Research I: Finding an Advisor and Topic

Research I: Finding an Advisor and Topic Marie desJardins (mariedj@cs.umbc.edu) CMSC 601 February 6, 2012

Sources • Robert L. Peters, Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student’s Guide to Earning a Master’s or Ph.D. (Revised Edition). NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. • Richard Hamming, “You and your research.” Transcription of the Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar, March 7, 1986.

Outline • Advisors • Research Topics

Advisors

Advisors • Temporary advisors • Research advisors • Approaching a potential advisor • Secondary/informal “advisors” • Changing advisors

Questions to Ask Faculty • Are you taking on new (M.S./Ph.D.) students? • Do you have RA funding? For how long into the future? • What research areas are you working in? • Do you have specific open problems you are looking for students to work on? • Do you generally suggest research topics to your students, or do you expect them to find their own topics? • Are you willing to advise a thesis/dissertation in an area not directly related to your current research projects? • Are you willing to advise an interdisciplinary thesis/dissertation, or to co-advise? • Have you (recently) graduated any (M.S./Ph.D.) students?

Questions to Ask Students • Is Prof. X accessible? • How much time does Prof. X spend with you? • In what contexts (individual meetings, lab meetings, etc.)? • Do Prof. X’s students finish quickly? • Do Prof. X’s students publish in top conferences and journals? • Does Prof. X give credit to students for their work? • Is Prof. X consistent in expectations and directions? • Is Prof. X reasonable in the amount of work expected? • Do students respect Prof. X intellectually? (From Peters, p. 46-47)

Expectations • You can reasonably expect your advisor to: • Be available on a somewhat regular schedule • Suggest courses and schedules • Help you to select and solve research topics • Suggest committee members • Provide feedback on written work and work in progress • Suggest possible solutions to research problems • Encourage you to publish • Write letters of reference • Your advisor may also: • Provide financial support (stipends and travel money) • Provide career advice • Help you find a job

Expectations • Your advisor can reasonably expect you to: • Develop ideas independently • Do what you say you will do, in a reasonable timeframe • Make (reasonably) continuous progress • Go beyond the minimum amount of work • Be pro-active in pursuing ideas and looking for resources • Ask for help when you need it • Meet relevant deadlines, even if heroic short-term effort is required • Your advisor may also expect you to: • Provide written progress reports • Review papers (theirs and others’) • Work with other students in the lab • Publish • Contribute to grant proposals

Not-so-Great Expectations • Your advisor should not expect you to: • Perform excessive administrative tasks or paperwork • Contribute to research without authorship • Consistently work unreasonably long hours • Have no life outside of the lab • You should not expect your advisor to: • Constantly remind you what you need to be doing • Solve every problem you encounter • Be familiar with every aspect of your research problem • Provide unlimited resources (time, money, equipment...)

In the Unlikely Event... • What if your advisor is seriously abusing or neglecting you? • Talk to the GPD • Talk to another faculty member you trust • Change advisors • Talk to the department chair • Talk to the Associate Dean • File a formal complaint

Research Topics

What Is Research?? • Asking “why” and “how” • Creating innovative solutions to novel problems • Also: • Understanding previous work • Testing hypotheses • Analyzing data • Publishing results • Not: • Applying existing techniques to a new problem • Developing a one-shot solution to a problem

A Good Topic • ...is unsolved • ...is important • ...is interesting to you • ...is interesting to your advisor • ...is interesting to the research community • ...has useful applications • ...applies to more than one problem

Scope • Too broad is bad • Too narrow is bad • Too constrained is bad • Too unconstrained is bad • “Telescoping” is best

Getting Jumpstarted • Read! • Write • Annotated bibliographies • Literature surveys (including open challenges) • Replicate previous work • Re-implement • Re-derive • Re-experiment • Start varying parameters, assumptions, environments

Read, Read, Read! • You have to read a lot of research papers to become an expert • You have to become an expert before you can produce high-quality results • You have to produce high-quality results before you can complete your Ph.D. (or M.S.) •  you have to read a lot of research papers (and other people’s theses/dissertations) •  you might as well get started now!

Just Do It • “People have an amazing ability to become interested in almost anything once they are working on it.” (Peters, p. 181)

Write Early! • Write an annotated bibliography • Write a proposal outline • Write a literature survey • Write an outline of a conference paper • Write an outline of the dissertation • Show your writing to your advisor, other graduate students, colleagues, ...

Research I: Finding an Advisor and Topic