Life and Sciencea personal perspective

Orna GrumbergTechnion, Israel

Verification Mentoring Workshop 2015

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Personal data

• Ph.d. in (non-automated) verification• Postdoc in Model Checking (MC) with Ed

Clarke • 30 years of research in MC:

same title, different contents

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Current research:

• Model checking for security• New compositional methods• Abstraction and modularity for UML

systems• Automata over infinite alphabet• Improving interpolation-based

verification

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Why Computed-Aided Verification?

It is diverse:• Logic• Automata• Algorithms• Data structures• Very efficient implementations that

matters

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Why Computed-Aided Verification?

Research, development, applications are done in academia, research labs, industry

A large variety of job types

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Starting a Ph.d.

• Choose an advisor that suits you– Consult with other students

• Choose a subject that you like

Enjoy what you do!

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• Don’t be afraid of dead periods where next research question or next solution do not seem to be at hand

– Everyone has such periods

– Keep working and they will be resolved

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Preparing the day after

• Create visibility:

– Networking at conferences

– Get introduced to people

– Make scientific collaboration visits if possible

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Aiming for a career

• Decide that this is what you want to do

• Declare to yourself that what you do is important to you, you do it wholeheartedly, as a central activity

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Aiming for a career

• Priorities set them accordingly

• Let relevant people in your life

know it– Otherwise, traditional expectation might get

in the way

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• Today it is common to see women holding high positions

• Women that want to make a career can do it successfully

BUT

• Traditional expectation might get in the way

• You need to say loud and clear that your intentions are serious and that you are willing to work hard for that

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Family and science

• Time management and delegation (at home and at work)

• Do your best and try to be excellent, rather than trying to be perfect

• Find your own balance

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My solution

Balance:• Family and career: equally

important– Career is as important as family

Help:• Always had a reliable babysitter• In high-stressed periods:

husband, parents and friends 13

My solution (cont.)

Priorities:• Cooking and cleaning are overrated

• So is sleeping…

• I guess I did something right…

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This is my balance – yours might be different

• Find your own balance• Update it periodically

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Summary

To have a successful career:• Decide that you want to do• Do it!

• Enjoy it!• Everything else will fall into place

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The End

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