Annual Summary for 2022

As the third year of this COVID-19 pandemic (and seems like the last year), 2022 is an ordinary but somewhat also special year for me. I got rejected three times on a paper, helped an undergraduate student, upgraded several machines, and started the very beginning of a visiting tour to Hong Kong.

1. I got rejected. Three times on one paper.

Same as last year, this year also started with a MICCAI full paper submission. I also spent most of my winter holiday writing this paper and also submitted it just in time, bla bla bla bla. However, the difference is that I got rejected this time, even without a chance for rebuttal. According to the four reviews, my paper actually ranked very first (MICCAI has this question of ‘How would you rank this paper among all the papers that you need to review?’) according to each of the reviewers, two of which even ranked me first. This is confusing, but acceptable though.  

I rewrote my paper according to the reviews, and resubmitted it to AAAI. This time I got the chance for rebuttal, but is also rejected in the end lol. So I continued updating the paper and submitted it to Medical Image Analysis by MICCAI Society, and this time I got rejected directly by the editor without review. This no doubt tells something, this is my problem. Therefore, I completely rewrote the paper and resubmitted it to JBHI on January 8th. Hopefully this time I can find my paper a home.    

2. About to be an RA.

This year I also started looking for research visits to other universities. Since my undergraduate university is officially banned by Proclamation 10043, I can hardly have a US F1 visa at this point. So, my supervisor then recommended me contact universities located in Singapore/HK/Europe, and I finally found a pretty good destination HKUST. I have talked to the HKUST supervisor and found we have a shared research interest. He is very energetic and has a deep insight into this research field, so an agreement was quickly reached, that I would go to HKUST in mid-2023 as a RA. We have already cooperated in this year’s MICCAI paper and I hope it can get to you soon.

3. Helping an undergraduate student

I also cooperated with an undergraduate student and did some research on pure-MLP networks. The boy is a nice guy but seems like lacking the motivation for research. In the beginning, he is not familiar with the code and seems hesitant to ask any questions, but eventually, everything just turns out fine. I really get along with him, and we have talked a lot about other things, his life and my life, whatever. He of course graduated on time with the pure-MLP work, and then found a job in this city. However, we have not contacted each other much since his graduation, but I still feel pretty good about helping him.

4. The machines

No one said anything, but seems like I am the one in charge of the machines in the lab right now. I have proposed several solutions to server building, and upgraded the servers of the lab several times this year (mostly because of the huge storage requirement of the histopathology data). The servers are pretty fun and are actually pretty different from normal PCs, I learned a lot (or at least something) during the DIY process. This year we also have three new students, and I also helped in building their lab PCs.