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When We Did Research By Hand · Idle Words

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I’m approaching the end of my time at CMU and I’ve been reflecting on my PhD experience. In hindsight, though my PhD itself technically didn’t last an absurdly long time, I feel like I’ve witnessed a lot of change in both the research landscape and myself. Things have changed a lot, and I find that my mentors are also uncertain on what the future holds when I ask for advice. I find myself also hedging when asked by younger students: what should they focus their work on nowadays? Does it make sense to commit themselves to a 5 year or longer PhD anymore? Will their intellectual labour still hold value in the next decade?

How ML/NLP Research Changed in the Course of My PhD 09 Aug 2026 • Emmy Liu I’m approaching the end of my time at CMU and I’ve been reflecting on my PhD experience. In hindsight, though my PhD itself technically didn’t last an absurdly long time, I feel like I’ve witnessed a lot of change in both the research landscape and myself. Things have changed a lot, and I find that my mentors are also uncertain on what the future holds when I ask for advice. I find myself also hedging when asked by younger students: what should they focus their work on nowadays? Does it make sense to commit…

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