Thoughts on Service
I’m writing today from Palo Alto, where I am attending a meeting of the CCC Council. The CCC is the Computing Community Consortium, an organization started by the CRA about a year ago. Its purpose is to help researchers who want to develop and mobilize the community around new research initiatives. You can read more about it at http://www.cra.org/ccc.
But enough about that. With the election coming up next week, it seems like a good time to say a few words about service — service to our nation, to our local communities, and to our research community. In 2006, Berkeley’s David Patterson won the CRA Distinguished Service Award. Upon receiving the award, he said something to the effect that doing service work does at least as much to promote personal growth as it does to help others. I certainly agree with that. For me, working in service to others has exposed me to new ideas and put me in contact with lots of caring, committed people — many of whom have become very good friends.
As a researcher, service to the academic community has encouraged me to do better research. Why? Well, great researchers look first to other great researchers when recruiting people for service boards and committees. Career-wise, service work therefore has been a great way to leverage my research work. For example, my involvements in the CCC have helped shape proposals here at CMU in the area of data-intensive computing; my CRA work has taught me how to be more effective in my interactions with our congressmen; and my volunteer work in a local middle school has made me a better teacher. No matter whether on the local or national stage, service work has paid me dividends.
OK, I have to admit that there are times when I’m overdoing it. Besides the CCC Council, I have the honor of participating in several other service activities, including: the CRA Board of Directors, participating on both its government affairs and education committees; DARPA’s Information Science and Technology (ISAT) board, where I am the vice chair; and the National Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB). That’s on top of several advisory and ad hoc committees, CMU service assignments, and local community service. Add all this to my duties as the department head and my ongoing advising and research, and I end up traveling almost every week. Let’s just say that I have a wife and son (and Dean) who are incredibly understanding. It helps, also, that there are plenty of others who do a lot more than me.
This brings up an issue, of course, which is how to find the right balance between service and all the other things — research, teaching, personal life, etc. — that keep all of us so busy. This isn’t easy. But look at it this way: anyone who wants to be a “high-impact player” is going to have a lot of demands and occasionally find it hard to keep up. You do what you can. That’s why, in contrast to conventional wisdom, I advise people to get into service work early in a career, when there is more energy and, often, fewer family obligations. As long as you keep in mind that service is best when it leverages on your main job, you’ll do just fine.
So, the next time you are asked to serve on a program committee, or on a study board, or an advisory group, do it with the knowledge that you’ll benefit just as much as others will. If you are a really good researcher, give some consideration to being a program manager at an agency such as NSF or DARPA — they are always needing more good people and few service jobs have greater impact on the research community. And don’t forget your local community. Schools and community organizations can really benefit from your expertise.
On the eve of a new presidency, it will be more important than ever to come together as a united country, working to ensure a better world for our children and grandchildren. Doing your part when called upon is a really important way to get started.
Peter Lee @ October 30, 2008