Viacheslav Komisarenko: reflections on the doctoral journey

On 13 January, Viacheslav Komisarenko defended his doctoral thesis “Aligning Training Loss to Evaluation Metrics in Deep Learning”. To mark the occasion, Professor Jaak Vilo, Head of the Institute of Computer Science, interviewed Viacheslav about how his journey in the world of research has unfolded.

What did you enjoy about working with formal models, proofs or algorithms?

In theoretical research, everything is predictable - you have some assumptions, rules, and given an acceptable set of transformations, you receive new results. Full predictability, even if you work in an uncertainty domain. Life is much more uncertain than research in uncertainty.

When did you first feel the thought: maybe I’m not good enough for this?

To be honest, I have never had such thoughts. I realized that in the end it is a matter of investing a certain amount of time into doing research, and occasionally I was thinking whether it is actually a good idea to invest so much time in it, as I clearly underestimate the amount of time and effort needed to complete this journey.

What has been the most difficult moment of your PhD so far?

There were moments that could be considered difficult, including intense work near the paper deadlines, 5-6 hours long meetings etc. In principle, such situations could be smoothed out or avoided. Now I can see that such situations are fun and memorable, and life could bring more difficult moments than a PhD.

Did you ever seriously consider quitting? Why?

I considered quitting before even the PhD started. My wife (girlfriend back there) got admitted to PhD studies at the University of Ghent, Belgium in June, while I got admitted to Tartu a few months earlier. So, I tried to get admitted to Ghent University, there was one position still open, but after 2 months of the interview process, I was runner-up - the highest ranked candidate who did not receive the position. I discussed the situation with my supervisor. We made an agreement about a potential research visit to Belgium, possibility to work remotely some time, conditional on research progress from my side. After that, I have not considered quitting, and it worked out quite well.

Do you have any hobbies that help you disconnect?

Yes, and I found having hobbies is extremely important. There are few that come from my teenage years, mostly sport-related: gym, long-range running, and a few that developed during PhD years, including travelling and board games such as Catan.

Is there a place or trip during your PhD that stands out in your memory?

It was a trip to Santiago de Compostella, Spain. This was in the 6th year of my PhD, but technically it was my first trip to the conference where my paper got accepted (I had one journal publication before that, but no conferences). It was late October, and there was very pleasant weather and tasty food there, and the best thing was to achieve an Outstanding Paper Award at the end of the conference.

How does pursuing a PhD fit into your family’s background or traditions?

My mother is a college math teacher, my grandmother was a school math teacher, most of my family was one way or another connected to tech/education. Still, I am the first in my family to get a doctoral degree.

What do you now appreciate most about living here?

I am enjoying calmness, nature-orientness, digitalisation. And I am glad to meet many great people here.

Is there something Estonians do that still makes you smile?

I like saunas, but before moving to Estonia visiting saunas was rather a rare occasion. Now, I go to sauna quite often, including after gym sauna. And almost every Estonian there pour more and more water, sometimes clearly too much. For some reason, it makes me smile.

Did you try to learn Estonian?

Yes, I am currently learning Estonian with a private tutor (provided by the company I am currently working at) and preparing for state exams. I also had two semesters of Estonian at the start of my PhD. I feel gratitude for Estonia for accepting me during my studies, and learning the language, at least up to pre-intermediate or intermediate level is a way of expressing it.

Looking back so far - was the uncertainty worth it?

I am not yet sure of professional or other benefits of completing the PhD, they will probably become more visible hopefully soon. But I am glad to have this experience and those moments in my life.