1. Launch, Persevere, and Collaborate
Faculty Senate Forum on Research and Scholarship
Solitude, The Inn, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA USA – 3/16/2017
Edward A. Fox
Professor, Department of Computer Science (and by courtesy, ECE)
Associate Faculty with: Global Change Center, VT Center for Autism Research
Director, Digital Library Research Laboratory, 2030 Torgersen Hall
Executive Director and Chairman of the Board, Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (

2. Acknowledgments: Thanks go to:
NSF for current grants: CMMI , IIS , IIS
Other current grants: NIH 1R01DA , IMLS LG , University of North Texas (NSF flow through)
NSF for recent grants: DUE , OCI , DUE
Digital Library Research Laboratory, Department of Computer Science
Students, colleagues (including several on panel), remote collaborators
Advisers: JCR Licklider & Michael Kessler (MIT), Gerard Salton (Cornell)

3. Launch Be (one of) the first to start an area / sub-area
Information retrieval (sub-areas)
Digital video, multimedia
Digital libraries
Electronic theses and dissertations
Web archiving, analysis, and access
Build up momentum to ensure funding stream(s)
Help launch workshops, conferences, newsletters, magazines, journals
Help build community: locally, regionally, nationally, internationally
US then Europe then Asia (including Australia, India, etc.) then: Latin America …
When appropriate, involve UNESCO, Foundations, ...

4. Persevere Have a long term vision; articulate it; motivate others
Piece-by-piece work on the key sub-areas
Develop a diversified portfolio of related research projects, leveraging opportunities as they arise
Serve in various roles on workshops, conferences, publications
Continue on steering committees, advisory/continuity committees
Encourage current and former students to
Do projects, theses, dissertations
Move into leadership roles
If there is big enough and active enough community, let others run with it and move on (but maybe keep teaching related courses)

5. Collaborate
DBLP ( CS bibliography shows 450 collaborators
shows student reports in classes: CS4624 (93), CS5604 (28), CS6604 (8)
Adviser for roughly 60 completed theses or dissertations
Roughly 75% of grants have collaborator(s)
45 conferences/workshops as (co)chair (of PC)
Other involvements in journals, conferences, workshops: ~340
Lab of 8-25 students (with co-advisers)

6. Balance and perspective
Guide, motivate, encourage others to fill leadership roles
Unless a central passion, and there is a real need, step back
Don’t juggle too many things
Rejoice in the successes of others, and don’t seek power or fame
Be happy when there is advancement, improvement
Encourage brainstorming, and have fun with others

7. Discussion Is this approach still viable today?
What is the role of mentoring?
Do we really have leaders, collaborators, and followers?
Ed Fox, 2160G Torgersen Hall,