Should I major in Computer Science or Writing?

How can one be involved in writing an academic paper remotely in the field of computer science/computer engineering or electrical engineering?

• I study at UW-Madison and would like to know how I can get involved in writing papers remotely with other students at other universities.

• Answer:

  Go to conferences, e.g. of regional professional associations in your field (in my field of graduate study, mathematics, the MAA and AMS have regular regional meetings), and look for people talking on topics you're interested in. Ideally there'll be students giving talks and you can chat them up afterwards about extending the results they describe in the talk. Otherwise, you might find students in the audience to talk to about potential common research interests. One way or another, if you want to write papers with people (as with many other forms of social interaction...), you need to meet them in a social setting where you can establish that they're like-minded.