Ask HN: How to fund personal CS research if you are from Russia?
4 comments
I would advise him to present his work to someone who could estimate the value if his research and suggest a kind if mentor at least or optimally a sponsor for visa. There happen to exist offers for positions of visiting student+researcher etc.
If roughly an area of research isn't a secret, could You provide it?
If roughly an area of research isn't a secret, could You provide it?
Thank you for your reply! One of the areas is incremental compilation, he is working on a technology to construct incremental compilers of custom programming languages. This is a semi-research and semi-engineering problem.
To start, how do you think where or who could he ask to estimate of such work?
To start, how do you think where or who could he ask to estimate of such work?
Here is what he needs to do.
If he is a good mobile developer and knows English to pass an interview, first thing he should find a good-paying remote job. Couple of good places to start with are workatastartup.com and linkedin. Once he lands a remote position, he should spend couple of months to learn the company and workstyle and make himself comfortable with his job duties.
After that he could easily find several hours a week for his research. Considering the fact he has no dependants, he should be able to do the work, do his research and generally live pretty decent life.
Main goal for him should be securing his life first (food, place to live) and only after that he can think about reaching his goals.
Main goal for him should be securing his life first (food, place to live) and only after that he can think about reaching his goals.
Thanks! That's what I think he should do too. My question was basically if there are other options for researchers like him. Such that he could work on his work directly. Mobile dev is something he could do, and he could do it well, but it is unrelated to his primary research goals.
A friend of mine who is from Russia is currently in somewhat unusual situation. He asked me to give him advice, but I don't know what to tell him, and I would like to ask for your opinion too.
My friend is a very talented person, who has been working on computer science research in quite rare fields of research for many years.
He is a self-taught one, he never received formal education, but he has deep knowledge and expertise in these fields. To fund his personal project and to pay regular bills, he is working as a mobile app developer. So, his research is basically a "hobby" thing, but he sees it as his primary life priority. To mention, he does not have any family. So, his side work is basically all that he has.
Recently my friend has to leave his job and to escape Russia, because he does not want to participate in Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Currently he lives abroad in those few countries that still didn't close their borders to Russian citizens. Informally speaking he is a refugee, even though he does not have such status officially. It is likely that if he returns back home he will be prescribed to serve in the war zone.
Hear is the problem.
He wants to keep working on his research project, but his savings are declining dramatically, because he lives abroad. He is going to find remote job to pay current expenses, but probably he no longer will be able to continue his research in this case. He will have to survive.
I really don't know what to tell him. In some way his situation is much better than a lot of people have today. At least he could find a job, and he has some savings. But he will have to abandon the work of his life.
Maybe there are another opportunities I could advice him in his situation?
Thanks in advance!