Working With Me

6 min read

My mentoring philosophy is to create a healthy culture of scientific inquiry in which students develop their own research narratives and all group members receive regular feedback.

For information about joining the lab, including our application process and pathways for PhD, master's, undergraduate, high-school, and external students, please see the AIEA Lab Join Us page. The link has detailed information on the capacity of the lab and what it is like working with our research 'ohana.

The reminder of this document is about what it is like working with me as an advisor. I have a publicly accessible Advising statement that describes this in detail. I will highlight some of those themes here.

Who I'm Currently Advising

I currently advise 1 postdoc, 11 PhD students, and over 30 MS students and 60 undergraduates. Yes, those numbers are correct, and that means that many of my students need to be quite independent and also proactive. Here are a few qualities that I've found work well with my advising style:

  • Direct, kind, and empathetic communication.
  • Transparency around urgency, deadlines, or other important decisions.
  • Clear documentation of research, including meeting agendas and follow up notes.
  • Feedback as a constant practice in both directions.
  • Thinking critically and mindfully about problems both as an individual contributor and within a group.
  • Taking vacation, using sick time, and asking for accommodations.

Emailing me

I get a lot of emails and many of them are increasingly AI generated. Many of the questions in those emails are likely answered here or on the AIEA lab lab page. Before emailing me, please take a look at the documents linked on this page as well as the values below:

What I Value

This is based off the AIEA lab values.

Inspiration

I want us to pursue ambitious questions that matter. Students are encouraged to bring new ideas, question our assumptions, and help shape the direction of their projects.

Respect and Empowerment

Every lab member should be treated as an intellectual contributor, regardless of seniority. I want students to feel ownership over their work and receive appropriate recognition for their ideas and contributions.

Respect also means valuing one another's time, communicating clearly, and giving feedback with care.

Joy

Research is difficult, but a research group should still be a place of curiosity, friendship, celebration, and joy. We take our work seriously without believing that good research requires constant stress or competition.

Accountability

We study accountable AI, and accountability should also characterize how we work. This means documenting decisions, being honest about results and limitations, following through on commitments, and communicating early when something is not working.

Leadership

Leadership is an important part of research training.

As students gain experience, I will encourage them to lead meetings, mentor newer students, evaluate deliverables, make project decisions, and take responsibility for lab activities. Leadership does not mean doing everything yourself. It means creating enough clarity, structure, and support for other people to succeed.

I also expect experienced lab members to help make knowledge and opportunities accessible to those who are newer to research.

On AI Generated Emails

I want to hear your thoughts and feelings and not those of a conversational AI tool (like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) I promise that my emails are written by me, and I expect the same of those that I work with. It is how I show that I am committed to working with you and that I care about our correspondences.

I don't have time to respond to every email I receive, so if I suspect an email is AI generated, I will likely ignore it. The best way to increase the likelihood of getting a response is to (1) write the email yourself and (2) follow the guidelines outlined below.

My lab (the AIEA lab) does have an AI policy, which you can examine to see if this is aligned with your values. If you have questions about it, please do send me an email (written by yourself).

Ready?

Did you read the values, lab website and advising statement? Do we have a sufficient overlap in research values and interests? Do you want to work with me or are there questions you have that aren't answered here? You can either:

  1. Fill out the AIEA lab interest form, and you will get a response in 24-48 hours.

  2. Send me an email to lgilpin at ucsc.edu (where at is replaced with the @ symbol) with the following information:

    1. Where are you in your research journey? For current students, indicate what program and year of your program you’re in (e.g. 3rd year undergraduate majoring in CS). For prospective students, indicate what program you’re interested in and the status of your application (e.g. interested in a PhD in CS starting Fall next year, but have not applied yet).

    2. Briefly describe a potential research project: In a short paragraph, describe to me a potential research idea you have. I highly recommend using the following format or template, based off Patrick Winston's VSNC model:

      1. Vision: What is the problem (possibly illustrated with an example)? What do you hope to advance with this project?
      2. Steps: What steps will you take to solve the problem?
      3. News: What new things do you hope to discover? Why is it challenging and unsolved?
      4. Contributions: How could this project advance knowledge or research impact?
    3. Let me know of any deadlines you have (e.g. need to find a thesis advisor before the fall quarter begins).
    4. Let me know what questions I can answer.

    5. Other notes on emailing me:

      • You may (but are not required to) attach a resume or CV or link to a website or portfolio.
      • Please do NOT send me any transcripts.
      • If I haven’t responded to you, please feel free to follow up in a week.

A final note: I'm not scary

Did reading this make you feel intimidated or scared to email me? I understand that and it's valid to feel that way. I was really scared to email professors when I was a student (and I still am!) I promise that I'm not that scary and I want to talk to you (and again, not an AI)!

If you have additional questions, feel free to email me. The idea of this document is to answer common questions, not to intimidate those to ask such questions. If it feels easier, you can also schedule a conversation.

I try to respond to every valid email I receive (see my note about AI written emails above). So if you are waiting for a response, please don't hesitate to follow up. The worst thing is that I may not respond (because I am very busy and get hundreds of emails a day), or I ask you to clarify something.

Note and References

This is an inspiration from Benje Xie's post on working with students, specifically, "I promise I'm not scary." I couldn't have said it better myself! Fun fact, we shared an office my first year of my PhD!