By Daniel W. Goldberg

Every year, at commencement ceremonies around the world, university presidents and college deans tout the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to pursuing a degree. Awards are typically bestowed on exceptional undergraduate students who have simultaneously double- or even triple-

majored in disciplines such as fine arts, business, and computer science (CS), or exemplary graduate

students who have earned a PhD under the tutelage of advisors from equally disparate programs.

Exemplary, perhaps not, but I am one of these people. During the last four years at the University

of Southern California, I’ve been a CS PhD student in the Viterbi School of Engineering. All through-

out, I’ve been working as a graduate research assistant in the Department of Geography in the

College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, funded by grants obtained in the Department of Preventive

Medicine in the Keck School of Medicine, with advisors from each.

At times, I’ve looked at other students in my cohort and felt sure I was going down the wrong

path because their CVs had peer-reviewed conference papers while mine only had a series of non-

peer-reviewed “technical reports” and two peer-reviewed articles in non-CS journals. On more than

one occasion I’ve had the less-than-pleasurable experience of rationalizing to myself and my advisors

that what I am doing is actually CS research. Perhaps most difficult of all, I’ve had to mediate the sci-

entific approaches inherent to the disciplines of my advisors while carving out a research topic and

schedule amenable to all that would fly for a CS degree.

Despite these challenges, I can thankfully and confidently state that my experience has been, over-

all, quite a positive one. My experience has imparted first-hand practical knowledge on how to identify

underlying computational problems that others don’t recognize, which my CS education and training

has prepared me to solve or optimize. Although it was sometimes difficult to appreciate during day-

long debugging sessions, the encouragement and requirement to step out of the proof-of-concept-only

mold allowed me to make contributions that are

actually being used by thousands of people.

This exposed me to big-picture thinking, and

has made me consider the scalability, reliability,

and generalizability of my solutions at every turn,

concepts that I hope will prepare me well for a

career in either industry or academia.

Equally beneficial, I now know a great deal

more about potential funding sources and col-

laborators than I would have otherwise, having

written grant proposals to institutes interested

in things other than CS, forcing me to figure out

how to situate my specific research contribu-

tions in clear and concise terms that non-experts

can understand.

8 Tips for CS-Hybrid Students

❶ Know your roles and responsibilities

❷ Stay focused

❸ Be prepared to say no

❹ Keep track of tasks and time

❺ Be aware of the expectations

❻ Get Involved

❼ Be a sponge and a chameleon

❽ Stay disciplined