I’ll be quite frank, when I first enrolled on my PhD journey through the LINAS programme, I assumed this would be the beginning of a long four-year slog, spending day and night in front of a screen pulling out hairs, just dreaming of the end where I have my doctorate in hand and ready for whatever adventures are next.  While I would be lying if I didn’t say there are some days that are like that, but three years into this journey I can say for sure that’s not the average day.  The opportunities the PhD programme has afforded me have been endless; from frequently meeting with diverse and interesting people, to giving me a taste of academic life with teaching undergraduates, or hosting a seminar series.  It’s rare a week passes by where I’m not running between and juggling a handful of different activities, however, by far the best part of the PhD journey is the ability to travel to some fun conferences!

As a bit of a personal confession, if you want me to produce my most A-game research outputs and pour countless hours of efforts into weaving the finest words you’ve ever seen on a page… all you really have to do is dangle the carrot of an exciting far away excursion to present my work to a brand new audience and the chance to see some new countries.  Across my three years (and primarily due to the generous LINAS travel budget!) I’ve had the opportunity to present in Oxford, Cambridge, Denmark, France (while they were hosting the rugby world cup, that was fun!), Minnesota and now most recently in California.  Each trip has provided an unforgettable journey, some good, like renting a car for my travel from Chicago to Minnesota and making some friends along the way. Some less good, not being allowed to board my flight home from Copenhagen comes to mind.  Nonetheless, all unforgettable experiences and each crucial in defining my research outputs as well as broadening my perspectives on my main research area of AI in the public sector and AI ethics by engaging with such diverse audiences.

To give some more insight into the experience of attending and presenting at an academic conference, I’ll discuss a bit more about one of my favourite PhD moments which was presenting at the AI, Ethics & Society (AIES) conference in San Jose, California during October 2024.  Beyond the chance to travel to San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley (a dream to a tech-nerd like me!), the AIES conference held a particularly special place for me.  Forever ago, back when I originally started on my PhD journey, one of the first conferences I attended was AIES at Oxford university.  My supervisor suggested I attend to get a feel for the research going on in my area and thought it might help me to identify what direction I wanted to take my own research.  With this being one of my first conferences back then, it was all quite an intimidating experience, the feeling of imposter syndrome was a serious challenge and still often is, which I think is true for any early career researchers.  But that first conference allowed me to chat and connect with some really interesting people and was a defining moment in directing my research to where I have taken it today.  So, when AIES 2024 accepted my work and invited me to come along to present at their conference was a really exciting moment, not only would I get the chance to visit Silicon Valley, I was also afforded the opportunity to give back to an audience which was instrumental in defining my work that had got me this far.

For travelling to the conference, my flights required me to travel to San Francisco and then jump on the BART railway system to move on over to San Jose.  Since I had travelled all that way, it was only right to spend a couple of days being a San Fran tourist, visiting Alcatraz Island for the afternoon.  Then running across the Golden Gate Bridge the following morning, mid-October and 20+ degrees the entire trip – no complaints from me!  After treating myself to a number of deliciously unhealthy meals, I moved on to San Jose for the main event.  The first thing I noticed about the conference this year, is with this being the 7^th annual year of the conference the number of attendees has grown significantly since I last attended (speaks a lot about the direction of AI Ethics!).  It again made me feel how I had originally felt when I attended before, an imposter, out of place and surrounded by so many reputable and influential people in the field; but as the conference went on this feeling faded.  It allowed me to reflect on how far I’d come and how much I had developed as a researcher, being able to contribute more and not afraid to ask questions.

While I could go on endlessly about the adventures I got up to during my week at the conference, I’ll provide some summary highlights: my presentation went down well and I got good engagement on what direction I should take it heading into my final year and beyond.  As a student presenter I was invited to a student’s only lunch and discussion event that allowed me to connect with a lot of likeminded PhD students and early career researchers from a wide-range of disciplines.  The conference also allocated me a ‘mentor’, connecting me with a well-established researcher with similar research interests as myself; we went for lunch together and had a very meaningful discussion about what’s next for both my research and life after PhD.  Lastly, I had the chance to catch-up with one of my PhD supervisors’ former students, where they told me about their life as a post-doc at Stanford University.

Then it was time to head home, back to a life of sitting in front of screens pulling hairs out (at least for a short while until another fun academic adventure pops up).  As I enter the final year of my PhD journey, I reflect back on the progress I’ve made - as much as I dreaded the actual presenting whether at a conference, a seminar, or even just an online meeting; it’s often these events and more so the chatting afterwards with the audience that I found provided the most meaningful outcomes.  Whether that be shaping the direction of my research area when I was first at AIES, or towards defining what my post-PhD career should look like when I returned to AIES this year.

…by the way, if you manage to see an AI ethics conference in a fun and exotic location, make sure to send the details my way!

 

Marc Elliott

Marc Elliott is a Doctoral Scholar on the Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Algorithmic Solutions (LINAS) Doctoral Training Programme.  His research focuses on the concept and practice of transparency, and how it applies to the classic underlying data-processing algorithms. His research intertwines computer and social sciences through investigating the human-data interaction that exists and by exploring the advancement of algorithmic transparency.