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Dr. Joni Salminen Posts

List of Research Superpowers (Especially Useful for PhD Students)

Published by Joni on August 22, 2024

Observed myself citing various “superpowers” to my PhD students in occasional emails. So, thought of writing these down (the list might get updated). Currently, I can think of eleven research superpowers [updated: November 11, 2024]. Here they are, in no particular order. 1. SPECIFICITY Be specific. Applies pretty much to any form of communication: Being specific is one #researchsuperpower (but…

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About Forms of Contribution in Research

Published by Joni on August 14, 2024

This post deals with understanding various types of contributions in academic research (SECTION 1) and how to argue for your contribution (SECTION 2). This post is written especially for more junior researchers, including PhD students. SECTION 3 contains alternative contribution frameworks from other researchers. SECTION 1: Some forms of contributions in academic research: Should you aim for multiple contribution types…

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What are the real benefits of human educators vs. ChatGPT?

Published by Joni on May 14, 2024

Hi! Saw some interesting claims in this presentation about teacher strengths relative to AI: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/CqKZjoSsoTvWoTMB?ref=Link I’m assessing each one by one below. (Btw, if you’re interested in GenAI for bachelor’s level education, take a look at my tips and experiences.) “Teacher Strengths in Relation to language model ChatGPT:” “Artificial intelligence is an efficient tool that can support teachers in many…

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Thoughts on integrating Generative AI in university education (specifically at bachelor’s level): Good and bad use cases

Published by Joni on May 8, 2024

Sharing some thoughts, based on a discussion with colleagues, on how generative AI (GenAI) should and should not be intergrated into teaching at bachelor’s degree level. (Also, since you’re here, you might be interested in this post about human educators’ benefits relative to AI.) First, in my opinion, teachers should have the final authority to decide if and how AI…

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Rediscovering Digital Divide with GenAI

Published by Joni on May 2, 2024

With digital tools, we keep rediscovering the same truth, which is that they increase the productivity differences (performance) between people. Prolific people become more prolific and non-prolific become relatively worse off. Consider a simple example from the previous generation: ad platforms. Compare Copywriter A (mediocre) and Copywriter B (skilled). The skilled copywriter can draw huge performance gain compared to the…

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Different personas representing AI attitudes

Published by Joni on April 9, 2024

Different personas representing AI attitudes: All these types have their own reasons and backgrounds for touting the message that they toute. I personally prefer the silent doers who are less vocal and therefore harder to find. I prefer them because learning from them helps me apply lessons to my job.

How to write up machine learning experiments? Here’s a process to follow

Published by Joni on October 28, 2023

It’s sometimes difficult, especially for newcomers, to understand all the steps of a machine learning (ML) analysis. Here’s a practical list of the items I’m myself considering when leading an ML research project. Our use of ML is applied; we do research related to social computing (also known as computational social sciences), marketing, analytics, and human-computer interaction (HCI). Overall, we’ve…

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