{"600043":{"#nid":"600043","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Algorithms Ph.D. Student Sarah Cannon\u2019s Georgia Tech Career Has Been Anything But Random   ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECommunity has always been important to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/grads\/s\/scannon7\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESarah Cannon\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. The School of Computer Science (SCS) Ph.D. student chose Georgia Tech for its encouraging and collegial environment. Now in her final year, she\u0026rsquo;s involved in theory group research, grad student social groups, and a push to get more women in CS.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The types of things I\u0026#39;m interested in are right on the border of math and computer science, and I could do both at Tech in a friendly and supportive environment,\u0026rdquo; she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDiscovering algorithms\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlthough Cannon is now a distinguished student in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.aco.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EAlgorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization\u003C\/a\u003E (ACO) doctoral program, she first discovered theoretical computer science in her sophomore year at Tufts University. The math major was getting a minor in CS when she took an algorithms class and excelled. After the semester, her professor asked her to join a computational geometry research project focusing on graph orientations. The experience pushed her to pursue a career in computer science, leaving Tufts with an acceptance to ACO.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBut before the New Hampshire native moved South, she spent a year earning her master\u0026rsquo;s in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. The experience led her to refocus specifically on algorithms when she arrived at Tech in the fall of 2013.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECannon studies the mathematical foundations of Markov chains for discrete geometry problems, specifically with applications in statistical physics and distributed computing. Markov chains are algorithms used for generating random samples.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;You can accomplish a lot more if you\u0026rsquo;re okay with things not happening 100 percent of the time but 99.9 percent of time,\u0026rdquo; Cannon says. \u0026ldquo;Randomized algorithms enable things to be a lot simpler and faster.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWith a Markov chain, small local changes can dramatically affect the global behavior of an algorithm. Once this effect is understood, it can be harnessed to accomplish new research goals.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECannon has had the opportunity to see the impact of her research firsthand through her work with the College of Physics\u0026rsquo; \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/crablab.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EComplex Rheology And Biometrics (CRAB) Lab\u003C\/a\u003E. One focus of this collaboration is distributed algorithms for robot swarms, where the goal is for the robot swarm as a whole to exhibit interesting behavior. This is accomplished by carefully defining local algorithms. Using Markov chains to develop these local algorithms allows the researchers to prove what would happen and what behavior the swarm would exhibit.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We wanted to take our theoretical knowledge, the intuition we have from working with these problems, and apply it to explain or motivate some of these phenomena the robotics researchers were seeing,\u0026rdquo; Cannon says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBuilding a Community\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECannon credits her research opportunities to the tight-knit theory lab and her advisor, Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/people.math.gatech.edu\/~randall\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDana Randall\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026ldquo;She always has so many interesting problems she\u0026rsquo;s bringing to my attention, and she always gives me the freedom to choose what I want to work on.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYet Randall also encourages students to have a life outside of their studies. After nearly five years, Cannon has found a balance captaining the Atlanta women\u0026rsquo;s field hockey team, running, and reading Agatha Christie mysteries before bed.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat support, both in studies and extracurricular activities, is something Cannon found unique to Tech, and she\u0026rsquo;s tried to bring some of that spirit to the student community. Cannon organizes a weekly graduate student \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mailman.cc.gatech.edu\/mailman\/listinfo\/c2h6o\u0022\u003Ehappy hour\u003C\/a\u003E, and she has also made it one of her goals to help increase diversity in CS.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen Cannon first arrived at Tech, she was the only woman in her 10-person ACO cohort. To connect to more women in the college, she has been on the organizing committee of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/calendar.google.com\/calendar\/embed?src=sta51f62j6ki3lmt3kvanaf3q8@group.calendar.google.com\u0026amp;ctz=America\/New_York\u0026amp;pli=1\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Graduate Women in the College of Computing\u003C\/a\u003E since 2015. \u0026nbsp;The group hosts biweekly coffee breaks to get to know each other, a semesterly faculty lunch with female professors, craft nights, happy hours, and more. It\u0026rsquo;s even become an informal mentorship group as students can discuss problems and get advice from each other.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s about connecting to the female grad students here, getting to know each other, and having a support network,\u0026rdquo; Cannon says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPreparing for Life After Tech\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn her time at Tech, Cannon has had quite an impact. She was a 2015 recipient of the Simons Award for Graduate Students in Theoretical Computer Science, awarded to 10 or fewer students at U.S. and Canadian universities each year. She is also an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and was previously a Clare Boothe Luce Outstanding Graduate Fellow.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHer success at Tech has prepared her well for her future career in academia. She partially chose Tech for the opportunity to be able to both teach and do research. Last summer, she was an instructor of record for an undergraduate algorithms course. Her depth of algorithms knowledge enabled her to pare down what would be most relevant to the students. The most rewarding moments were when everyone connected with the material.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;To get students in a required course excited about something can be difficult,\u0026rdquo; Cannon says. \u0026ldquo;But there were a few times I presented something that got the students to say, \u0026lsquo;Wow, that\u0026rsquo;s cool!\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs Cannon applies for jobs that will enable her to do this kind of teaching in addition to her research, she is still active in the Tech community. This January, she will be attending the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.siam.org\/meetings\/da18\/\u0022\u003ESymposium for Discrete Algorithms (SODA)\u003C\/a\u003E in New Orleans and presenting at the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/jointmathematicsmeetings.org\/\u0022\u003EJoint Mathematics Meeting\u003C\/a\u003E (JMM) in San Diego. This is all on top of working on her thesis combining all of her theoretical research.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECannon calls herself a theorist fundamentally, but just like her research with robots connects theory to the real world, she\u0026rsquo;s helped to connect a community at Tech and show just how much a woman in computer science can do.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Sarah Cannon is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the ACO program."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2017-12-18 18:57:16","changed_gmt":"2017-12-18 20:45:46","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-12-18T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2017-12-18T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"600044":{"id":"600044","type":"image","title":"Sarah Cannon","body":null,"created":"1513623706","gmt_created":"2017-12-18 19:01:46","changed":"1513623706","gmt_changed":"2017-12-18 19:01:46","alt":"Sarah Cannon works on algorithms.","file":{"fid":"228756","name":"_MG_5830 copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/_MG_5830%20copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/_MG_5830%20copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":284412,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/_MG_5830%20copy.jpg?itok=l1LYQOO0"}}},"media_ids":["600044"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Commications Officier\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:tess.malone@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Etess.malone@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["tess.malone@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}