there's been a rising tide of academic HCI work in a similar space, wonder if there will be cross-pollination of ideas along these lines (many more papers i'm sure but some off the top of my head): https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.11473 https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.09128

1) “What It Wants Me To Say”: Bridging the Abstraction Gap Between End-User Programmers and Code-Generating Large Language Models (https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06597) -- they try to tackle a similar problem as what you described above

2) On the Design of AI-powered Code Assistants for Notebooks (https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.11178) - uses Mito as part of their case study

my two cents: find something where the grants align with your interests, or find a brand-new faculty member who has startup money so isn't as bound by grants in the near term. and if things don't work out, simply leave and go to industry -- with a marketable skill set like what you get from being a CS major, there's no way for you to lose. go wherever has work that you like more.

if you can't get on someone's critical path, then you have to make it very easy for them to help you with very little time commitment. e.g.,: http://pgbovine.net/how-to-ask-for-help.htm

(no guarantees that i'll be able to answer via text, though; maybe i'll make a video later. been trying to minimize my computering time off-hours due to increasing wrist pains ... PSA: take care of your wrists, everyone!)