PhD Process: Part II Personal, Communication and Environmental Aspects

1. PhD Process: Part IIPersonal, Communication and Environmental Aspects Jayant Haritsa Computer Science & Automation Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

2. The PhD Process REAL WORLD Part II RESEARCHCOMMUNITY INSTITUTION ADVISOR Part I THESIS

3. PERSONAL ASPECTS

4. Motivation for PhD • VTU requirement for promotion • Cultural capital (add the Dr prefix) • Masochistic mindset (long pain period) • Enjoy discovery / writing / talking

5. Work Ethic • INDEPENDENT research • It is YOUR thesis, not the Advisor’s! • The advisor is not a NANNY! • CANNOT do PhD as side business • Focus on ONE problem at a time • 2 * 0.5 << 1 * 1 • WELCOME criticism of your work

6. Survival Pre-requisites [1] • Ability to look at life in a perverse (creative) way • (Mark Twain) Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter ! • Patience and mental strength to negotiate the troughs (inevitable for every PhD) • Trust your gut feelings in spite of negative results • Luck favors the prepared mind (Pasteur/Hamming) • Good sense of humour – you will definitely need it! • Ability to smile (through gritted teeth) at advisor

7. Survival Pre-requisites [2] • Industry experience – NO! • "Real problems" only imply short-term applicability • May even be counter-productive since immediate reaction is to start programming, rather than conceptual thinking • PhD registration  Research Scholar • PhD is “training to do research” AND “actually doing research” X

8. VTU Faculty Specifics • Difficult to devote time due to academic and familial responsibilities • Make sure to set aside a fixed daily time slot for research and make this sacrosanct • Course students can participate in the research work under your direction and thereby accelerate the progress

9. Good PhD Thesis • Relevant to society – NO! • Relevant to industry – NO! • Right question: “Did I have fun thinking about the problem and did I devise elegant solutions that I am proud to show my mother (and she didn't find any mistakes in the proofs)?” • Doing a PhD is hard enough without the burden of additional expectations ... • Allgooddissertations find their way into the real-world sooner or later

10. ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

11. BAD ADVISOR CHOICE • Knows less about the topic than you do(even at the beginning) • Not visible in the research community • Says “Yes” to a student without assessment • Popular with students due to low expectations, not subject mastery • Most notable achievement in last five years has been getting his PF transferred

12. GOOD ADVISOR CHOICE [1] • Junior Young Turk • Great enthusiasm and involvement • Current with research topics • Remembers PhD tribulations • Expects the world from you • Micro-management of your work

13. GOOD ADVISOR CHOICE [2] • Senior Big Shot • Broad perspective of research area • Can advertise your work well • Provides academic freedom to explore • Perenially rushed for time • Will not write your thesis

14. BAD CHOICE of FRIENDS • ondu idly-vada / by-two coffee dost • Unless your thesis topic is “Topological sorting arrangements of circles and donuts” • Indian philosophy buff • Indian philosophy is an intellectual mechanism for providing extremely sophisticated reasons as to why work cannot be done • Lazy genius • Will drag you into the mud with him

15. GOOD CHOICE of FRIENDS • Technically competent and ambitious • a healthy spirit of both cooperation and competition • Willing to call “a spade a spade” and criticize you to your face • Brings out the best research in you

16. RESEARCH COMMUNITY • Take every opportunity to meet with the “movers and shakers” in the field • attend local international conferences such as COMAD, HiPC, FSTTCS, IndoCrypt, … • attend summer schools (Yahoo, Microsoft, …) • apply for six-month internships in research labs after you are about half-way through your thesis • send technical reports for comments outside • for funding, approach academies (INAE/IASc /NASc /INSA) and DST/CSIR/KSCST/VTU

17. REAL WORLD • Family • starts calling you a “visiting professor” • question your sanity with cold-blooded regularity • Well-wishers • take great delight in asking you “Is the thesis done yet?” “Can we call you Doctor now?”“Do all PhDs take this long?”

18. COMMUNICATIONASPECTS

19. WRITING and PRESENTATION IMPERATIVES • It is your duty as a scientist to share your discoveries with others • Your work is understoodonly from what you present / publish • You are evaluatedonly based on what you write in your reports, etc.

20. Acquiring Writing Skills [1] • http://dsl.serc.iisc.ernet.in/~haritsa/geninfo/techwrite.ppt (by Vikram Pudi) • Essential for both publications and thesis • Spelling: Automated Spellcheckers • Style: Elements of Style by Strunk & White • Clarity, elegance and flow • Technical precision is paramount • e.g. rampant misuse of “optimal” and “ideal” • Avoid ornate language – this is not a literary exercise • e.g. The linked list appeared like a chain of jasmine flowers

21. Acquiring Writing Skills [2] • Organization • Modular (like programming) • Linear narrative (no “item songs” ) • Minimize redundancy • Choose good titles/acronyms (like variable names) • Time Will Tell: Leveraging Temporal Expressions in IR • Real-time commit protocol called PROMPT(Permits Reading Of Modified Prepared-data for Timeliness) • Read and revise word-by-word! • 10 page paper usually takes a month to write satisfactorily

22. Acquiring Presentation Skills • Slides should be in large font / visible colors • Ideas should be conveyed through pictures / animation as far as possible • Focus on conveying the main idea, and not every single detail • Rehearse the entire talk a few times • Memorize the inter-slide transitions • Carry out dry-runs with your peer group

23. PUBLICATIONS • ESSENTIAL to publish at least TWO papers before submitting thesis • Progress milestones  confidence buildup • Honest feedback from anonymous experts • Early warning of potential disaster situations • Ideas for future work • Thesis gets written/revised at a steady pace, not delayed to the end, when it can prove to be an overwhelming task • Makes the resume speak for itself

24. PUBLICATION FORA • Unique feature of CS: The top conferences and journals are viewed as equivalent fora. • Evaluating Computer Scientists and Engineers for Promotion and Tenure • David Patterson (Univ. of California, Berkeley) • Lawrence Snyder (Univ. of Washington, Seattle) • Jeffrey Ullman (Stanford University) “In those dimensions that count most, conferences are superior.” “Conference publication is both rigorous and prestigious.”

25. CS Conference/Journal Quality • Most reliable, comprehensive and recent are the rankings by Australasian CORE • ~1500 conferences and ~2000 journals • Ranks them into A+, A, B, C categories • Website: http://www.core.edu.au/ • Goal should be to publish in A+ and A categories • ICDE database conference (A+): ~15% accepts

26. Further Reading • How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors • E. Phillips and D.S. Pugh, OUP • Getting a Phd: An Action Plan to Help You Manage Your Research, Your Supervisor and Your Project • John Finn (Routledge Study Guides) • Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation • Patrick Dunleavy (Palgrave Study Guides) • http://www.phdcomics.com/

27. Take Away

28. QUESTIONS ?

30. END