Danfeng (Daphne) Yao
Virginia Tech

Abstract: Impostor syndrome and anxiety are often under-discussed topics in our tech community. How do people with impostor syndrome feel? How does the condition impact work? How to overcome the problem? Understanding these mental challenges will greatly benefit the broad computing and information technology community, especially entry- or mid-career professionals, and graduate students. The speaker will share her intimate personal research experiences and uses them to illustrate impostor syndrome’s complexity and its devastating effect on research persistence, as well as the need for the community to collectively understand the issue — beyond simple self-help tips.