Nan is a third year PhD student, Google PhD Fellow and former CDS MS student. We talk with Nan about his experience in both the MS and PhD programs, life in NYC, finding housing, CDS culture, and her research.
November 5, 2020 | 24:30
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TIM BAKER:
Welcome to the Center for Data Science Admissions podcast. I’m your host, Tim Baker. This week we’ll be speaking with third year PhD student, Nan Wu.
NAN WU:
So, hi everyone. I’m Nan Wu. I just finished my second year as a PhD student at Center for Data Science and then I will start my third year. Yep.
TIM BAKER:
OK. And then, when did you first apply to CDS? Was it…
NAN WU:
In fact, I applied twice, since I also obtained my master degree in data science here. So, the first time I applied would be 2015. Yeah, when I was in the final year in my college. And then in the second year of my master’s study, I applied again for the PhD program.
TIM BAKER:
Oh, what kind of advice would you have for people who are applying to the PhD program in this case?
NAN WU:
OK. I think it can be considered as two-stage. Firstly, you have to be determined about on whether you really want to do a PhD. And then, if only about the application procedure, I think the process provided by my year is quite convenient. It’s a standard process, only those standard application materials are required such as the SOP and recommendation letters and your CV. So, as long as you are determined and you think you have a really competitive background and you have your materials well-prepared, then it’s very easy to handle those application. Yeah.
TIM BAKER:
OK. And then, one of the questions we get often from prospective applicants is, they want to know, who they should get to write their letters. Do you have any advice for students? Like maybe what you did, when you applied as far as reaching out for letters?
NAN WU:
Sure. I think for especially apply for a PhD, the most important part would be your research, right? Besides you show your ability in studying and learning, you have to present your ability research, are you understanding research? In that perspective it will be definitely great to have one letter from one of the supervisors or someone you collaborated with on some research projects. So, for myself, when I applied for a PhD, I think for the three recommendation letters, I got two from my supervisors at that time, when we collaborated on the research project. And I also get another letter from the professor of one lecture. Yeah.
TIM BAKER:
You had mentioned people you were doing research with, so you had some research experience beforehand. Why do you think that was important for your application to have that research background?
NAN WU:
Sure. I think research is definitely important component for applying for PhD. It’s also important for yourself to make a decision. Why do you want to do a PhD? Because as a PhD student, your daily life will be around your research project. So, doing research before a PhD is a self-preparation for the following years. And it’s also a way to understand your life in the following five years, right?
So, I think I start doing relative research in my college. First a research project at (UNKNOWN) will be during a neurofeedback system in a cognitive science lab. And then when I got to CDS, I did several research projects and the most interesting one. And also the one I’m still working on right now is the breast cancer project.
TIM BAKER:
OK. And then did you speak with any, I guess because you were already in the program, you had contact with faculty members beforehand. So, do you think that that’s something that students should do, or applicants should do? Should they reach out to faculty or what would you recommend with regards to that?
NAN WU:
I think if you are currently in, for example, in CDS, you should definitely have some communication with the professors here. I think it’s actually very natural for student here at CDS, to do some research with faculties as CDS as well. CDS has provided lots of resources for students to do research. So, don’t consider it as a way to sell yourself to the professors. It’s just very important for yourself to understand what’s their expectation and how they can say they’re a PhD student and a PhD study, right? So, it’s also a way for you to understand what’s their style.
If you do a PhD here, how your life going to be like. But for a student who’s not in CDS, or especially if they’re not in US, like since for me, I’m from China, it’s definitely hard to have face-to-face communication opportunity to professors here. But I think it’s fine. As long as you have some research background. And I think they made better issue positioning in their application procedure. They weren’t all like take it too important. They know you or not. Yeah.
TIM BAKER:
What was the transition like from going from undergrad to masters and then into the PhD program? What was that like for you?
NAN WU:
I think I’ve gained a lot from the master program, actually. It’s a preparation for myself. Also, like, I think in the master program, I got like deeper understanding of what I really want to do while I learn something about deep learning or machine learning. And I think like my university, like, it’s more like a research institute. So, when I was in college, I have some experience in research. I know how I will be like if you stay in academia, if you do research. So, I think the transition for me from university to a PhD program is not very challenging. Yeah.
TIM BAKER:
And when you joined CVS, where you already in New York or was it your first time coming to New York?
NAN WU:
It was my first time coming to New York.
TIM BAKER:
OK. How was that? What was that like for somebody coming to New York for the first time?
NAN WU:
Oh, it’s fascinating, I have to say. Yeah, it’s actually, I’m from like not a very big city in China, but according to the population, it’s big. It’s not our biggest not like Shanghai, those like say big cities. So, and I’ve never been living in like Beijing or Shanghai for longer than a month. So, coming to New York is also my first time living in such a like global city. So, I think I was so excited about moving to New York and, yeah, it’s great. Everything is new to me and I was, like, excited about experiencing everything here at New York and making all the different friends here now.
TIM BAKER:
What was searching for housing like? Do you have any advice for students that are coming here for the first time to, you know, help them with their housing search?
NAN WU:
Sure, like, I think the first apartment I was in when I got here was I rent together with two other masters student who is also coming from China. So, we made the decision that we will be roommate before, after we got the offer and we decided we want to come. So, then the only thing we have to do is look for an apartment. There are some like even when we were in China at that time, but because of the Internet, and there are lots of resources, you can find about housing here at New York. I’m currently living in Jersey City, which is across the river of Manhattan. I think it’s quite convenient here. I’ve been living here for, like, four years already, yeah. All the time, I’m in New York I lived here.
I think, like, here, the first time might be some, you might have some struggles for your first time to find apartment. But once you’ve been through that procedure, it’s actually won’t be that difficult. You’ll be more familiar with how this is going, like, what you have to prepare and, like, if you like how to compare those, like, neighborhood where you want to live, and what kind of floorplan you want to have. There are really lots of options here in New York. Yeah, you can… I know some friends that they moved more often than me. They like to experience different culture or different neighborhoods. So, they can even actually move every year from Brooklyn to Queens or to Manhattan. That’s also great, actually. So, in summary, I think living in New York, it’s expensive, but there are also lots of options. You can make your own decision based on what you want.
TIM BAKER:
So, sort of transitioning out of the application process and moving to New York for the first time, what is life like for you as a PhD student? Like what’s your sort of day-to-day like? You know, how do you find being a PhD student that serious?
NAN WU:
I think I think it a lot, I thought a lot the first year when I started my PhD since I think, like, since I finished my master here as well, I don’t have to do that many courses at the beginning compared to with other PhD student. So, my main component of my life will just be doing my research. The most important question I was being, I was thinking about would be, should I consider it as a work like how other people are doing like if you’re working in industry, in a company, should I go to my office at some fixed time and go back to my apartment or go back to life around the time of dinner, or should I have a different style? I was thinking about that a lot.
But currently, I have to say I think the work-life balance is kind of good for me. I don’t have to like sleep over all the time. So, I just I always keep a regular bedtime. I usually go to sleep around before 1:00 am and get up around 8:00 am and I’m exercising in the morning and usually go to office before 9:00. If I have meeting, I will go there earlier to meet my supper or other attend other meetings or seminars. I will usually work during the afternoon from like, 1 pm, just after lunch to before dinner around 6 pm.
During night I will go home and like enjoy dinner with my friends in some restaurant or cooking at home by myself. Like after dinner I will like relax for a while and then maybe around… like before going to bed I will do some coding during the night as well like from 10 to 12 am like that, ’cause I think it’s like ’cause during that time it’s were acquired and you finished everything off the day in and be totally focused on your research that’s like that’s ours is more important for me to focus on my on something that I have to be really, really concentrated on and have some really deep thoughts, yeah.
TIM BAKER:
And how would you describe the culture at CDS you know, sort of within the classroom and socially?
NAN WU:
I quite enjoy it. I think is great. I’m like a classroom the courtroom classroom… like we have classes like this more than like hundreds of students but we also have medium-sized classes with only like 30 students, but in any kind of processing, you’re welcome to pick up arm to answer questions or to ask questions. And in those mediums as classes, the professor is always involved lots of like discussion sessions during the lecture. I really enjoyed that.
And besides that, I think… I can see like from those they like department heads as well as from the PhD students circuits, ourselves, we always want to have more time to hang out (UNKNOWN), talking about our research or talking just about our life.
And besides those, I think another different part when I comparing my life with my other friends who’s doing their PhD in other schools, one different thing would be says heroes who have a large master program and we share the open space wisdom and there are lots of masters student they are coming from industry or they just you doing their job in the industry. I enjoy talking to wisdom as well as to learn about what is going on in the industry what kind of models they are using, which is popular industry was people really care cause I think in data science is not only about like pushing the models, more fancier our arm, like going deeper just theoretically, it’s also about how you can view the product or make something people can really use to apply. Yeah.
TIM BAKER:
Would you mind tell us a little bit about the research that you’re doing? You touched on it earlier, but if you could give us a little sort of like the broad overview?
NAN WU:
Sure, no problem. I’ve been working on my current project for like, almost three years. At the beginning, when I join oh like, the general topic is building deep learning models for breast cancer screening. And the first project I’ve found would be like beauty models for breast density classification. And then after that project, we worked very hard to collect more data modalities, including those pathology report so that we can view them more like complicated data without all like including images like currently, we have screening mammogram.
So, our goal would be how can we predict cancer from those screening mammogram victims? And how can we like use those tool to help radiologists. And our like longer-term goal would be how can we incorporate all the imaging modalities utilized in breast cancer screening interview, the better AI system to assist radiologist or even to discover something like you are undiscovered for breast cancer diagnosis.
My current project, I mean, the project I’m currently focusing on, is a more general question and deep learning about how to solve problems when you have to be this deep learning system to handle multiple input modalities that can be like different image images, or it can be tags, an image or a video you have audio on the RGB channels that how to build models to process and the relate them.
TIM BAKER:
And you’ve actually just recently been awarded a pretty prestigious fellowship.
NAN WU:
Oh, yeah.
TIM BAKER:
Correct. Do you want to talk about that at all, or?
NAN WU:
Oh, yeah, sure. America to the Goddess, like scholarship, this fellowship, I think I really have to say to my supervisors, I think it’s them, like encouraged me to apply for those fellowships. I have to say I’m always now the very confident people I think maybe I learned some word term recently, like our imposter syndrome. I think I’m pretty good further with that. So, but they always like believe in me, and they being new definitely can do this as long as you try hard.
So, like, we… like I… OK, like, since I got there, encouraged and like I started writing about the proposal, and I think it’s, like getting a fellowship is really great, but only applying for them for fellowships or scholarship is also a procedure where you can learn a lot as a PhD student ’cause there you have to write a proposal for your research, a research proposal. It might be short or might be long ’cause for a PhD student or for any researcher, it’s very important for you to know how to present your idea or your work with a different means or even different time. So, it’s a really great access. And it’s also pushed me to think more about what I really want to do for the following one or three years.
TIM BAKER:
I know everybody at CDS was very excited and very proud of you for when you received that, so it was a big accomplishment. I guess, one more quick question about research for you. What are the benefits of doing your research at CDS?
NAN WU:
I think firstly here, CDS is, we title as data science, which is different with other traditional department in community science or stats, where they also do machine learning or deep learning research. And that means here at CDS, you have resources from all different kind of disciplines or different domains. And I think that’s really important, ’cause here you can get a more diverse understanding of different models or application. Was this really needing the, in those research. And if you need any help or any insight from a specific problem you were facing, it’s very easy to get suggestions from people working on your related domain. Yeah.
TIM BAKER:
A few last questions that I’m just asking everybody on the way out. Why did you ultimately decide to study here at CDS?
NAN WU:
If it is about after my master study, why I choose to stay in CDS, then I have to say, I think after spending the first year here at CDS, I really wanted to stay longer here. I enjoyed everything as CDS. And like firstly, it’s in New York. If you really want to do a PhD, I do find I’m becoming like, I have lots of other classmates who also from India University. We all graduated. And we came here to study, a PhD program. We’re becoming more and more different. I think one part is because I’m here at NYU at New York city. So, rather than always focusing on research by yourself, you have opportunities to talk to other peoples about your research or about any other new things going on in your research domain or in entire world.
TIM BAKER:
This is a tough question, but in your personal opinion, don’t worry about what other people think, what is the one thing that you think that everybody should do when they come to New York?
NAN WU:
This question remind me of the day I had two years ago with my friends. This was in earlier summer. I think that was on Saturday, I think, when at the morning, we took pass and we’d go to West Village, and we had our lunch there. And after brunch, we had brunch there. And after brunch, we walked from West Village to East Village and we had afternoon tea there. All the way, we were chatting and we were laughing. And then after the afternoon tea, we think oh, we want to have dinner in Chinatown.
And then we just walked from East Village to Chinatown and then had dinner there. So, I really recommend anyone who would like to come to New York City to have such a day where you can have a Mediterranean style brunch at West Village. And then on the same day, you can have a Japanese style afternoon tea at East Village, and then at night you can have Chinese dinner. And on the way, walking in the city, you can enjoy the beautiful thing and all the interesting people at New York City, yeah.
TIM BAKER:
Excellent. That’s a great day. And finally, do you have any final advice for anybody that’s looking to apply for the fall of 2021?
NAN WU:
I think for people who already made their decision that they want to do a PhD, I really recommend them to take CDS as a choice. And if they have time, they should come here and visit us at CDS. And you will see the culture here and see how people are doing the research here, how people enjoying their life here. I think everyone will like do their research here at CDS.
TIM BAKER:
Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time.
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Thank you for listening to the CDS admissions podcast. If you have any questions regarding the admissions process, please email us at datascience-group@nyu.edu. The music for the podcast was composed by the instrumental artist Cryptic One. You can find his work at cryptic1.bandcamp.com.