The Tapia Conference, officially known as the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, is an annual event that promotes diversity and inclusion in computing and technology fields.

I joined a cohort of ten students and three faculties to attend this year’s Tapia Conference at San Diego, California. I had an excellent time connecting with CS researchers from all over the country. It was a great experience to directly hear from people in the industry which provided the much needed guidance and support in my ongoing job search. I will share three experiences from the conference that strung a chord in me and will stay with me for a while.

NO = Next Opportunity

The keynote speaker for this year was Phillip McKibbins, Chief Technology Officer of Dallas Mavericks. He gave an engaging, moving, and inspirational speech about life, career, and inbetween! He followed a couple of themes throughout his speech that I want to remember when it comes to public speaking. First, he framed the entire speech as a conversation between him and his grandson who was in the audience. He created this hypothetical scneario where they were sitting at a dinner table and the grandson was asking him all sorts of questions. He went on to answer those questions with certain stories from his life. I loved the conversational back and forth with a pinch of sense of humor that made the entire time quite captivating.

The second theme was also interesting. He started with this formula,

Then he went on to abbreviate each of the words. The two abbreviations that specifically stuck with me was NO = Next Opportunity and FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real. As a soon-to-graduate student getting ready to apply for jobs in an industry that is going through a rough patch, this was a very important lesson for me. Obviously, I would be going through lots of rejections in this period of time. So, I will need anything and everything in my saddle to prepare myself for dealing with those rejections and get ready to face the next big challenge. With this small anectode in Phillip’s life, I think I gained the most powerful tool for this time of my life, and I am ready to take all the NOs I’m gonna get and turn them into Next Opportunities.

The Man with the Two Ph.D.s

I had a wonderful time at the Tapia, mainly because of all the different kinds of people I met over there. I have been to other conferences before, all of them were from my domain, Mixed Reality. I am more in my element in those conferences, I am more accustomed to vibe, I am more familiar with the attendees, either by prior interactions, or their papers! In short, I am more in my comfort zone. I was a bit skeptical for the Tapia because of this very reason. I was afraid I would be like a fish out of water. The funny thing is, the reality was completely the opposite. Because EVERYONE there is out of their comfort zone which made the Tapia conference a different kind of comfort zone! For example, everyone had a chance to talk about their research with a person from a completely new domain, and got the chance to get a fresh perspective that would not be possible in any other conference. For me, it was a wonderful opportunity to brush up my elevator pitch with non-MR people.

The most significant of these interactions were with Gonzalo Ramos from Microsoft Research. He was one of the panelists at the conference and I found out that he also specializes in human-centered AI for sensemaking tasks (just like me!). We had a nice encouraging conversation sitting by the lawn about the various aspects of human-AI collaboration in sensemaking, and what it means for the future data analysis tools.

One inspiring contact I made at Tapia was with Dr. Shahram Babaie. This beautifully insane human being completed his Ph.D. 15 years ago, was a Professor for more than a decade, got interested in quantum computing, found a problem that’s worth solving, and started his second Ph.D. in quantum computing! Talking with him made me realize the true potential of mental will, and how it can make us do things we could never have thought of. Here is me with Shahram.

A Good Ph.D. is a Done Ph.D.

There were lots of panels and talks throughout the conference week. Some of them were about preparing yourself for the next chapter in life with jobs, while some focused on the next big technology. Almost all of them were geared towards undergraduate students. Well, all except one: Professional and Career Mentoring for Researchers in Industry and Government Labs. What I expected was a guideline to navigate the job industry as a Gradaute student ended up working as a therapy session for me! The panelists talked about the challenges of the graduate life, and what they did to address them, to mitigate them, to move past them towards success. It really resonated with me. It made me realize that the struggles we face in our daily life, both in personal and professional arena, is a shared experience. More importantly, I realized that it’s not permanent! With proper planning, stronger willpower, organized lifestyle, I, too, can overcome these challenges and emerge as victorious. The thing I will remember most from this panel is this.

To finish your Ph.D., all you need is three signatures. Convince your committee that you are an independent researcher and your ready to face the world. Don’t stress too much about the work you are doing, what it’s impacts are, or if it’s going to cure cancer! You have your whole life to worry about that. For now, just focus on completing the steps to move forward. Remember, a good Ph.D. is a done Ph.D.!

Now, that’s the best advice I could get at this point in life! Here’s a moment from the panel discussion.

And that’s a wrap on my Tapia update! Let me leave you with a photo of our Virginia Tech cohort in front of our booth. Go Hokies!