[FIXED] What area of research is your focus/did you apply for?

[Pauli]

I have no qualms with saying that the original poll was very flawed: it wasn't exhaustive and repeated certain fields by listing their different subfields.  This poll is more exhaustive and more accurate to give us a better feel of people's demographics in this subforum.

[ssw1n]

This is more like it. Kudos to you !

[OhMySocks]

The one thing I did prefer with the old one was that it gave you the option to choose several options, instead of having radio buttons. I sit in a weird middle ground between a few of the listed fields so anything that I chose wouldn't really be accurate. 

[Snoq]

There are too many people in AI, ML, Robotics. Does this mean that there are also more professors working on those areas too?

[compiler_guy]

There are too many people in AI, ML, Robotics. Does this mean that there are also more professors working on those areas too?

Usually, no. For sure not at the proportion of the people applying. Departments usually want to keep a balanced faculty across a wide range of interests,

[complexbongo]

I think the problem is that AI composes a large number of research topics, including NLP, control problems, etc. 

[hvasilev]

God, how I wish i was given a chance for ML research ... now my time is pointlessly spent as a standard enterprise developer.

Edited August 27, 2013 by hvasilev

[DeleteMePlease]

I am applying for Networks/Systems. Wonder why there are so few people doing the same. In my opinion video streaming is a field that will expand rapidly in the near future. There is 3D and Ultra-HD videos that demand more bandwidth. And many different solutions: p2p streaming, MPEG-DASH etc.

However I am also interested in networking middleware for distributed systems. You added "middleware" as a different category, but i think it belongs to networking

Still, I am looking for suggestions where to apply. Any help is welcome. Currently I have a professors at UNC, UIUC and Cornell I am very interested in. Those schools are very competitive so I am searching for alternatives...

Edited September 25, 2013 by GermanStudent

[Pauli]

I am applying for Networks/Systems. Wonder why there are so few people doing the same. In my opinion video streaming is a field that will expand rapidly in the near future.

 

Because it's not a sexy-sounding field.  People often migrate to sexier disciplines like AI, HCI, graphics, robotics, etc.

[DeleteMePlease]

Yeah that makes sense. When I started my studies at college I was also mainly interested in AI/Psychology but my interested shifted.

So I guess applying to AI, HCI etc is much more competitive than other fields?

[Pauli]

So I guess applying to AI, HCI etc is much more competitive than other fields?

 

It really depends on the department.  The competitiveness may be more balanced by factors such as departments having more faculty for larger disciplines and the greater number of conferences and journals associated with those disciplines.