Episode 14: Danqi Chen

Interview with: Danqi Chen. 
Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. 
Grew up in China.

Episode Guide

In this Episode with Danqi Chen: Experiences as one of the only women Gold Medal Winners worldwide at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Experiences in the Yao Class or Special Pilot CS Class at Tsinghua University, Growing up in China, and early science/math interests. Adapting from Chinese to US education system. Her thoughts on gender disparity in CS, and advice for young women researchers. And much more!

• mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
• 0.00: Voices in this episode
• 4.08: Biography
• Chapter 1: 6.19: Childhood and Early Schooling Interest in math and science, 1990s and 2000s.
  • 7.49: Taking advanced classes on the side, in middle/high school.
  • 8.08: If you’re talented early, new doors open, Bypassing Entrance Exams to Chinese universities
  • 9.41: Language of Education and learning English. 
  • 10.38: First computer and first programming language
• Chapter 2: 11.59: International Olympiad in Informatics – She was the only female gold medalist that year worldwide, and very few girls. 2008.
  • 14.41: How is the Informatics Olympiad structured?
  • 16.17: Switching languages in the middle of the Olympiad
  • 18.27: Training and selection in China for the International Olympiad of Informatics
  • 20.47: Lots of friends from the Olympiad, still today!
    • Stefano Maggiolo, “An Update on the Female Presence at the IOI“, Olympiads in Informatics, 2015, Vol. 9, 127–137 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/ioi.2015.10 127 . [PDF]
• Chapter 3: 23.02: Special Pilot/Yao Class in Tsinghua, 2008-2012
  • 23.02: How to get in to Yao class? How competitive is it to get into Yao class?
  • 25.17: Choosing CS over Math, convincing her Dad.
  • 26.24: Yao Class Curriculum – How was it structured?
  • 28.01: Start of her interest in AI, ML, and research. She started in this field only in her grad school! The Speed of the Field since 2013.
  • 30.41: Minority as a girl in Yao class
  • 31.26: Improving women’s participation in CS
  • 33.10: Career choices at the end of Tsinghua Bachelors program
• Chapter 4: 34.50: Moving to US and PhD program at Stanford in 2012-2018
  • 34.50: Challenges: Adapting to the different Education System in the US 
  • 37.13: Building a friends circle in grad school
  • 38.13: Differences between hierarchical teacher-student relationship in Asia vs. Flat teacher-student relationship in US
• Chapter 5: 40.09: Perspectives, Retrospectives
  • 40.09: End of PhD Career Choices: Academia vs Industry
  • 40.50: Mentors and Role Models
  • 42.24: Yao class Redux: Coming in touch with International Researchers 
  • 43.57: Awareness of gender disparity in CS helps
    • “It’s helpful for female researchers to have several people as role models.”

About the Narrator in this Episode

• Danqi Chen (Wikipedia)
  • Currently: Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University
  • Leading Researcher in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)
  • Select Awards: 2019 Arthur Samuel Best Doctoral Thesis Award at Stanford University; Multiple faculty research awards from Google, from Amazon, and from Salesforce; Multiple awards in grad school.
  • Gold Medal Winner at International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), 2008. Where she was the only female gold medalist worldwide, and one of very very few girls.
  • Student in Yao Class or Special Pilot CS Class at Tsinghua University, 2008-2012.

• Danqi Chen’s Journey
  • 1990s: Born in China
  • 2008-2012: B.Eng from Tsinghua University in Beijing China, where she was in the Special Pilot CS Class supervised by Prof. Andrew Yao. Also called the “Yao Class”
  • 2012-2018: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University
  • 2018-2019: Visiting scientist at Facebook AI Research and University of Washington
  • 2019-Present: Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Princeton

Useful Links

• IOI Demographics Studies Referenced in Episode
  • Stefano Maggiolo, “An Update on the Female Presence at the IOI“, Olympiads in Informatics, 2015, Vol. 9, 127–137 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/ioi.2015.10 127 . [PDF]
  • Jelani Nelson, “2011-2020 USACO Camp Unique Participants by State“, 2020. [Link]. This was also referenced in [Episode 13] (Chapter 10, timestamp 1.24.05)
• China – Wikipedia Page
• Yao Class or Special Pilot CS Class at Tsinghua University
• Tsinghua University
• International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) [Wikipedia Page]
• International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)

Previously on this Podcast

In case you missed it! Previously on the Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast

• Our interview with Jelani Nelson, “immigrant” from US Virgin Islands and creator of AddisCoder program in Ethiopia (Episode 13), especially his last segment on IOI data inequity analysis.
• Our third segment (Episodes 9, 10, 11, 12) on Middle East, featuring entrepreneurs and a famous academic family from Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt , starting with the Middle East Entrepreneurs lead episode.
• Our second segment (Episodes 5, 6, 7, 8) featuring Computer Scientists from Brazil, all of whom spent careers in both academia and industry, going To and Fro between Brazil and US, and to and fro between academia and industry.
• Our first segment (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4) featuring Computer Scientists from Yugoslavia, A Country That No Longer Exists?
• Check them out!

• Credits
  • Music Credits for Podcast
  • The caption picture at top of page was taken in Wisconsin. Pic taken by Indy Gupta.

The Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast is available for free on your favorite devices & apps: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many more!