1 / 13

SIGNEWGRAD

SIGNEWGRAD. Professor Lloyd - 416 Smith Hall - elloyd@udel.edu Mondays - 3:30 to 4:45PM What is SIGNEWGRAD all about? Presentation and discussion what to expect in graduate school (especially in a PhD program) things you need to know how to hopefully succeed

eunice
Download Presentation

SIGNEWGRAD

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SIGNEWGRAD Professor Lloyd - 416 Smith Hall - elloyd@udel.edu Mondays - 3:30 to 4:45PM • What is SIGNEWGRAD all about? • Presentation and discussion • what to expect in graduate school (especially in a PhD program) • things you need to know • how to hopefully succeed • Presentations by all twenty department faculty on their research (25 minutes per faculty member)

  2. SIGNEWGRAD • Why this course? • Graduate school, especially a PhD program is very different • Knowing about faculty research areas is important • Your thesis area and topic, your research advisor • Where to get certain kinds of help on your thesis • New students generally do not really know what to expect • What is expected of the students in SIGNEWGRAD? • Attend class - attendance will be taken; at most two absences • Be attentive, ask questions, participate! • Complete one assignment (at least two pages) for another course this semester using Latex

  3. Graduate School - The Basics • Why graduate school? • What earning a PhD is all about • Survival skills, issues Adapted from presentations and slides by: A. Condon - University of British Columbia C. Yiu - Penn State University S. Eggers - University of Washington S. Humphreys - UC Berkeley J. Cuny - University of Washington The CRA-W Grad Cohort for Women Program Special thanks to Professor Pollock

  4. Why earn a PhD? • You want to do research, discover new knowledge • You need a PhD to get the job you want • Professor • Industrial research lab • You want to be able to say that you have a “PhD” • Could not get the job you wanted

  5. What earning a PhD is about • Becoming broadly trained at a reasonably high level in computer science • Becoming an expert in some specialized area of computer science • Becoming a state of the art researcher in your specialized area

  6. How to succeed in graduate school Redefining success • Class performance is important, but not as important as before • In research: • the direction is often ambiguous • no-one knows the answers! Work VERY hard It is a ‘full time’++ job You are largely your own boss “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework” - Thomas Edison

  7. Learn from all aspects of grad school • Classes: engage in discussions, ask questions! • Projects: develop assessment, writing skills • Seminars: learn how to frame an idea ... and ask questions! • People: sound out ideas • Papers: learn the art of reading a paper -- use spare time to find and read interesting papers

  8. What about your courses? • Learn about likely research areas • Learn about important techniques • Initially, try courses in a broad range of areas • Get project experience • Learn about the profs ... and impress them!

  9. What about research? • "If you want to make important discoveries, work on important problems” - P.B. Medawar • "A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one's own path, not chasing after the dreams of others” - Chin-Ning Chu • "The joy of research must be found in doing, since every … harvest is uncertain” - T. Smith

  10. Communicate technical material well • Distill complex ideas down to a few clear, concise statements • Volunteer to present in seminars • Get (and give) feedback • Practice, practice, practice!

  11. Manage your time • Prioritize • Decide what is most important • Make time to think about and do research! • Eliminate context-switching overhead • For TA duties, respond to emails in batches, rather than being interrupt-driven • For research, allocate several contiguous hours & eliminate distractions • Plan ahead for departmental milestones • qualifying exams, breadth requirements, finding an advisor

  12. Adjusting to grad school • Common transition reaction: insecurity • Do I know enough? • Am I smart enough? • They went to Harvard … • Everybody arrives with different strengths • But really, everyone is in the same boat • Hard work makes up for a lot • Grad school is very “bursty” • At times, it will demand enormous amounts of time • Give yourself time to recover between the bursts

  13. A positive, proactive approach • You are in charge of your graduate career... • You need to make things happen • You CAN make things happen • Always believe in yourself • it’s normal to lose confidence sometimes • if you always excel, you’re probably not taking enough risks • find others who believe in you too • celebrate each step forward!

More Related