FAQ – FINAL PROJECT

  1. What sorts of questions do we prepare for the interview: Technical vs. non-technical?
    It is good to have a mix, with an emphasis on the former. For technical questions, see examples in presentation GBM6330_Lecture4_20180201_QuestionsForInterview. Non-technical questions such as “Could you describe your background/training?” are good icebreakers to get people comfortable at the start. Another basic/easy question is “How did this project come about? What was the motivation/inspiration behind it?” which can be answered in a technical or non-technical way depending on the project and the person answering.

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  2. Just how technical should the technical questions be?
    There is a lot of flexibility here: You have chosen researchers to interview based on your own personal interest – the same applies to the questions. You need to read the article and be comfortable enough with it to ask questions.

    • If you’re not an expert on the topic before reading it, you’re not going to be an expert after reading it either. That’s fine. Interview questions can be along the lines of “Why did you do X?” which gives you the opportunity to have things clarified that you didn’t understand. (Just don’t ask too many questions that were actually answered in the paper itself! That defeats the purpose of the interview. And don’t ask about really basic things you could have looked up yourself, e.g. Q: What’s a Fourier transform? A: Please ask Wikipedia.)
    • If you’re already something of an expert on the topic, you’re still unlikely to be more of one than the researchers themselves. So, if you have some super nerdy question for which you are likely to be among the only 3 living people on the planet capable of understanding it… Go ahead. (But don’t try to prove yourself by asking about esoteric things that only you know about. The interview is supposed to be about their research. And it’s supposed to be a conversation, not an oral exam for the researchers.)

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  3. For a psychology paper, what sorts of questions are appropriate, given that this is a class on biomedical technology?
    As indicated in the previous answer, there isn’t always a clear distinction between technical/non-technical questions/answers. Technology is being used to answer biomedical (in this case: psychological) questions. But again: Engineering class, therefore, the emphasis should probably be on technological aspects (e.g. Why did you use technological methodology X as opposed to Y?)

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  4. Just how novel does the work have to be?
    If it was published, it’s probably novel enough! Not every question needs to be about the single specific methodological novelty introduced in the paper. Hopefully, after the interview, you arrive at some appreciation for how the researchers themselves understand how their work fits within a broader picture.

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  5. Can the interview be longer than 45 minutes?
    Sure, if it’s going well and everyone wants to keep talking, go ahead. However, you will be surprised how much material you can get even out of 20 minutes! (e.g. My interview with Sebastian Littin and Maxim Zaitev was ~45 minutes long and resulted in ~4500 words. This required a lot of time afterward for transcription and editing the final version. Cutting 3000 words of a conversation you found interesting is really difficult!)

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  6. How old can the article be?
    No formal limit, just a practical one: The idea is to have both first and senior authors present for the interview. The senior author is the PI, and the first author is often a grad student or post-doc. If you choose an old paper, the first author may have moved on from the lab and may not be reachable anymore.