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Graduate Studies?
CREDITS: MARIE DESJARDINS, CRISTIAN BORCEA, STEVE KASS, ROSEMARY HAYS-THOMAS, SHERRY
SCHNEIDER, STEPHEN VODANOVICH, LAURA KOPPES BRYAN, SANDRA CRUZ-POL, DANIEL ERNST,
PAUL WAGNER, TAO XIE, GAIL P. TAYLOR, UBC FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES, SALIH DUFFUAA
Outline 3
A Plan to Succeed
Develop Skills
Shop for a Research Topic
Shop for an Advisor
Thesis Proposal
Perform Research
Managing Your Advisor
Write-up
Time Management
Surviving the Defense
Life balance
Conclusion
Develop A Plan to Succeed 4
Commitment
Succeed in Graduate Studies 5
Elements
Coursework
Exams and/ or Tests
Research
Succeed in Performing Research 6
Develop Skills and Personality
Scenario - 1 Scenario - 2
I am looking for any topic that I am looking for any topic that
facilitates me to graduate before provides me some extra income
the end of this semester
What will be your impression if you
What will be your impression if you ware a possible advisor?
ware a possible advisor?
Shop for a Research Topic 14
A Scenario
I am looking for an interesting topic that facilitates me to positively
contribute to the field
What will be your impression if you ware a possible advisor?
Shop for a Research Topic 15
Time Commitment
Honesty
Productivity
Teamwork, cooperation and assistant
Feedback and communication
Respect
Loyalty
Thesis Proposal 23
Implementation
Inmost research problems, will have to
implement your ideas
Except for purely theoretical problems
Everysuccessful project goes through this hard
phase
Design is more fun than implementation
No magic here: work hard!
Ifyou dont know how to implement something
or have troubles with a bug
ask colleagues or advisor for help
Dont suffer in silence
Perform Research 30
Evaluation
Prove that your solution works as claimed
Should know from the design time experiments
and metrics
Form a hypothesis: what type of results you
expect
Experiments contradict hypothesis: think of
potential reasons and discuss them with advisor
Work in the lab a significant amount of time
Learn from interactions with colleagues/advisor
Progressing Efficiently
31
Make a daily to-do list
Prioritize: do the most important things first
Multitask
Do many experiments (Maximize luck)
Plan for the tomorrows work before you leave
Work on at least one weekend day (this will save
you months!)
Read literature mostly at night
Put a date on EVERYTHING! Its a locator device
Watch out for inefficient computer use or texting
From Iris Lindberg - http://thelindberglab.com
Managing Your Advisor 32
Remember
Advisors work hard to support research work
You work hard to produce results
What is good for student is good for advisor and vice versa
Impress Your Advisor 33
Might be hard
Good results are not published due to sloppy writing
Ask advisor for models of good papers
Get advisors feedback early and often
Re-write
Read on writing
One idea per paragraph
Do paragraphs follow one another in a logical
structure?
Writing Papers 39
Typical structure
Abstract - Introduction
Related work - Design
Implementation - Evaluation
Conclusions
Have clear abstract/introduction
Ifvague or poorly written, reviewers will just look for
reasons to reject afterwards
Dont claim more than you did
Distinguish between will do and have been done
Time Management 40
Borcea
Students in high-ranked schools work between
60 and 80 hours per week [Cristian Borcea]
Faculty spend a similar amount of time
You will compete for jobs with students form other schools as well
Borcea
personal), set deadlines, and categorize them
function of importance
Pauschs
Importance graph for task
Continue withtime management:
Obviously, finish
these tasks
these tasks first
Urgency
More on time management
42
Dont have time for personal life?
Borcea
Some personal tasks must have high importance
According to previous slide, you might end up not doing urgent, but not
important tasks; its ok, the world goes on
Cristian
Try hard to respect deadlines once you agreed to them
Inform your advisor as soon as you are getting behind the
schedule
Defense Time 43
Reason
Finish writing during your final year
Execute the proposal
Advisor and committee members think you are ready
What about these reasons?
Family Problems
Financial Problems
Job-related Problems
Surviving the Defense 44
Borcea
Finish writing during your final year
In parallel with job searching
Thesis defense is reason to celebrate
Advisor/committee wont allow you to defend if not
ready
Not a good idea to defend if you dont have a
job
Cristian
Unless you dont receive support any longer
You could get job before thesis defense
Risk: you might never get the drive to finish
Surviving the Defense: Question 45
Time
Husni Al-Muhtaseb
Be confident and well-prepared
You should be the rare experts in your topic
Let your questioner finish his comment/ question
Be prepared to rehearse the question
Keep your answers short but precise
Deflect hostile questions
Confess your ignorance
Husni Al-Muhtaseb - Credits: Marie DesJardins, Cristian Borcea, Steve Kass, Rosemary Hays-Thomas, Sherry
Schneider, Stephen Vodanovich, Laura Koppes Bryan, Sandra Cruz-Pol, Daniel Ernst, Paul Wagner, Tao Xie, Gail 45
Life balance: A Brain on A Stick
You are a human being
Not a brain on a stick
You have friends and family
outside graduate school
Seek out the many resources
at KFUPM that can help you
through the tough times
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd012609s.gif
46
Conclusion 47