Learn with me!
This is Jess. I'm starting this newsletter to document my journey of learning in areas: robotics, work, study, and a little bit of economics/entrepreneurship.
Almost every day, I come across interesting things that I can learn a lesson from, whether it is when I am intentionally reading textbooks about robotics or scrolling unintentionally on YouTube. Inspired by one of those YouTube videos, “How to Start an Email Newsletter“ (@aliabdaal), I decided to start the weekly newsletter to document the interesting things that I have learned in areas such as robotics, industry, academia, and a little bit of economics/entrepreneurship. I hope you find these things interesting to you as well :)
What is in the newsletter?
There will be several main areas covered by the newsletter:
Robotics
Personal high-level thoughts. Here I will share my personal thoughts on robotics based on my 7+ years of experience in the field of robotics.
Things I learned. Here I will share things I learn or “re-learn“ in the field of robotics. (Don’t be surprised when I share intro-level robotics from time to time.)
Industry
How to get in (robotics). With 20+ interview experience, I’ll share my thoughts on “what makes a good candidate“ for interns and entry-level scientist in robotics.
How to grow. Here is where we really “learn together“. With 2+ years in industry, I’m in the stage of learning (and hopefully growing) rapidly as I interact with colleagues and as our team grows.
Academia
How to get into robotics PhD program. Here I will share my own experience as an “international“ student; and based on my experience interacting with undergrads in the US, provide my tips for US undergrads as well.
Personal thoughts on study and research. Here I will share my own experience as a student (K-12 and undergrad) in Taiwan and as a PhD student in the US.
(a little bit) Economics/entrepreneurship. Two of the main themes I follow on YouTube. Since I didn’t invest much time in this area comparing to the first three topics, I think I need to add the “a little bit“ at the front of this category.
Others. Sports, anime, F1 … :)
Hopefully you find some of these topics interesting to you!
About me
If you've read up to this point, you've probably figured that I'm someone who is from Taiwan, has a PhD, and is doing robotics. You are correct!
I'm Jess, a robotics applied scientist at Amazon. I grew up in Taiwan, finished undergrad there, and came to the US to study controls and robotics at UC Berkeley. After graduating, I joined Amazon as an applied scientist. I'm a Christian. I like to talk to and learn from people I meet. I like sports and anime.
Promises to the Reader
To make your reading efficient:
I’ll use bold fonts to high-light the takeaways.
I’ll cover 2 to 3 topics per week.
I’ll be concise.
What kind of community I’m looking to build
Disclosure: this is one of the "How to write the first post" prompts from Substack. This is an interesting one to think about for me!
Whenever I say "I'm a robotics researcher", people seem interested in both the field itself (thanks to social media) and my journey to becoming someone who works in the field. Many people will ask for my thoughts about robotics news they've heard and my experience working at Amazon as a robotics researcher. Students and parents often ask about my pathway from elementary school to landing a job in robotics.
If you are interested in any of these, this newsletter is for you!
(And hopefully you find the content about economics, entrepreneurship, sports, anime, F1 … interesting too. :)