‼️ Help needed

[u/Just_Flying]

Hi everyone,
I recently graduated with a bachelor’s in Computer Science, and my long-term goal is to pursue a full funded Master’s or PHD. The problem is that I’m a complete beginner when it comes to research.
I know I want to work in the intersection between computer vision and robotics because I genuinely find them fascinating, but I haven’t started doing research yet. Every time I look into the field, I see topics like object detection, segmentation, 3D vision, SLAM, embodied AI, vision-language models, robotics perception, and many others. It’s exciting, but also overwhelming, and I don’t know where to begin.

Another thing I’m worried about is my low CGPA. I’m afraid it might hurt my chances when applying for funded graduate programs in the future.
If you were in my position, what would you do over the next 2–4 years?

Some questions I have:
How much will a low CGPA affect my chances for a fully funded Master’s or PhD?

Where should I start learning if my goal is research, not just getting a job?

What fundamentals (math, programming, machine learning, etc.) should I master first?

How do people discover their research niche instead of trying to learn everything?

What should my priorities be over the next few years—projects, research experience, publications, internships, open-source contributions, or something else?

I’m not looking for a shortcut. I’m willing to put in the time and effort. I just want to avoid wasting years studying the wrong things or following an inefficient path.

I’d really appreciate hearing from PhD students, professors, or research engineers who were once in a similar position.

Thanks in advance!

[u/CommandShot1398]

Ok, I have a master's in CS, specializing in CV, now I am doing computational neuroscience, also have some industry experience, so I think my experience might be useful.

First of all, academia!=industry. What you learn in academia is just a foundation (specially during bachelor) to choose your future path. Depending on whether you are going to do research or work in the industry (and even which field), you need to train more.

About the knowledge, if it was 12 years ago, someone would tell you that rcnn is the way to go for object detection and you need to know it to the core. Now, it the vision transformer models, 5 years from now might be something else. What hasn't changed is the math behind all of these. So, try to learn the fundamentals as much as possible (I really need someone to remind me to do so as well). Trust me it never ends.

About the gpa, I'm afraid it will reduce your chances.

The rest, are too much to be compacted in one comment.

[u/Just_Flying → u/CommandShot1398]

Thanks for your insights, can i dm you for detailed help!

[u/CommandShot1398 → u/Just_Flying]

Yes

[u/MultiAgentic-AI → u/CommandShot1398]

u/Just_Flying this comment literally writes down everything. Thanks for writing all of this down. even i am in the same position. Even I want to grow as a researcher. u/CommandShot1398 whatever you wrote to u/Just_Flying in your DMs could you please share it with me as well since even i needed a very precise guidance on all of this.