1. writing a career award: think like an educator
George Porter –
2018 NSF CAREER Workshop

2. Brief Introduction
My research focuses on high- speed networks and energy- efficient processing of lots of data
Graduated UC Berkeley, 2008
Postdoc 2009—2010, UCSD
Asst. Research Scientist, 2010— 2014
Asst. Professor, 2014—

3. My career award proposal

4. My career award proposal
"A Scalable Multiplane Data Center Network"
Observation: network switches can’t keep up with server demand due to limits of CMOS manufacturing process
Idea: Replace electronic switching with optical switching
Activities: Develop novel switches and use them to design new topologies and higher- level abstractions

5. My career award proposal
Circuit-switch
enabled ToR switches
(~2015)
Commercial (~2010)
2D-MEMS (~2013)
Non-crossbar (~2017)

6. Problem: the Environmental impact of “The cloud”
To build:
Google spends about $3B per year
Microsoft spent $15B in total
To operate:
1-2% of global energy consumption1
91 billion kWh ( MW coal-fired power plants)2
By 20202:
140 billion kWh (50 power plants)
$13 billion in electricity bills
100 metric tons of carbon pollution per year
LBNL, 2013
NRDC report

7. elements of your proposal
Select a problem to solve
Establish that solving the problem is important and worthwhile
Come up with a good idea
How to evaluate the idea?
Integrating research into your teaching
Developing as an educator
How will your research have broader impacts to society?
Some of these you are familiar with
From your Ph.D., writing papers, your dissertation, etc…
Some are new
Broader impacts, integrating into education
Avoid over-focusing on the core idea while under-focusing on the remaining parts of the grant
Common problem!

8. problem selection 5-year plan Manage risk vs. reward Hone the idea
Very different than a conference or journal paper
Need a line of research goals, not a single result
Manage risk vs. reward
Related problems in a space vs. problems that build on top of each other
Hone the idea
Run it by people at conferences, researchers in your field, …
Better to get feedback early than after the panel

9. Advice 1: know your audience
To date, you’ve likely been writing to subject specialists (conferences, journals, dissertation committee)
Now need to write to wider audience
It is OK to (briefly) summarize the foundation your idea is based on
In my proposal, background, motivation, related work, and problem setup was first 7 pages!
Technical “meat” began on page 7

10. Advice 2: Good technical ideas are necessary (but not sufficient!)
Grant proposals are evaluated differently than conference papers, journal submissions, etc.
Don’t take for granted that the reviewer will see the merit in the idea
Be as precise as you can to the benefits and limitations of your ideas
Make the case for how your discovery improves your field and/or the wider world
Support comes from taxpayer money, so the responsibility for justifying it falls on us!
My broader impacts/educational plan was 3 pages

11. Advice 3: Crafting your educational plan
“Professors are educators first, and researchers second”
– Randy H. Katz (UC Berkeley)
Need to educate your students, your community, the nation (by starting with the review panel!)
How can you improve your ability in this area?
It is a life-long process
Think beyond activities you do already
Advising students, teaching classes, …
Use the opportunity to potentially think of new ways of teaching
For me, maker courses + video explainers of the technology
Don’t forget to include in your budget your activities

12. Advocating and educating the public
You need to write an annual and final report
There can be many benefits of publishing beyond that, to the general community
Video explainers, website, interviews for the media, podcasts
Making course materials public or available for online education
Who better than us to make the case for our research?

13. Summary Problem selection Know your audience
Good ideas (alone) aren’t enough
Crafting your educational plan
Educating the public