How I did it?

Hi. Nice to meet you. Time is short, so let's dive right in. But where? The session is titled 'How I did it'. But I'm not actually sure what this means. I may have taken it a little bit too literally. Maybe let's first have a look at what WE did in this group called Physical-Digital Affordances over the past years.

In general, we looked at the shift from paper to digital solutions for manipulating information over the past decades. A guiding question was how we can transfer the rich affordances (ways of using an object) that the physical world offers to the digital domain. For example, we looked at building more flexible forms, …

or using augmented reality for extending workspaces.

We also built tools for measuring latency in interactive systems and optimizing it. Because unlike computers, the physical world has effectively zero latency. That means, if we want to make digital tools feel as natural as possible, we want to radically reduce latency.

We also developed general models of latency and much more in this domain.

Furthermore, we developed new tracking algorithms…

… and new interaction paradigms.

We also did a lot of other stuff. Overall, our research aims to make interaction between humans and computers better by leveraging tools from the physical world. Making our interwoven physical and digital world better in some way.

So that's a small glimpse into the research we did over the past few years. We published a few papers, won a few awards, had some fun. But I'd like to reflect a little bit on this initial question: “How I did it”. The obvious interpretation is “How I successfully became a professor.” Except, I didn't (yet?). Let me explain.

My research group was funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts. The program was coordinated by ZD.B and later on bidt.

One of the conditions of our program was that universities who wanted to host a junior research group had to promise the ministry that they would evaluate whether they might be able to permanently fund the research group or turn it into a professorship. So, a very non-committing promise.

However, after the successful intermediate evaluation in 2019, the University of Regensburg informally committed to do this and earmarked the necessary resources. However, they wanted to place the group into the new Department of Informatics and Data Science - which had not yet been instituted. So we had to wait. Finally, this year in May, there was a nice opening ceremony which the Bavarian Minister President, Markus Söder, attended. A few months ago, my department wanted to start the appointment process.

However, suddenly another department of the ministry intervened. This department is the direct interface between the university and the ministry. They get involved in all appointments.

And they argue that there is actually no legal way to do what the other department in the ministry asked for, and what the university promised to do: appoint me as a professor.

So, that's still an ongoing process with unclear outcome. I'm still optimistic.

However, this also means that I am obviously not qualified to tell you how to successfully become a professor.

Therefore, I have the opportunity to talk about something else.

I'd like to talk a little bit about “how” I did what I did. Over the past years, I have thought a little bit about three concepts: Luck and opportunities, being a full-stack scienctist, and touching people. Some of the following personal insights may be obvious to you, some may sound totally non-obvious. Take from it what you like, ignore the rest.

Luck and Opportunities. It is well known that a career in academia requires hard work. We talk less often about the role of luck or chance. I have worked hard. But most important choices in my life were heavily guided by chance. And I feel like I got lucky many more times than I deserved in my career. A PhD opportunity opened up at the right time, I was able to work with amazing people and on interesting projects, my funding application for this research group got accepted, …

But of course, that is not only luck alone. There is an obvious correlation between luck and opportunities. You can only get lucky if you have an opportunity. So you want to create opportunities to get lucky. Meet people, do side projects, learn stuff even if you don't need it right now, and so on. In short, increase your surface area for luck.

A few years ago I sat on a small panel with other junior group leaders, e.g. from Emmi Noether groups. Our task was the same as here: tell the early-career researchers in the audience how to be successful.

Of course, my main argument was that luck plays a major part, and you should try to create opportunities. 'Oh, I'd like to', someone in the audience said. 'But I work in a wet lab and my PI hogs up all ressources and prohibits any side projects.' Another one mentioned that he was required to teach students full-time. He had neither time nor money to meet new people or do his own projects.

And I think we should not dismiss this. We have a very comfortable position here in computing - most side-projects require few ressources at the beginning, and we rarely have toxic work environments. Opportunities for collaborations are just an email away.

Others have much fewer opportunities. We should appreciate this and we should give others the space to create their own opportunities. Especially funding agencies should do this.

Another thing I regularly ponder is how i contribute to society. My personal mental model is a stack of contributions.

My background is in computer science and engineering. As an engineer, your task is to understand a concrete problem someone has …

… and develop a solution. This is of course not unique to engineers. Nurses, policemen, bakers, many people solve concrete problems. But let's stay with software development as our application area.

In most cases you do not develop a solution from scratch. You use existing tools, such as software libraries or tool chains, to build better solutions more quickly. And there are people who build these tools. However, they als rely on abstract …

… concepts - such algorithms for solving a class of problems or equations that define a solution. And the people who develop and share these concepts in turn build on certain …

… paradigms - ways of thinking about the world and about a problem space.

As scientists, we typically work at the Concept or at the Tool level - sometimes even on the Paradigm level. However, I believe that you also need to work on concrete solutions for concrete problems from time to time to really understand the space you are working in. One obvious implication: at the top level, you have a direct positive effect on a small number of people; at the bottom level you have a rather indirect and small effect on a large number of people. The choice is yours.

I decided that I want to contribute something on all of these levels (again something that is much easier to do in computing than many other disciplines).

Which leads us to …

Touching people

This man with the gentle smile is Heinrich Hußmann. He was a professor at the University of Munich and my PhD advisor. He died unexpectedly a few months ago. He was a respected scientist. But when you leaf through his condolence book, you will find that nobody mentions his publication record. But on every page you will see people mentioning what a kind person he was, what a great advisor and mentor. How his support or advice had a major impact on people's lifes and academic careers. A student fondly remembered a hobby project which Heinrich Hußmann had organized as a highlight of his studies.

He also had a huge and positive influence on my life and career. For some of the most important advice he gave me, he probably didn't realize himself which impact it had on me.

He touched people.

I have been trying to follow his example and use every chance to touch people. By supporting the members of my group, when teaching students, organizing events, engaging with the public or decision makers.

That's a kind of impact that none of my papers will ever have. And an opportunity to get touched myself by the advice, attitudes and aspirations of others. You never know what's going to stick.

Maybe this all is obvious, maybe it is stupid. But that's essentially how I did it. Feel free to reuse what you find interesting and make it your own.

In summary: Create room for luck and create opportunities for others. Try to understand the full stack, even if you focus on a certain contribution level. And touch people. Because that will most probably be your greatest legacy and bring you the most joy. And time is short.