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This paper attempts to raise some issues that are important for graduate
students to be successful and to get as much out of the process as possible,
and for advisors who wish to help their students be successful. The
intent is not to provide prescriptive advice -- no formulas for finishing
a thesis or twelve-step programs for becoming a better advisor are given
-- but to raise awareness on both sides of the advisor-student relationship
as to what the expectations are and should be for this relationship,
what a graduate student should expect to accomplish, common problems,
and where to go if the advisor is not forthcoming.
Introduction
This article originated with a discussion I had with several women professors
about the problems women face in graduate school, and how more women
could be encouraged to go to graduate school in computer science. Eventually,
the conversation turned to the question of what these women could do
in their interactions with women students to support and encourage them.
I volunteered that over the course of my graduate career I had collected
a variety of papers and email discussions about how to be a good advisor,
how to get through graduate school, and issues facing women. They were
eager to get this material, and I told them I would sort through it
when I got a chance.
After mentioning this project to a number of people, both graduate
students and faculty -- all of whom expressed an interest in anything
I could give them -- I realized two things: first, the issues that we
were talking about really were not just women's issues but were of interest
to all graduate students, and to all caring advisors. Second, in order
to disseminate the information I had collected (and was starting to
collect from others) it seemed to make more sense to compile a bibliography,
and write a paper that would summarize the most useful advice and suggestions
I had collected.
I solicited inputs from friends and colleagues via mailing lists and
Internet bulletin boards, and collected almost an overwhelming amount
of information. Sorting through it and attempting to distill the collective
wisdom of dozens of articles and hundreds of email messages has not
been an easy task, but I hope that the results provide a useful resource
for graduate students and advisors alike. The advice I give here is
directed towards Ph.D. students in computer science and their advisors,
since that is my background, but I believe that much of it applies to
graduate students in other areas as well.
In my experience, the two main things that make graduate school hard
are the unstructured nature of the process, and the lack of information
about what you should spend your time on. I hope that this article will
provide information for both graduate students and advisors that will
help make the process less painful. I want to emphasize that graduate
school is not easy, and these suggestions will not always be easy or
even possible to follow (and they may not even be the ideal goal for
you, personally, to strive for). You shouldn't let that discourage you:
start small, think big, and keep yourself focused on your ultimate goal,
which shouldn't just be to get through graduate school, but to enjoy
yourself, make progress towards being able to do what you want to do
with your life, and learn something in the process.
I owe a debt of gratitude to David Chapman, whose paper [2] was an
invaluable reference for me not only during the writing of this article,
but during graduate school as well.
The goals of this article are to raise awareness of the need for a
healthy and interactive graduate student-advisor relationship, to provide
pointers and guidance for both advisors and graduate students in navigating
the maze of a doctoral degree, and to give references and resources
for those who hope to learn more.
Before You Start
Many headaches can be avoided by doing some advance planning. First,
why go to graduate school at all? The usual reasons given are that a
Ph.D. is required or preferred for some jobs, especially research and
academic positions; that it gives you a chance to learn a great deal
about a specific area; and that it provides an opportunity to develop
ideas and perform original research. Wanting to delay your job hunt
is probably not a good enough reason. Over the past decade, research
and academic positions have become more difficult to find, and many
recent Ph.D.s end up ``killing time'' in a series of postdoctoral positions,
or taking non-research jobs. Having a Ph.D. is not a guarantee of finding
a better job in and of itself! In addition, graduate school is a lot
of work and requires strong motivation and focus. You have to really
want to be there to make it through.
It helps to have a good idea of what area you want to specialize in,
and preferably a couple of particular research projects you might like
to work on, although many graduate students change their minds about
research projects and even specialization field after they start school.
Look for books and current journals and conference proceedings in your
area, and read through them to get an idea of who's doing what where.
(You'll be doing a lot of reading once you start graduate school, so
you might as well get used to it.) This is where advisors first enter
the scene: faculty members ought to be willing to talk to undergraduates
and help them find out more about research areas and graduate schools.
Try to get involved in research: ask professors and TAs (teaching assistants)
whether they need someone to work on an ongoing project, or start an
independent research project, with guidance from a faculty member.
Contact faculty members and graduate students at the schools you're
interested in. Tell them about your background and interests and ask
them what research projects they're working on. A good way to do this
is via electronic mail if possible -- email is much easier and quicker
to respond to than a paper letter. A good advisor will be willing to
answer these kinds of inquiries (although if they're busy they may give
you only a brief answer or point you towards a graduate student -- you'll
have to use your intuition to decide whether they're brushing you off
or just busy). If you can't get any answer at all, consider that that
individual might not end up being a very accessible advisor. Asking
these questions will help you narrow down your choices and may increase
your chances of admission if the professors you contact become interested
in working with you.
Your best bet is to find a school where there are at least two faculty
members you'd be interested in working with. That way, if one doesn't
work out, or is too busy to take on a new student, you have a fallback
position. Breadth of the graduate program (i.e., high-quality faculty
in a broad range of subareas) is also a good thing to look for in a
school, especially if you're not entirely certain what you want to specialize
in.
It's also important to most people to feel comfortable with the community
of graduate students. It pays to talk to some of the graduate students
(both junior and senior) to find out how they like it, which advisors
are good, and what kinds of support (financial and psychological) are
available. Because there are so many students applying to each school,
even highly qualified applicants are often rejected. You should apply
to a range of programs -- and don't take it personally if you do get
rejected by some of them.
You can increase your chances of getting into graduate school by developing
good relationships with your professors and work managers (this is very
important for getting good recommendations), working on a research project,
having a clear sense of what you want to work on (although it's always
all right to change your mind later), having a broad background in your
field and in related fields (for example, psychology classes are useful
for AI students), getting good grades (especially in upper division
classes in your area of interest), and getting a high score on the GRE
if required. Also, it's a good idea to start thinking early about sources
of funding: apply for an NSF fellowship, for example.
Doing Research
For many new graduate students, graduate school is unlike anything else
they've done. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what it is you're
supposed to be learning. Yes, you have to complete a dissertation, but
how do you start? What should you spend your time doing?
Graduate school is a very unstructured environment in most cases. Graduate
students typically take nine hours or less of coursework per semester,
especially after the second year. For many, the third year -- after
coursework is largely finished and preliminary exams have been completed
-- is a very difficult and stressful period. This is when you're supposed
to find a thesis topic, if you're not one of the lucky few who has already
found one. Once you do find a topic, you can expect two or more years
until completion, with very few landmarks or milestones in sight.
The following sections talk about the day-to-day process of doing research,
criticism and feedback, working on the thesis, and financial support
for research.
The Daily Grind
Being a good researcher involves more than ``merely'' coming up with
brilliant ideas and implementing them. Most researchers spend the majority
of their time reading papers, discussing ideas with colleagues, writing
and revising papers, staring blankly into space -- and, of course, having
brilliant ideas and implementing them.
Part II of this article discusses the process and importance of becoming
part of a larger research community, which is a critical aspect of being
a successful researcher. This section contains ideas on keeping track
of where you're going, and where you've been, with your research, staying
motivated, and how to spend your time wisely.
Keeping a journal of your research activities and ideas is very useful.
Write down speculations, interesting problems, possible solutions, random
ideas, references to look up, notes on papers you've read, outlines
of papers to write, and interesting quotes. Read back through it periodically.
You'll notice that the bits of random thoughts start to come together
and form a pattern, often turning into a research project or even a
thesis topic. I was surprised, looking back through my journal as I
was finishing up my thesis, how early and often similar ideas had cropped
up in my thinking, and how they gradually evolved into a dissertation.
You'll have to read a lot of technical papers to become familiar with
any field, and to stay current once you've caught up. You may find yourself
spending over half of your time reading, especially at the beginning.
This is normal. It's also normal to be overwhelmed by the amount of
reading you think you ``should'' do. Try to remember that it's impossible
to read everything that might be relevant: instead, read selectively.
When you first start reading up on a new field, ask your advisor or
a fellow student what the most useful journals and conference proceedings
are in your field, and ask for a list of seminal or ``classic'' papers
that you should definitely read. For AI researchers, a useful (if slightly
outdated) starting point is Agre's [1] summary of basic AI references.
Similar documents may exist for other research areas -- ask around,
and cruise the information superhighway. Start with these papers and
the last few years of journals and proceedings.
Before bothering to read any paper, make sure it's worth it. Scan the
title, then the abstract, then -- if you haven't completely lost interest
already -- glance at the introduction and conclusions. (Of course, if
your advisor tells you that this is an important paper, skip this preliminary
step and jump right in!) Before you try to get all of the nitty-gritty
details of the paper, skim the whole thing, and try to get a feel for
the most important points. If it still seems worthwhile and relevant,
go back and read the whole thing. Many people find it useful to take
notes while they read. Even if you don't go back later and reread them,
it helps to focus your attention and forces you to summarize as you
read. And if you do need to refresh your memory later, rereading your
notes is much easier and faster than reading the whole paper.
A few other points to keep in mind as you read and evaluate papers:
Make sure the ideas described really worked (as opposed to just being
theoretically valid, or tested on a few toy examples).
Try to get past buzzwords: they may sound good, but not mean much.
Is there substance and an interesting idea underneath the jargon?
To really understand a paper, you have to understand the motivations
for the problem posed, the choices made in finding a solution, the assumptions
behind the solution, whether the assumptions are realistic and whether
they can be removed without invalidating the approach, future directions
for research, what was actually accomplished or implemented, the validity
(or lack thereof) of the theoretical justifications or empirical demonstrations,
and the potential for extending and scaling the algorithm up.
Keep the papers you read filed away so you can find them again later,
and set up an online bibliography (BibTeX is a popular format, but anything
consistent will do). I find it useful to add extra fields for keywords,
the location of the paper (if you borrowed the reference from the library
or a friend), and a short summary of particularly interesting papers.
This bibliography will be useful for later reference, for writing your
dissertation, and for sharing with other graduate students (and eventually,
perhaps, advisees).
Staying Motivated
At times, particularly in the ``middle years,'' it can be very hard
to maintain a positive attitude and stay motivated. Many graduate students
suffer from insecurity, anxiety, and even boredom. First of all, realize
that these are normal feelings. Try to find a sympathetic ear -- another
graduate student, your advisor, or a friend outside of school. Next,
try to identify why you're having trouble and identify concrete steps
that you can take to improve the situation. To stay focused and motivated,
it often helps to have organized activities to force you to manage your
time and to do something every day. Setting up regular meetings with
your advisor, attending seminars, or even extracurricular activities
such as sports or music can help you to maintain a regular schedule.
Chapman [2] enumerates a number of ``immobilizing shoulds'' that can
make you feel so guilty and unworthy that you stop making progress.
Telling yourself that you should have a great topic, that you should
finish in n years, that you should work 4, or 8, or 12 hours a day isn't
helpful for most people. Be realistic about what you can accomplish,
and try to concentrate on giving yourself positive feedback for tasks
you do complete, instead of negative feedback for those you don't.
Setting daily, weekly, and monthly goals is a good idea, and works
even better if you use a ``buddy system'' where you and another student
meet at regular intervals to review your progress. Try to find people
to work with: doing research is much easier if you have someone to bounce
ideas off of and to give you feedback.
Breaking down any project into smaller pieces is always a good tactic
when things seem unmanageable. At the highest level, doing a master's
project before diving into a Ph.D. dissertation is generally a good
idea (and is mandatory at some schools). A master's gives you a chance
to learn more about an area, do a smaller research project, and establish
working relationships with your advisor and fellow students.
The divide-and-conquer strategy works on a day-to-day level as well.
Instead of writing an entire thesis, focus on the goal of writing a
chapter, section, or outline. Instead of implementing a large system,
break off pieces and implement one module at a time. Identify tasks
that you can do in an hour or less; then you can come up with a realistic
daily schedule. If you have doubts, don't let them stop you from accomplishing
something -- take it one day at a time. Remember, every task you complete
gets you closer to finishing. Even if you don't make any obvious progress,
you'll have learned something, although it may be ``don't waste your
time on this task again!''
Getting to the Thesis
The hardest part of getting a Ph.D. is, of course, writing the dissertation.
The process of finding a thesis topic, doing the research, and writing
the thesis is different from anything most students have done before.
If you have a good advisor and support network, you'll be able to get
advice and help in setting directions and goals. If not, you may need
to be more independent. If this is the case, don't just isolate yourself
from the world: try to go out and find the resources and support you
need from professors, other graduate students, mailing lists, friends,
family, and publications like this one.
Finding an Advisor
Finding the right advisor can help you immeasurably in successfully
completing a thesis. You should ideally have selected the schools you
applied to by identifying faculty members you'd like to work with. If
not, start looking around as early as possible. Of course, the ideal
advisor will be in the area you're interested in working in, will actively
be doing high-quality reseach and be involved in and respected by the
research community, and (not least) will be someone you can get along
with.
Read research summaries by faculty members (which are usually published
by the department), go to talks they give, and attend or audit courses
given by professors you might be interested in working with. Talk to
other graduate students and recent graduates. Ask them how their relationships
with their advisors are/were, how quickly the advisor's students graduate,
and how successful (well recognized, high-quality) their research is.
What kinds of relationships do they have -- frequent interactions, collaborative
work, encouraging independence? handing out topics or helping students
to create individual research areas, or a more hands-off style?
Other things to find out about potential advisors:
What is the average time their Ph.D. students take to finish their
degrees? What is the dropout rate for their students?
How long have they been on the faculty? There are advantages and disadvantages
to being one of the first members of a new research group. On the positive
side, you often have more freedom to choose your research topic and
to influence the direction of the group's research. On the negative
side, you may be more isolated (since there won't be older graduate
students in the group), your advisor won't have as much experience,
and if they don't get tenure you may be scrambling for a new advisor
several years into your thesis.
A good advisor will serve as a mentor as well as a source of technical
assistance. A mentor should provide, or help you to find, the resources
you need (financial, equipment, and psychological support); introduce
you and promote your work to important people in your field; encourage
your own interests, rather than promoting their own; be available to
give you advice on the direction of your thesis and your career; and
help you to find a job when you finish. They should help you to set
and achieve long-term and short-term goals.
Once you identify one or more potential advisors, get to know them.
Introduce yourself and describe the area you're interested in. Attend
their research group meetings if they hold them regularly. Give them
a copy of a research proposal if you have a good idea of what you want
to work on, and ask for comments. Ask whether they have any TA or RA
(research assistant) positions available, or if there are any ongoing
research projects that you could get involved with. Read their published
papers, and the work of their students. Drop by during office hours
and ask questions or make comments. Offer to read drafts of papers --
and do more than just proofread.
The type of relationship that each student needs with an advisor will
be different. Some students prefer to be given more direction, to have
frequent contact, and to be ``checked up on.'' Others are more independent.
Some may need contact but be self-conscious about asking for it. Other
things that vary include what kinds of feedback is preferred (lots of
``random'' ideas vs. very directed feedback (pointers)), working individually
vs. in groups, working on an established research project vs. a new,
independent effort; working in the same area as your advisor or doing
an ``outside'' thesis.
You may find that your thesis advisor doesn't always give you all of
the mentoring that you need. Multiple mentors are common and useful;
they may include other faculty members in your department or elsewhere,
senior graduate students, or other colleagues. You may want to seriously
consider changing thesis advisors if your advisor is inaccessible or
disinterested, gives you only negative feedback, doesn't have the technical
background to advise you on your thesis, or harasses you.
The most important thing is to ask for (i.e., demand politely) what
you need.
Finding a Thesis Topic
Doing a master's project is often a good idea (and is required by some
schools). Although choosing an appropriately scaled-down topic may be
difficult, having the ideal topic is also less important, since you
will have the chance to move on after only a year or so. If you have
a good idea of what you want to do your Ph.D. dissertation on, choosing
a master's project that will lead into the dissertation is wise: you
will get a head start on the Ph.D., or may decide that you're not interested
in pursuing the topic after all (saving yourself a lot of work and grief
farther down the road).
A good source of ideas for master's projects (and sometimes for dissertation
topics) is the future work section of papers you're interested in. Try
developing and implementing an extension to an existing system or technique.
Generally speaking, a good Ph.D. thesis topic is interesting to you,
to your advisor, and to the research community. As with many aspects
of graduate school, the balance you find will depend at least in part
on the relationship you have with your advisor. Some professors have
well defined long-term research programs and expect their students to
contribute directly to this program. Others have much looser, but still
related ongoing projects. Still others will take on anyone with an interesting
idea, and may have a broad range of interesting ideas to offer their
students. Be wary of the advisor who seems willing to let you pursue
any research direction at all. You probably won't get the technical
support you need, and they may lose interest in you when the next graduate
student with a neat idea comes along.
If you pick a topic that you're not truly interested in simply because
it's your advisor's pet area, it will be difficult to stay focused and
motivated -- and you may be left hanging if your advisor moves on to
a different research area before you finish. The same is true for choosing
a topic because of its marketability: if you're not personally excited
about the topic, you'll have a harder time finishing and a harder time
convincing other people that your research is interesting. Besides,
markets change more quickly than most people finish dissertations.
In order to do original research, you must be aware of ongoing research
in your field. Most students spend up to a year reading and studying
current research to identify important open problems. However, you'll
never be able to read everything that might be relevant -- and new work
is always being published.
Try to become aware and stay aware of directly related research --
but if you see new work that seems to be doing exactly what you're working
on, don't panic. It's common for graduate students to see a related
piece of work and think that their topic is ruined. If this happens
to you, reread the paper several times to get a good understanding of
what they've really been accomplished. Show the paper to your advisor
or someone else who's familiar with your topic and whose opinions you
respect. Introduce yourself to the author at a conference or by email,
and tell them about your work. By starting a dialogue, you will usually
find that their work isn't quite the same, and that there are still
directions open to you. You may even end up collaborating with them.
Good researchers welcome the opportunity to interact and collaborate
with someone who's interested in the same problems they are.
To finish quickly, it's usually best to pick a narrow, well defined
topic. The downside of this approach is that it may not be as exciting
to you or to the research community. If you're more of a risk-taker,
choose a topic that branches out in a new direction. The danger here
is that it can be difficult to carefully define the problem, and to
evaluate the solution you develop. If you have a topic like this, it
helps a lot to have an advisor or mentor who is good at helping you
to focus and who can help you maintain a reasonably rigorous approach
to the problem.
In the extreme case, if your topic is so out of the ordinary that it's
unrelated to anything else, you may have difficulty convincing people
it's worthwhile. Truly innovative research is, of course, exciting and
often pays back in recognition from the research community -- or you
could just be out in left field. If you have a far-out topic, be sure
that people are actually interested in it, or you'll never be able to
``sell'' it later, and will probably have trouble getting your work
published and finding a job. In addition, it will be hard to find colleagues
who are interested in the same problems and who can give you advice
and feedback.
In any case, a good topic will address important issues. You should
be trying to solve a real problem, not a toy problem (or worse yet,
no problem at all); you should have solid theoretical work, good empirical
results or, preferably, both; and the topic will be connected to --
but not be a simple variation on or extension of -- existing research.
It will also be significant yet manageable. Finding the right size problem
can be difficult. One good way of identifying the right size is to read
other dissertations. It's also useful to have what Chapman [2] calls
a ``telescoping organization'' -- a central problem that's solvable
and acceptable, with extensions and additions that are ``successively
riskier and that will make the thesis more exciting.'' If the gee-whiz
additions don't pan out, you'll still have a solid result.
A good way to focus on a topic is to write one-sentence and one-paragraph
descriptions of the problem you want to address, and do the same for
your proposed solution; then write an outline of what a thesis that
solved this problem would look like (i.e., what chapters would be included,
or if you're ambitious, what sections in the chapter).
Sometimes finding a small problem to work on and building on it in
a ``bottom up'' fashion can work equally well, as long as you don't
fall into the trap of solving lots of small unrelated problems that
don't lead to a coherent, solid, substantial piece of research (i.e.,
a thesis).
Remember that a thesis is only a few years of your work, and that --
if all goes well -- your research career will continue for another 30
or 40. Don't be afraid to leave part of the problem for future work,
and don't compare yourself to senior researchers who have years of work
and publications to show for it. (On the other hand, if you identify
too much future work, your thesis won't look very exciting by comparison.)
Graduate students often pick overly ambitious topics (in theory, your
advisor will help you to identify a realistic size problem). Don't overestimate
what other people have done. Learn to read between the lines of grandiose
claims (something else a good advisor will help you to do).
Some schools may require that you write a thesis proposal. Even if
they don't, this is a good first step to take. It forces you to define
the problem, outline possible solutions, and identify evaluation criteria;
and it will help you to get useful feedback from your advisor and other
colleagues. Writing a good thesis proposal will take up to several months,
depending on how much background work and thinking you've already done
in the process of choosing the topic.
The proposal should provide a foundation for the dissertation. First,
you must circumscribe the problem and argue convincingly that it needs
to be solved, and that you have a methodology for solving it. You must
identify and discuss related work: has this problem been addressed before?
What are the shortcomings of existing work in the area, and how will
your approach differ from and be an improvement over these methods?
Present your ideas for solving the problem in as much detail as possible,
and give a detailed plan of the remaining research to be done. The proposal
should include, or be structured as, a rough outline of the thesis itself.
In fact, unless your final topic differs significantly from your proposed
topic (which many do), you may be able to reuse parts of the proposal
in the thesis.
You will probably have to take an oral exam in which you present and/or
answer questions about your proposal. Be sure that your committee members
are as familiar as possible with your work beforehand. Give them copies
of the proposal, and talk to them about it. During the exam, don't panic
if you don't know the answer to a question. Simply say, ``I'm not sure''
and then do your best to analyze the question and present possible answers.
Your examining committee wants to see your analytical skills, not just
hear canned answers to questions you were expecting. Give a practice
talk to other students and faculty members. Remember: you know more
about your thesis topic than your committee; you're teaching them something
for a change.
Writing the Thesis
Graduate students often think that the thesis happens in two distinct
phases: doing the research, and writing the dissertation. This may be
the case for some students, but more often, these phases overlap and
interact with one another. Sometimes it's difficult to formalize an
idea well enough to test and prove it until you've written it up; the
results of your tests often require you to make changes that mean that
you have to go back and rewrite parts of the thesis; and the process
of developing and testing your ideas is almost never complete (there's
always more that you could do) so that many graduate students end up
``doing research'' right up until the day or two before the thesis is
turned in.
The divide-and-conquer approach works as well for writing as it does
for research. A problem that many graduate students face is that their
only goal seems to be ``finish the thesis.'' It is essential that you
break this down into manageable stages, both in terms of doing the research
and when writing the thesis. Tasks that you can finish in a week, a
day, or even as little as half an hour are much more realistic goals.
Try to come up with a range of tasks, both in terms of duration and
difficulty. That way, on days when you feel energetic and enthusiastic,
you can sink your teeth into a solid problem, but on days when you're
run-down and unmotivated, you can at least descending order of abstraction:
high-level content-oriented comments, mid-level stylistic and presentation
comments, and low-level nitpicky comments on syntax and grammar. Try
to keep your comments constructive (``this would read better if you
defined X before introducing Y'') rather than destructive (``this is
nonsense'').
You'll want to read a paper at least twice -- once to get the basic
ideas, then a second time to mark down comments. High-level comments
describing your overall impression of the paper, making suggestions
for organization, presentation and alternative approaches to try, potential
extensions, and relevant references are generally the most useful and
the hardest to give. Low-level comments are more appropriate for a paper
that is being submitted for publication than for an unpublished paper
such as a proposal or description of preliminary research.
See [4] for more suggestions on reviewing papers.
Getting Financial Support
Most graduate students (at least in the natural sciences) have a source
of financial support that pays their tuition and a small living stipend.
Although nobody ever got rich being a graduate student, you probably
won't starve either. Sources of funding include fellowships (from NSF,
universisites, foundations, government agencies, and industry), employer
support, research assistantships (i.e., money from a faculty member's
research grant) and teaching assistantships. Kantrowitz [3] provides
an extensive list of funding sources for math, science, and engineering
graduate students.
Start looking for money early. Many schools arrange support in the
form of an RA or TA position in the first year, but after that, you're
on your own. Deadlines for applications vary, and if you miss one, you'll
probably have to wait another year. After you apply, it can take six
months or so to review the applications and several more months to actually
start receiving money.
Ask faculty members (especially your advisor, who should be helping
you to find support or providing support out of his or her grant money),
department administrators, and fellow graduate students about available
funding. Go to your university's fellowship office or its equivalent,
and look through the listings in The Annual Register of Grant Support,
The Grant Register, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Foundation
Grants to Individuals. Look into NSF grants (there are several different
programs). Take advantage of your status as a woman or minority if you
are one (this may be the only time when it actually is an advantage).
Most universities have fellowship programs that may be administered
through individual departments or may be campus-wide.
If you haven't yet begun actively doing research, getting an RA position
from a faculty member may be a good way to become involved in a research
project. Working on an existing research project by maintaining or developing
hardware or software, writing reports, and running experiments will
give you a feel for what it's like to do research -- and you may even
find a thesis topic. Ask around to see what's available, and go talk
to professors whose work you find interesting.
For a research grant or fellowship, you will probably have to write
a proposal, so the more you've thought about potential thesis topics,
the better off you'll be. You may need to tailor your proposal to the
interests and needs of the particular funding agency or program you're
applying to, but stick to something you know about and are sincerely
interested in.
Write for a general audience, since the people reviewing your application
may not be in the same field. Emphasize your goals and why the project
you propose to work on is important. Talk as much as you can about how
you're going to solve the problem, and be sure that your proposed solution
will satisfy the goals you've set forth. Follow the rules for format,
page layout and length, or your application may not even be reviewed.
References
1
Agre, P. E. What to read: A biased guide to AI literacy for the beginner.
Tech. Rep. Working Paper 239, MIT AI Lab, November 1982.
2
Chapman, D. How to do research at the MIT AI lab. Tech. Rep. AI Working
Paper 316, MIT, October 1988.
3
Kantrowitz, M., and Digennaro, J. P. The Prentice Hall Guide to Scholarships
and Fellowships for Math and Science Students. Simon &Schuster,
1994.
4
Parberry, I. A guide for new referees in theoretical computer science.
SIGACT News 20, 4 (1989), 92-109. Available by anonymous ftp from ftp.unt.edu.
5
Sloman, A. Notes on presenting theses. Available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk, in directory pub/dist/poplog/teach.
Biography
Marie desJardins received her Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from
the University of California at Berkeley in 1992. She currently works
with the Applied Artificial Intelligence Technology Program at SRI International,
doing research in the areas of machine learning, planning, and intelligent
tutoring systems. Dr. desJardins has taught numerous undergraduate courses,
founded a student AI seminar series, and started the Big Sister program
at Berkeley as president of Women in Computer Science and Engineering.
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