Internship Lineup: Sophia Sun

Tell me about your internship! What are your responsibilities? What projects are you working on over the summer?

Since I am a Ph.D. student, I am a research intern with Dolby Lab. Specifically, I work in the advanced technology group with the audio research team. They are trying to understand how sound can be improved and enhance human experiences. Since I have a research background in human-computer interaction and machine learning, my specific project focuses on creating a conversational agent that can enable music creators and general users to enhance music quality so they don’t have to process the complicated musical signals on the backend. It is natural language modeling to enable users to use plain human language to control their music performances. 

What is the most important thing you have learned thus far?

Definitely independent problem solving skills. Since I am a Ph.D. student, it is expected that I will be an expert in the domain I am working on. Therefore, they expect me to know all of the resources and knowledge sets that I need to acquire in order to finish the project. Another huge part of my job is cross-team collaboration. Since there are a lot of different engineering teams that you need to work with, and since Dolby is an international company, there are teams all over the world. Communicating is a key skill, especially when you have to work across multiple time zones. 

How did your research and school work prepare you for this role?

I am a second-year Ph.D. student, so I have had some time to get adequate knowledge in the field of human-computer interaction, as well as researching skills from my graduate studies and work in the GroupLens Lab with Dr. Joe Konstan. I am familiar with the research process and how to design projects. Before returning to grad school, I was a software engineer for two years where I learned coding skills and all of the computer science fundamentals. All of this came together to prepare me for this work with Dolby. 

Have there been any takeaways from this internship that you will bring back to your Ph.D. research at GroupLens?

What I will bring back is how the industry is looking at this type of work. One big difference between academia and industry is that industry is moving so fast. When new technologies emerge, they want to apply it as quickly as possible. The focus is on trying a bunch of things, even if it breaks down. In lab work, the technology needs to be further studied before testing it out.

I think another takeaway is learning how to showcase your research so people in the industry notice and take an interest in your work. You need to present your research in a way that appeals to that group and makes them want to hire you for internships and full-time roles.

How did you become interested in computer science and your specific areas of interest?

During my undergraduate years at Georgia Tech, I started as a math major. I realized that I really wanted to apply math to something practical. That’s why I changed my major to computer science. My interest in human-computer interaction started during my undergraduate research. I was joined the ubiquitous computing lab. They were analyzing how to bring computing to everyday life - hardware, software, wearables and everyday devices. 

Through that experience, I realized that my interests lie more in software than hardware. I enjoyed looking at wellbeing and mental health in online communities and analyzing recommender systems to see how it impacts the end user’s experiences. I particularly enjoyed the moral and ethical side of that work and looking at how to embed good values into those systems. This is what shapes my current interests in human-computer interaction, and the intersection with recommender systems and social computing. The University of Minnesota has given me great resources to dive into this work both in the lab and in my school work.  

What are your future career goals? How has this position impacted your goals?

I am considering pursuing a post-doctoral position after I graduate. I have not been in this internship very long, but I think I enjoy the academic research a bit more than industry work. I have more freedom to explore what I want to do and can focus on social good over commercial work. Next summer, I want to focus on my dissertation, but I might look at doing another internship after my fourth year in my Ph.D. program, like at an NGO or somewhere outside of tech.

What advice would you give to someone pursuing a similar internship in the future?

The most challenging part is getting the position as a Ph.D. student. Finding a position and getting an offer requires a lot of preparation. I started preparing last summer. In my spare time, I was doing Leetcode practice and reviewing the machine learning and statistics fundamentals. You are expected to be able to answer a broad range of questions within your domain. So start practicing and submitting applications early. I started submitting applications in August and I got my offer in February. You also can’t be afraid of failures. I think I failed most of my interviews and I got one offer. That is totally normal and you can’t give up.

Is there anything else that you would like to highlight?

Doing research can have many possibilities, so don’t be afraid to try things out in the early stages of your Ph.D. program. I think students have this perspective that you have to do long-term research in order to be recognized by the industry. I suggest trying everything early. I’m glad I am doing this internship during my second summer, because it has helped me realize some things I like and don’t like. You can better shape the future of your Ph.D. program and change directions if you need to. Be proactive and try new things when you can. Step out of your comfort zone and embrace the changes.