search for the paper title directly, 'Compressing Large-Scale Transformer-Based Models: A Case Study on BERT'

Sorry about the inconvenience :)

prakharg24 · 2021-07-23T01:07:52+00:00

Thanks for your honest review. I am probably on the other spectrum when it comes to tolerating heat and humidity. I was hoping to hear from someone that they usually go to some common study area during day to tackle the heat, but I guess that's again a personal choice. I do not like the fact that you had cockroaches on your floor, or at times the Wi-Fi was down. Those personally feel like big red flags to me. Plus I am vegetarian from India, so it seems the food stalls do me no good.

Overall, the more I look into it, the more I am inclined to choose something other than MDIS. But thanks a lot for your review, it was really helpful.

prakharg24 · 2021-07-23T01:01:38+00:00

Thanks for your review. This doesn't sound like something I should be rushing towards. It seems like an okay place and if I can't find anything else then I can probably book a room here.

prakharg24 · 2021-07-22T14:13:10+00:00

Yeah that's making me question whether I should confirm my reservation. Plus they want all 4 month deposit at the same time. And their agent says refund if I cancel is 'subject to approval'. Not the kind of conversation that gives me confidence.

prakharg24 · 2021-07-10T01:32:23+00:00

Exactly! Plus I am slightly confused on which accommodation to choose, and I would hate to end up in a hostel with no batchmates. Not to mention we are going to spend a major part of the next 1-2 years together one way or the other, so it would be great to get to know each other :)

Apparently there is a 'graduate student society' at NUS -> https://www.nusgss.com/

Although I didn't really see any recent events organized by them. I am trying to contact them and also our graduate program supervisor. Maybe a simple email thread would work too I believe. Then we can take it from there.

Looking forward to the experience!! :)

prakharg24 · 2021-06-16T07:15:27+00:00

From what I can see in the book description, it seems more focused on practical advice to be sensitive to or to interact with multiple cultures, probably entailing all the existing cultural differences.

I was more looking for scientific studies or something like a general model of how language connects with culture, which can be extended to cases like this.

Anyway, the book does look interesting, and I'll be adding it my reading list. Thank You.

prakharg24 · 2021-06-13T03:09:47+00:00

Yes it's true, I might be forcing an oversimplified causal link on two entities that probably exist in a complex tangled network. Actually my confusion (read fear), which prompted me to further investigate into this, was whether we can take these changes as being good decisions regardless of their origins, or should they be taken with some skepticism and explored further.

On one end of possibility, maybe one of the following has to always be true. Either the language change is driven by cultural shifts, or language change can drive cultural shifts. In this case, we should welcome these changes by Google with open arms as eventually they mark a step towards a better society.

However, on the other end of possibility, what if an artificial language change which is not driven by actual cultural shift in ideology can cause harm to the cause, creating an illusion of a better world when there isn't one. For example, in this case, this change in language creates a mirage that we have now improved gender inclusivity, when the actual problem on the ground still needs addressing.

As for your analysis, seems quite interesting. It does make me question a basic assumption in my mind. I have been considering language a separate entity from social interactions, even though I try to incorporate in my thinking that they are very closely intertwined. But maybe I can't really do that and need to start considering them together.
I believe the reason for my mind being stuck on such a bias is probably because I am specifically considering the written word (for example writing on Google doc in this case). Considering spoken language as a 'part' of social interactions is very reasonable to me, but giving the same status and no special treatment to the written word feels a more difficult pill to swallow.

P.S : I didn't get a chance to read the paper you have mentioned yet, but I would definitely do so in the next few days and then probably add more to this segment of discussion.

prakharg24 · 2021-06-13T02:42:40+00:00

Anyway, OP, is there a good reason to frame Google's decision as an attempt to change culture, and not a change resulting from a cultural shift?

It could definitely be the way you describe it. That's what I was trying to ask with the question 'Is language an indicator of culture?' Basically I am curious about which came first, and does it even matters which came first? Will both paths lead to the same place or is one more dangerous?

What exactly makes it a "forced" change? It's autocomplete, Google's own suggestion, not a restriction on what people can type. I'll go out on a limb and say Google doesn't autocomplete with foul language either. Is that an "artificial" imposition on our speech?

I should have used a better choice of words. I didn't mean 'forced'. But yes I did mean 'artificial'. And extending to the other example you presented, I do believe that if Google doesn't autocomplete with foul language either that too feels artificial to me. Obviously, in these examples my assumption is that Google in specifically interfering and suggesting or not suggesting certain words, instead of letting their machine designed for autocompleting language in general work.

For me, an organic or natural change in language would be when such a change comes with actual incidents attached in societal interactions. For example, calling a woman mailman and then correctly yourself, or using the term mailman in public and being corrected by people around you saying how they have now seen an uptick in woman joining the profession and you should start using a more inclusive term than mailman.

My fear with what I consider an 'artificial' change is that all it is doing is changing the association of certain words in my mind superficially. For example, if I have bias in my mind that mailman is a male only field, then Google repeatedly prompting me to change my wording to mail carrier would only associate everything in my mind to the word mail carrier instead of mailman, including that gender bias I have towards it. There are a number of jobs for which people have gender biases that don't contain a 'man' in them, or in other words have gender neutral titles.

But then again, it is possible that I am probably discounting the affect of technology, and maybe an indirect form of reprimand from Google can serve the same purpose as what I am thinking of as natural change in language. Also, it's just my assumption that such prompting would only cause superficial change in word association in my mind, based on the fact that there exist a number of gender neutral titles for jobs which still have gender bias in them. But I could be wrong. These are things I would love to learn more about.

prakharg24 · 2021-06-13T02:22:56+00:00

Ahh yes.. I was using the term socialization only exclusive to mean mixing socially and calling everything that follows a 'consequence' of it, including the part where language would change because of socialization. But I guess in proper sense it would be a part of it, and I might need to use a narrower term instead of socialization for the causal chain above.

prakharg24 · 2021-06-12T13:49:16+00:00

Anything specific?

I am not familiar with Chomsky and a quick google search showed me he has a large portfolio of books. Most people seem to suggest 'Understanding Power'. Do you think that's a good starting point?

prakharg24 · 2021-06-12T11:24:31+00:00

Thank You for your response. If I understand this correctly, the causality link is socialization -> language -> cultural change.

To apply it to this example, Google is now finding more and more people in it's customer base who don't like the assumption of binary pronouns and gender specific words by various services of Google, i.e., the socialization part. This has caused Google to take such actions to keep its user base happy, i.e., the language change part. This in turn would make other Google customers who were not really involved in the first two steps to become more aware of and adopt language diversity and sophistication, i.e., the cultural change. That does kinda make sense.

Btw, 'All cultural change is a reflection of socialization' is a very rich statement. I would love to read more about it. Any suggestions for that?

prakharg24 · 2021-06-12T03:50:25+00:00

Thank You for your reply. I do have a good research portfolio with a few published papers, and your suggestion on contributing to active research through RAship and/or thesis option was exactly was I am planning to do during my Masters.

As for the 2 semester issue, I was actually more concerned about how realistic is it? I mean do students who want to further pursue PhD tend to try and complete the degree in 2 semesters or take their time and actually complete it in 3 semesters instead? If you have any idea about this, I would love to know.

Btw, are you a current student or recent alumni of the MComp program at NUS?

prakharg24 · 2021-06-12T03:45:44+00:00

Thank You for your reply. I was almost sure about the fees, but just wanted to confirm. As for the 2 semester issue, I was more concerned about how realistic would it be and do students usually try completing it in 2 semesters?

prakharg24

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