Why Go to Graduate School?

1. Why Go to Graduate School? High Achievers Reception Professor Ken Joy Department of Computer Science University of California, Davis October 15, 2003

2. What am I going to talk about? Differences between Graduate Education and Undergraduate Education Results of a Graduate Education Realities of admission to a Computer Science Program The Glass Ceiling Short-term vs. Long-term planning. Computer Science at UC Davis

3. From these goals/requirements – GE, majors, minors, core courses, prerequisites, required courses, final exams, etc. Your Undergraduate Education • Considered by most Universities as an education that prepares the individual for greater success in life. • Broad goals of an undergraduate education focus on producing better “citizens” – i.e., produce a well-rounded individual who specializes in one area of study, but is broadly prepared to take on a variety of tasks in life. • Assessment is required.

4. So….. • The undergraduate curriculum focuses on the learning of fundamentals, with assignments to enable practice or for evaluation purposes. • Problem solving, critical thinking, ability to work collaboratively. These skills are not developed well. • The University works in 10 week increments. After Fall-quarter finals are over…. Undergraduate education focuses on short-term learning through 10-week courses, with little emphasis given to integrating the knowledge you have acquired.

5. This is why a graduate education is so important. And… • Most undergraduates work from quarter to quarter, or semester to semester, with little coherency in their curriculum. • Most undergraduates do not get the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to solve or address the fundamental/landmark problems of our time.

6. What does industry want? • Problem Solving Ability! • Critical Thinking! • Interpersonal Communication Skills! • Group-based Interaction Skills!

7. What Do You Get in Graduate School? • You get to explore the field of your choice. • You get to join a team of faculty, staff and fellow graduate students, who are all working on interesting problems. • You get to work on the most interesting problems in your chosen field. • You get a lifestyle that is the envy of most working people. • You get paid to do this.

8. Everything is oriented toward enabling the student/faculty teams to solve“open” problems. You get to explore the field of your choice! • Classes focused on your discipline and specialized area • Program of study designed to enable you to learn material that can help solve “open” problems in your area of choice. • Significance of grades or assessment is minimized.

9. Join a team working on interesting problems! • Faculty members at the University of California are all working on interesting/new problems in their fields. • Difficult problems are hard to solve! • Teams of researchers are working on these problems • You get to join these teams! • Learn to work collaboratively • Learn to help solve “difficult” problems

10. Working on the most interesting problems! • Faculty at the University of California must be at the forefront of research in their chosen fields… • Security • Visualization and Graphics • Cryptography • Systems • Data Bases • Scientific Computation • Theory of Computation • Networks • Computational Biology • Applications of Computer Systems • Faculty address problems with their graduate students.

11. Lifestyle … the envy of most working people!

12. You get paid to do this! • Research Assistantships • Research Internships • Teaching Assistantships • Teaching Associate-In • Fellowships

13. What Can You Expect As a Result? • You will get better job opportunities! • You will make more money! • You will get to work on the most exciting problems available from your employer. • You will receive the notoriety commensurate with your work. • You will have fun!

14. Think about it!!! • Success, opportunity, praise and distinction, money, and the sense of mutual accomplishment from working with others to contribute to the state of the art in your field. What could be more fun than this?

15. Realities of Graduate Admission

16. Realities of Graduate Admission

17. Realities of Graduate Admission

18. Realities of Graduate Admissions • National Economic Problems imply good things for academic institutions….

19. Admission -- PhD vs. Masters • Faculty reward systems at UC (and other research-oriented institutions) emphasize PhD production. • THUS… • Research Universities are looking for PhD students • Admission to Master’s programs will be limited. • E.g., BS/MS at UC Davis.

20. “I am thinking about returning for graduate school. I now work at Intel and desperately want to work on the design of the new architectures here. However, I find that with just a Bachelor’s Degree, I will never have the qualifications to join these groups.” The Glass Ceiling • There is a glass ceiling out there!!!!

21. The UC Davis Computer Science Department • What most students see… • What the Computer Science Community sees… • Reality…

22. 28 faculty members 190 Graduate Students 950 Computer Science Majors Office staff, computer labs, the University bureaucracy… What Most Students See…

23. Reality… • 28 Faculty members working at the forefront of computer science research, advising graduate students, teaching graduate and undergraduate classes. • 190 Graduate Students working with the faculty as research collaborators. • 950 undergraduate majors “managed” by the faculty and staff of the Computer Science Department

24. What the Computer Science Community Sees… • “I am deeply impressed by the quality of faculty and students at UCD. UCD’s graduate program in Computer Science has made impressive progress. This can be measured by…” • “UCD’s program in computer security is regarded as one of the top five programs nationwide.” • “UCD’s junior faculty have been exceptionally successful in winning the highly competitive NSF Career and National Young Investigator awards, including Chong, Farrens, Franklin, Ghosal, Hamann, Ma [PECASE], and Rogaway” • “UCD has made a nationwide impact with its interdisciplinary ORU for Visualization and Computer Graphics”

25. What the Computer Science Community Sees… • “UCD’s computer science program has gone from a lower ranked school 10 years ago to a school with international visibility. Davis arguably now has the third best CS department in the UC system, behind Berkeley and San Diego.” • “UC Davis is on the verge of emerging as one of the top Computer Science programs nationwide. Given adequate resources, UC Davis could easily be among the top dozen departments within the next few years.”

26. Reality… • We have three large nationally recognized groups. • A number of collaborating faculty • A large number of graduate students • Significant funding • We have an outstanding set of faculty that collaborate in smaller groups.

27. Reality… • Security Group • 11 Faculty Members • 45 Graduate Students • 6 Undergraduate Researchers One of the first university programs to be named a NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

28. Reality… • Networks Group • 5 Faculty Members • 25 Graduate Students • 2 Visiting Scholars • 5 Undergraduate Researchers Specializing in a wide variety of network research problems (Lightwave, Quality of Service, Optical Networks, Wireless)

29. Reality… • Visualization and Graphics Group • 6 Faculty Members • 50 Graduate Students • 8 International Scholars • 6 Undergraduate Researchers Housed in a UC Research Center – The Center for Image Processing and Integrated Computing ( CIPIC)

30. …and much more… • The security of wireless networks is currently based on cryptography solutions from the faculty and students at UC Davis. • There is a piece of software (MATLAB) that used by huge numbers of computational scientists around the world. This was largely developed by one of our computation faculty. • We have recently placed two graduate students at top-10 universities (Washington, Michigan). They came from the graduate programs in computer architecture.

31. And more… • Our department has one of the top faculty groups in the field of scientific computation. • We have a systems group that reaches out to nearly every field of computer science. • We have one of the world leaders in the field of computational biology, and are building in this area.

32. In our department… • Faculty and graduate students publish in the top places in their fields. • Many faculty serve on editorial boards of the best journals and the best conferences in the broad field of computer science. • The reputation of the department is international… • We are a young department in a young, dynamic field.

33. This is the type of department you should choose! • There are many “top” departments in the country. • Former Undergraduate Students at Stanford, Berkeley, Cal Tech, MIT, UNC Chapel Hill… • Apply to the best programs in your area… Then evaluate your opportunities. • We would love to have you here!

34. Should I go to Industry First? • Pros… • Remove your training wheels in computer science • Get “industry” experience • Mature a little…. • Cons… • You forget how to be a student. • Momentum breaks!

35. From the Students…. • I’m tired of being a pauper, I want to go out in the real world and make money! • I’m tired of going to school! I’m going to get a job where I don’t have to go to class. • I owe my parents a lot of money! I’m going to get a nice paying job so that I can pay them back. • I want to go out in the real world and work on some interesting problems. These focus on the short-term. Your life is a long-term opportunity!!!

36. What did we just talk about? There are differences between Graduate Education and Undergraduate Education Results of a Graduate Education Opportunity Salary Lifestyle Success

37. What did we just talk about? What do employers want? A top-quality Computer Science Department Short term vs. Long Term Planning Having Fun! The best probability of lifetime success is through graduate school.

38. Ask Us Questions!