WORTH READING amazing and appalling at the same time

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Sunil Garg" <sunil () sunilgarg com>
Date: December 4, 2008 9:24:15 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: change () cs washington edu
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: amazing and appalling at the same time

This is veering off-topic in relation to Bob's original post, but in  
any case:

I think choosing to participate in ICTD research is really a matter of  
personal interest. I suspect that the people you refer to as "high  
caliber" are ones who were high performers in CS undergrad, which  
generally is theory heavy in that graphics, algorithms, and  
programming languages are subject areas of focus, so it's natural that  
they would be drawn to those fields.

ICTD, including telemedicine, is extremely interdisciplinary, where  
successful projects involve fields ranging from ethnography and  
psychology, HCI, etc., for project design, to techincal skills for  
implementation work in extremely resource-constrained environments. On  
top of that, it's a very new field, so bringing all of that together  
is a daunting task in working towards a PhD thesis, especially in CS,  
and from what I've seen requires the initiative and dedication that  
come with strong personal interest in the field.

And for the record, at least at the University of Washington, where  
I'm a CS undergrad, there do exist high-caliber professors and  
students working on ICTD issues. For reference: http://change.cs.washington.edu/

Regards,
Sunil


On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 5:54 PM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:


Begin forwarded message:

From:
Date: December 4, 2008 8:08:03 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: PLEASE ANONYMIZE - Re: [IP] Re: amazing and appalling at the  
same time

PLEASE ANONYMIZE - thanks


From: "Bob Frankston" <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: December 4, 2008 5:08:12 PM EST
To: <dave () farber net>, "'ip'" <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: RE: [IP] amazing and appalling at the same time

Telemedicine should be too boring to write about.

Perhaps that is the problem. I worked in a lab with graduate-level
computer scientists in health informatics. None of the students were
what I would describe as high caliber. Those students worked on
'sexier', more 'hardcore' PhD topics, like graphics, algorithmics, and
programming languages. I could not be dragged kicking and screaming to
work on 'telemedicine', and I suspect most high caliber CS researchers
would be the same.


PLEASE ANONYMIZE - thanks





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