So I work in experimental particle physics and our daily tasks involve using particle collision simulation tools(mg5+pythia+delphes), distribute them on clusters, construct jet images using ROOT and finally experiment with neural networks on those jet images. So as people pointed out, what we do had a lot in common with the industry (where we learn from as well), which explains why many people involved in this kind of research could land a data scientist job. An interesting thing I've noticed is that many phD students in our group (with little CS background) waste lots of time on getting the software running (either locally or on cluster). You guessed it, we are trying to exploit the power of docker to make it easier for researchers to run those simulation tools.
Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
231–240 of 333 posts
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#232I was a dual physics/EE major at MIT for my undergrad.
For my PhD at MIT I was in the EE department working on quantum and single-photon imaging.
I now work on mostly computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. Robotics was a hobby of mine since high school, and is now my work.
I'm still passionate about physics and physics research, but I'm not happy with the academic system of today, which encourages pursuing a lot of low-hanging fruit just to publish and get tenure, instead of going after high-risk, potentially-groundbreaking, but likely to fail topics.
While doing my PhD one of the biggest questions I kept having is why the primary goal the system set for me is "to graduate" and not "to advance science". On several occasions faculty told me to not try something "because I would never graduate" if I went down those paths.
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#233I found Susan Fowler's story quite interesting, as told on her blog: https://www.susanjfowler.com
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#234Condensed matter physics PhD (2016) now working in the software industry as a data scientist. Focused on modelling/simulating materials during my thesis and realized that I loved the software aspect of things and did not love working on the same problem for many months at a time. As others mentioned, transitioning to data science is not that hard if you have a physics background and there are many interesting problem…
> Latest purchase was Exercises for the Feynman lectures. Those are wonderful! I dug them up late in my undergrad and spend some fun times with them.
That's great!
I did not know that the exercises appeared in book form until I found it a used book store. Read through most of the lectures in undergrad/grad school but needs a revisit.
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh wow! This looks like the physics book that I always wanted to read. Phd 2016 in condensed matter physics - now working in a mid-size (~600 people) software company as a data scientist.
Modern Classical Physics is a great book - I've recently started working through it (just about to move on to chapter 2). I'd be interested in chatting about it with others/cross-checking solutions. Anyone who's interested, drop me an email (address in my profile). If you're thinking of getting it but want to check it out, there's a 2012 draft version that the authors have previously taught from here: http://www.pmaw…
Thanks! This looks like what I will start with.
Can't find your email in your profile, though.
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
In his current situation, if he zones out, he produces nothing. In the situation where he's aided by the potentially faulty described system, if he zones out, he produces erroneously transcribed data.
What? In his current situation, if he zones out, he can produce erroneously transcribed data too. What's your point?
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Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
In his current situation, if he zones out, he produces nothing. In the situation where he's aided by the potentially faulty described system, if he zones out, he produces erroneously transcribed data.
What? In his current situation, if he zones out, he can produce erroneously transcribed data too. What's your point?
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
In his current situation, if he zones out, he produces nothing. In the situation where he's aided by the potentially faulty described system, if he zones out, he produces erroneously transcribed data.
What? In his current situation, if he zones out, he can produce erroneously transcribed data too. What's your point?
What? In his current situation, even if he doesn't zone out, he can still produce erroneously transcribed data too. Why even go to work?
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#239Just so you don't get the impression every physicist is having a fabulous time, here's me: I have a bachelors in physics. I went for a phd in biology but had to bail to work to support family, plus I can't seem to come up with original ideas. I now have a job with physicist as part of the title, but what I really do is try to read bad handwriting from records from nuclear weapons plants. It's a dull job a monkey coul…
I'm a recent engineering grad working in medical quality, and it's a world away from the design work I fell in love with in school and even from the test work in internship. But something Dave Jones of EEVBlog has said is that if you can get your design satisfaction outside of work, then work can just be what it is.
I'm sure how much of the physics you love can be done on your own time... Seems like the kind of field you need collaborators and CapEx but it's making me feel better about being paid to essentially check the work of others against regulation and sign off on it.
Re: Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?
#240Physicist (MS, not PhD) here. Started a healthcare software company and went through YC. The problem solving strategies learned in my physics training have been incredibly helpful in starting a business.