Research update: Halfway through the slog

[Ram Rachum]

Hi everyone!

Retrospective on goals for last month

In last month's update I outlined a list of goals. Here's my update on these goals:

1. Prepare 4 versions of the dominance hierarchies paper: ✅ Done

   This has been more time-consuming than I thought it would be... But the four versions of the paper are now ready:

   • Full version on arXiv.

   • Extended abstract to be presented at AAMAS.

   • ALA workshop version.

   • COINE workshop version.

   I've never written an extended abstract before, and compressing the paper to a third of its size was challenging. The COINE workshop version was challenging as well, because it uses the LNCS template, which in my opinion isn't nearly as good as the ACM style.

   Now that the full version of the paper is available on arXiv, I've been feeling more comfortable sending it out to different people who might be interested, which sometimes starts good conversations. I sent a link to the paper to Sakana.AI, the AI startup from Tokyo that recently raised a seed investment. They're interested in nature-inspired algorithms, so I hope this paper will be relevant to them.

   Also, now that the full version is out on arXiv, it's finally been indexed by the various paper aggregators like Semantic Scholar and Google Scholar. I can't wait for the first citation of this paper!

2. Prepare 1-2 versions of the talk for the dominance hierarchies paper: 🌓 Halfway there

   I've been adding more slides to the deck. I've got 57 now, and there'll probably be close to 100 slides for the 50 minute talk. Don't worry, these slides are light and fast, and the talk will be fun. I'll finish planning the talk this month.

3. Prepare a poster: 🔁 Postponed to next month

   I just haven't had the time to work on the poster.

Halfway through the slog...

It's been so long since I've done new research work. Hopefully that's going to happen starting around March 10th. A couple of interesting non-research things I've been doing in the meanwhile:

I'm reviving my standup career. Now that Israel has sort of adjusted to the war, the open mic standup standup scene is back. I've done a couple of shows, and the last one went really well. I'm planning more sets. One thing that happened for the first time is that an open mic organizer approached me to perform, rather than me having to sign up. That show would be on Wednesday.

I'm buying lots of hiking gear for New Zealand. In May I'm going to be in New Zealand to present the dominance hierarchies research at AAMAS. I'll do a couple of day tracks while I'm there, probably the Rangitoto Summit Track and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. I've been buying lots of hiking equipment, which is difficult because I had to do lots of research on different brands, and it's pretty expensive too. I'll practice hiking in Israel a few times to make sure I'm in shape.

If anyone wants to join me on these tracks, let me know! I'll probably be going with a group of fellow researchers who are attending AAMAS.

My goals for this month

1. Prepare two versions of the talk for the dominance hierarchies paper.

   Same task from last month. Prepare two versions of a talk about the dominance hierarchies research. One version will be 50 minutes long for reading groups, and one version will be 15 minutes long, possibly for workshops.

2. Prepare the poster.

   Same task from last month. Prepare a poster about the dominance hierarchies research to show at AAMAS in Auckland.

That's it for now. See you next month!

Bonus meme.

Ram.