Liu Tianyan's mentor and friend Series

I saw several Weibo posts by Liu Tianyan, A Niu Ren, on Weibo a few days ago. I felt very good and learned about some other Niu Ren. Now let's sort out its Weibo posts here:

 

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I have been joining Microsoft Research Institute for more than seven years without knowing how to transfer my research direction from signal processing to machine learning and information retrieval. In the meantime, I have received help from many good teachers and friends. A few people can't help but mention that they have had a great impact on me. Let's make a forecast first. Let's go back and talk about their stories: Hong-jiang Zhang, Wei-ying Ma, yiming Yang, hang Li, Rakesh Agrawal.

 

Liang shiyiyou-1 Hong-Jiang is my reason to join Microsoft Research Institute. My doctoral thesis focuses on video content analysis, and Hong-Jiang is undoubtedly the best researcher in the field, attracting 100% of me. Hong-Jiang was very attentive to recruiting talents. I was moved by the fact that he personally called the recommenders listed on my resume to learn about me. At present, I cannot do this in my own recruitment organization.

 

Hong-Jiang, Liang shiyiyou-1, is very enthusiastic about research, has extremely high requirements for development and innovation, and attaches great importance to practicality. He often encourages us to learn and use mathematical tools. At that time, many people in the group had a strong mathematical skills, prompting me to take the initiative to enhance my mathematical cultivation. Unfortunately, less than a year after he worked in Hong-Jiang, he was transferred to the Engineering Institute as the dean. It was a great pity for me to learn more from him.

 

Liang shiyiyou-2 Wei-Ying is my second manager. He gave me full freedom and inclusiveness. This is especially important when you change the group. I tried classification, clustering, complex graph theory, and so on until I decided to study sorting in the next direction. He also encouraged me to challenge myself. Although I had just joined the company, I had to establish cooperation with the product department with confidence. This was very helpful for my growth. Later, many long-term cooperation was established at that time.

 

Liang shiyiyou-2 remembers to accompany Wei-Ying to visit the Chinese Emy of sciences. Academician Ma Zhiming of the Institute of Mathematics asked him how he managed our researchers. Wei-Ying replied: I never manage them, only motivate them. I was deeply touched by the presence and have become the basic principle for my current treatment of employees and interns. Creating opportunities for employees and motivating them to succeed is the greatest success for managers.

 

It should be said that Yiming introduced me to the door of IR. Shortly after the transfer, I had the honor to have a hierarchical classification project with Yiming. I have been chatting, discussing, and arguing with her for more than a month. Looking back at the time, I really learned too many things: How to study strictly, how to deal with essay writing, and how to study well have benefited a lot from all aspects.

 

Yiming has a great impact on me. For example, she said that there is a clear feeling to do research, and only things that can't help but share with others are good things. For example, to do research, do not aim to publish a paper. Some of her research results have never been written into a paper, but are shared with students in the classroom, so that they have the deepest understanding of this field. For example, exploring a new field is equally worthy of respect.

 

Later, I met Yiming many times on different occasions. Every time she gave me some suggestions and advice. For example, I discussed how to change the report from clear to charming, and warned me not to do too much management. The most advanced research at this age is still the highest priority. I am very grateful for adjusting my status according to her suggestions. Yiming will visit the Institute again this summer, hoping to take this opportunity to learn more from her.

 

Liang shiyiyou-4 Hang is my third manager and one of the closest academic cooperation with me. We are committed to the study of learning to rank, promoting the vigorous development of this field. I learned a lot from Hang. First, the study is rigorous and has high requirements on the quality of the paper. After the cooperation with Hang, almost only the top conference/journal will be invested.

 

Liang shiyiyou-4 also learned a higher level of understanding of research issues from Hang. for example, when I first focused on Algorithms in a paper we worked on, I found that learning to rank may be a new sub-direction during discussion with Hang. this higher level of understanding has caused a great deal of response to this work. It has been cited more than 200 times In just three years, and listwise ranking has been widely recognized by academia.

 

Rakesh is my mentor at Microsoft. the company's mentoring system gives us young people the opportunity to learn from high people. due to region restrictions, there are not many exchanges with Rakesh, but each time we get a lot of results. for example, Rakesh inspired me to look at my current job from a perspective of ten years later. If I still feel that this job is meaningful after ten years, I should do it well, otherwise, it is better to spend time in more important places.

 

Rakesh also tells me about the differences between Chinese and western cultures and the development of academic circles dominated by the West. I recommend that you read Geography of Thoughts. the last long talk with him was on WWW this year. he suggested that my team should not be too large; otherwise, Management would spend valuable time doing research. he said: "There are a lot of people who know how to manage, but there are very few people who can do this in-depth research. You have to do the most valuable things you can do."

 

Rakesh and Yiming, two teachers who care about my growth, gave the same suggestions and touched me a lot. Reflecting on your status over the past one or two years, it really took a lot of time to manage. The paper was much less read than before, and it was rare to have time to calm down and think. We are determined to re-adjust the status and make further research into the frontline. Together with my "small" team, we can make some "big" tasks.

 

@ Liu Tianyan: this summer, I will assist the CCF in organizing a lecture series (ADL) with the topic of information retrieval. I specially invited a few good academic friends to join us: Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Susan Dumais, Stephen Robert son, Yiming Yang, Chengxiang Zhai. Everyone is an absolute bull! If you are interested in information retrieval, do not miss a good opportunity to communicate with so many other experts.