The presentation I'm scheduled to give on December 2 is supposed to be technical. The spotlight is on the research and the institution. I don't get to make an Oscar-like acceptance speech in a tremulous voice as someone fixes my tiara and hands me a bouquet.
That's what blogs are for.
This research group began at a time when I was actually thinking of leaving the Ateneo. Life on the hill was confusing at the time. My term as Chair was ending. The reviews about my aptitude as an administrator were mixed. I loved teaching but I'd always felt like a bit of a fraud if I taught from the book. I needed to teach from experience, and my well experience was running dry. There was a strong urging from the higher admin to form research groups, but the culture of research young and still finding its legs. Mentors were hard to come by, especially in my field, this bastard child of computer science and education. I thought that maybe it was time to leave the safe harbour of academia and go back out into the real world where I might find more clarity.
I made a last attempt at establishing a homestead. I deliberately looked for a topic that brought together hard computer science and education. I looked for collaborators. I had my grad classes do little experiments. I submitted a few grant proposals. I wish I could say that I had some great vision, some grand design or architecture in mind when all this began, but the truth is I felt like I was setting up a sari-sari store, as opposed to Trinoma. In the early years, I never knew what the next study would be, who would do the work, or where we would publish. There was no plan, no strategy, no MVO. I did the work that was convenient, aiming for the low-lying fruit, with the people I had.
And I didn't have many people--no one permanent, in any case. My teams were always ad hoc, made up of whoever was willing and able. I would always say that working with me is not marriage: It's just coffee. We do one project and then we're done. We part as friends. No one is obliged to stay on.
I did have several things going for me, though. First was that I had (and have) world-class collaborators, foremost of whom is Ryan Baker. If there is one person who deserves the most credit for dragging the work onto the world stage, it is him, and I cannot thank him enough. My other collaborators--Art Graesser, Sidney D'Mello, Matt Jadud, Jean-Francois Nicaud, Genaro Rebolledo-Mendez, Noboru Matsuda, Andrew Junker, Tanja Mitrovic, Kathi Fisler, Guillaume Marceau and many, many others--overwhelmed me with their generosity. They moved the work forward, enriched my options, wired me into the right networks. They gave the work scale as well as quality.
Second, I could write. I'm not winning any Nobels any time soon, mind you, but I can write well enough to put together an acceptable grant proposal, and get into journals and conferences--currency in this world.
Third, because I could write, I was able to get funding money. The Department of Science and Technology has been generous with its support. They've enabled us to hire talent and buy toys, and in this game, thems wid da most toys wins.
Finally, I had people who wanted to (or had to) work with me, for whatever reason. Some of them were the very best their batches had to offer. I won't attempt to name everyone because I'm likely to forget people and that would be bad. I will single out a couple of people, though. Jessica Sugay has backed me up since this liitle cottage industry began. I've learned so much for her about organizing the million million details that go into mounting a field study. Her OC-ness has been a model worth emulating. For this, she will always have my gratitude. The other person is Sweet San Pedro. Sweet only worked with me for maybe 18 months, but in that time she was everything that an adviser could hope for. She was (is) smart, independent, self-motivated. She has achieved the most stellar success I've ever had in my group--the publications, the PhD scholarship--and she's not slowing down. Sweet has set the bar, and it is high.
If someone had told me five years ago that we would win any prizes for our work, I don't think I would have believed them. I'm not the smartest person in my department and there are far sexier things going on in terms of research. I wasn't the first person in affective computing, computer-aided instruction, novice programmer studies, data mining or AI in this country. I wasn't even the first person in Ateneo who was into these things. What happened, though, was that they had moved on to other things, while I stayed and poured what time and energy I could into something that captured my interest, in the hope of making myself relevant to academia again, and making a life in academia meaningful to me.
To all of my companions who were and are the magic that turns what would otherwise be a highly personal journey into a truly institutional research program, my sincere and profound gratitude.
