My Transition out of Academia

I got tenure, and I left academia right away

Hello everyone,

I'm writing to share that I made the difficult and complex decision decision to leave academia directly after earning tenure this spring. This may seem strange since US academic tenure is a coveted status that I worked hard for years to earn, so it warrants an explanation.

Sadly, 21st century US academia is an unhealthy environment for professors, and it's recently gotten much worse with our current government attacking academia from all angles, especially haphazardly pulling grant funding from major funding agencies such as the NSF and NIH, as well as actively pushing away some of our best and brightest scholars who have been here for many years on green cards and visas. Furthermore, the rising tuition costs and simultaneous dwindling job prospects for our students, both universal problems brewing in US colleges for some time, started to weigh very heavily on me in my role. To add fuel to the fire, as I mentioned in another post, large language models (LLMs) have thrown an enormous challenge into classroom teaching, particularly for computer science, in a timeline that was already fraught with challenges for classroom teaching. The timing couldn't be worse. (The academic publish or perish culture is also a complete mess right now and is similarly exacerbated by LLMs). Sadly, none of these issues change with tenure, and, until there are broad systemic changes in US society (e.g. prioritizing learning for its own sake, stable government funding for basic science and the humanities, serious efforts to cultivate and retain intellectual talent, and a culture that values quality over quantity in publications) I believe the "job security" and idealism of a tenured faculty position are an illusion in this country.

On a more positive note, though, several exciting prospects have been pulling me away from academia proper recently. Most of my creative energy over the past few years has gone into assignment design and academic research projects, and although this has been rewarding, there are other creative outlets I want to explore while I'm here on earth. I also want to challenge myself and work with other people on deeply technical projects in industry to make real products out in the world. I've gotten a taste of that recently with a few consulting projects, and I'm itching to do more of it.

Finally, though I have a passion for teaching, I realized I don't have to give it up entirely, as I can continue to expand my YouTube channel, which started out as a way to make asynchronous educational videos during the pandemic but which surprisingly mushroomed recently. I'm excited to be able to devote more time to topics that don't fit neatly into a class, such as this probabilistic YIN video I made a few weeks ago.

All of that said, I still strongly believe that academic institutions are crucial to a healthy society, and I think Ursinus college in particular is transformational with the "common intellectual experience," blurring the boundaries between disciplines, and hands on learning and getting to know students deeply. It's a hidden gem, and the faculty there are next to none, so I hope we can preserve places like this and that students continue to value higher education that cultivates careful thinking. In fact, I believe in it so much that I will remain as a volunteer "research fellow" at Ursinus, working with a few students per year on creative projects. So for those who are still interested in US academia in spite of its challenges (perhaps because you are also a teacher at heart), have a look at the tenure track search for an Ursinus CS position for next year to fill my position. It's about as good as you can do right now if you want an environment with the right priorities and people who care (especially the folks in math/cs/statistics!).

Overall, the hardest thing about this decision was leaving my students. What made this even harder was, in an ironic and bittersweet twist of fate, shortly after officially announcing my departure last spring to my department, I got the college-wide teaching award for the year, which was nominated by students and presented at graduation, as shown in the picture below:

I got the college wide teaching award the same semester I decided to leave, which was presented at graduation. This was a special way to bookend my time at Ursinus, and it felt like I was graduating with the students!

This is a testament to my connection to the Ursinus class of 2025, who were with me during the peak of my classroom teaching career, so it felt like we were celebrating and graduating together. I will miss my students who are still there, but I realized that cycle would always repeat itself with a new batch every year...

Anyway, given all of the above, I am embarking on a job search today!

#OpenToWork

If you could use a research scientist and/or engineer (yes, I can do both!) with expertise in signal processing (especially audio), geometry processing (especially 3D), algorithm design, and machine learning, drop me a line and we can chat. Over the years, I've worked on everything from music systems, to video analysis, to computer graphics and shape analysis, to medical data analysis, and many things in between. I love diving into the guts of highly technical projects myself, but I also have extensive experience mentoring more junior folks in that process. I also have lots of experience collaborating with domain experts outside of STEM, and I have a particular specialty communicating deeply technical ideas in an understandable way using (often interactive) algorithm visualizations. Also, because of when I was trained during my undergrad and Ph.D. and because I taught the majority of the undergraduate CS curriculum over the past six years, I'm comfortable with both classical and modern techniques, and I know how to leverage classical techniques and deeper mathematical ideas appropriately (for instance, to improve machine learning pipelines).

Take care everyone. This is only the beginning!

Sincerely,

Chris Tralie

P.S. I'm here to Zoom/correspond with and to listen to anyone who's struggling and deciding between academia vs industry. If you're in that boat, I would also highly recommend checking out the "recovering academics" Slack community started by Gabrielle Filip Crawford. The community is full of kind and attentive people with no agenda who want the best for everyone across all backgrounds, and it is helpful regardless of whether or not you are planning to leave. They also have weekly zoom meetings every Tuesday night.