How to answer questions *honestly* about some professors from Visit Days students? We are having Visit Days soon, and we (current grads) are expected to have one-on-one conversations with visiting students with research interests closest to ours. One typical question we get, "How is Prof. X? What is it like working with them?".

As a current grad, I can see the names of the visiting students along with the professors who are their top choices for advisor, and several students have listed two professors I've tried to work with in the past (they had been my top choices when I joined this university).

These professors are great researchers, but, in my opinion, not good at all as advisors. I am not going into details because that'll end up being a rant, which isn't the point here. But my view is strongly shared by all my group peers who had, at some point, tried to work with these professors (due to their fame as researchers).

Because nobody had warned me before  I started working with these professors, I ended up wasting two years in grad school, in my opinion, a very, very high price to pay. I would like to be very honest with the visiting students. At the same time, my field is quite close-knit, with all top professors collaborating with those at other places. If these visiting students end up not joining us, I'd not want them to remember me as the person who bad-mouthed these famous researchers.

How can I honestly answer questions about these professors without coming across as bitter (which I admittedly still am)? If I just state the facts, well, even those are going to be coloured by my viewpoint, and will therefore be biased.

First of all you should decide whether you want to convey any negative information, factual or otherwise, about these faculty members.  You are certainly not obligated to discuss the issue at all.  You could for instance contrive not to be present for this part of the Visit Day, or you could show up and say "I'm sorry, but I don't have anything to contribute in response to that question.  Maybe you should ask someone else."

In my opinion though, absenting some very clear and serious negative consequences for you, you should provide feedback on your experience, because as you say,

  Because nobody had warned me before I started working with these professors, I ended up wasting two years in grad school, in my opinion, a very, very high price to pay.

You go on to write

  I would like to be very honest with the visiting students. At the same time, my field is quite close-knit, with all top professors collaborating with those at other places. If these visiting students end up not joining us, I'd not want them to remember me as the person who bad-mouthed these famous researchers.

Telling the truth about your own experiences is not "bad-mouthing" anyone.

  How can I honestly answer questions about these professors without coming across as bitter (which I admittedly still am)? If I just state the facts, well, even those are going to be coloured by my viewpoint, and will therefore be biased.

I suggest that you plan out what you will say, or could say, in advance.  Indeed you should concentrate on factual information.  You should also remind them that this is just your own experience, and that others' experiences might be different.  This should encourage the visitors to seek out information from others, which is good.

I also don't think "bias" is the right word.  Your answer to the question "What's it like to work with Professor X?" is inherently about your feelings on the matter.  If you had a negative experience, then that's the correct answer to the question as far as you can provide.  It doesn't mean that others will have the same experience -- and again, you can emphasize that in your response -- but it is your take on the situation.

What is the alternative?  Dishonestly describe your experiences and thereby lure further students into bad experiences?  That's not helpful to anyone.


Ref. request : book or survey about conducting experimental studies I am currently conducting researches that are almost mainly theoretical (I am a TCS researcher gone rogue = I also work on applying theory stuff to real life problems). In the future I plan to conduct several large experimental studies involving technical experiments AND human validation of the results.

I am a neophyte in conducting this kind of very large studies involving technicalities and "humanities". I ask around and search on the web for a textbook about this matter and do not find any comprehensive resource.

So the question : do you have any pointer to a book/survey/other explaining the whole process of a large scale experimental study? It can be from any domain.

I would say that the classic in experimental social science methodology is Shadish & Cook's "Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference".

It covers various forms of experimental research design and also go into considerable detail in explaining the logic and practical steps of each.


How much administrative experiences help for a faculty appointment? Imagine a full professor who served as the head and dean in Russia. Definitely, he has good chance to be appointed as VP in Russian (but unlikely in UK as the education systems are different and his experiences cannot be applied directly).

Now, if he apply for a faculty position in a UK university along a colleague who had no administrative position (then, he published more papers and supervised more graduate students). Which one has a better chance to get the position?

My hypothesis: Administrative positions are valuable if someone want to get the next job in the same country or countries with similar education systems.

My question: If someone wishes to take a faclty job in a different country, is it useful to spend time for administrative jobs in his home country OR it is better to focus on academic/research matters, which are global and appreciated anywhere?

In general, being a university administrator (e.g., Dean or Provost) is good experience for being a university administrator. I do not recall any high level administrators changing countries, so my guess is that the experience is country specific. For traditional research and teaching faculty positions, prior experience as a university administrator is not helpful. While hiring committees try and take into account the "lost time" associated with being an administrator, in general, I think administrators trying to switch tracks are at a disadvantage.


Advantages of professional (student level) memberships (in computer science) I'm a sophomore undergraduate studying CS and I look forward to getting into research in future. Is there any advantage of being a student member of societies like ACM, IEEE, etc? I think it might help me expose myself more in the area of Computer Science and research in general but I'm still not sure. I realised that I already have access to digital library through my uni. How can I maximise the benefits I derive from my membership if I choose to become one?
For example, the yearly student membership cost of ACM where I study (India) is ~$25. It says:

Access to the full ACM Digital Library
Access to online courses, ebooks and training videos,
Electronic subscription to Communications of the ACM magazine
Access to ACM's highly targeted Career and Job Center
-Subscription to XRDS, ACM's all new student magazine
Electronic subscription to ACM CareerNews (twice monthly)
ACM e-news digest TechNews (tri-weekly)
ACM's monthly online newsletter MemberNet
Free "acm.org" email forwarding address plus filtering

I don't know how much these subscriptions really benefit me.

I can only address ACM. I would think that for an undergraduate, the benefits are small, though the fees are also very small. However, if you don't otherwise have access to the ACM digital library, a membership can come with a subscription (costs a bit more, though).
The digital library has just about everything published by ACM and its special interest groups, so is pretty valuable for research and some kinds of learning.
However, it is also likely that you university library can give you access for free, though it will be a bit less convenient as you have to go through a librarian.
There might be additional advantages if your university has a local student chapter depending on how active it is.
You can read more: https://www.acm.org/membership/membership-benefits


In-press article, what happens if I don't pay the fee My manuscript has got accepted and published online as "in press" in an Elsevier journal.
I noticed that it is an open access journal late after its acceptance.
I have not signed any forms yet, but the "in press" manuscript is online.
I cannot afford the cost and asked for a waiver. They declined my request.
Can anybody recommend me what to do?
What happens if I don't pay the fee? Will it affect my chances of future publications in other journals of the same publisher?
Please let me have your thoughts.
Thanks

Can anybody recommend me what to do?

Apologize and retract the paper.

What happens if I don't pay the fee?

Your paper will not be published by this journal.

Will it affect my chances of future publications in other journals of the same publisher?

Probably not.  I doubt they track this behavior.  Many of Elsevier's journals are edited independently, and will not care about a mistake made in a different journal.


How to participate in a remote IEEE Conference, due to politics problems in my country? Today I study in Chile, and I have an accepted paper at an international conference of the IEEE of good level. I need that participation since it will help me in my Postgraduate program, but I'm afraid I will not be able to attend. It is unsafe to travel at the moment.

How could I ask the Chairs of the conference and convince them to pay registration and let me present by video-conference? Or if anyone has any idea how to justify my paper appearing in the proceedings of the conference?

Contact the conference chair and/or the program chair of the conference as ask how you can proceed. For some conferences this will be possible, and I suspect that IEEE will support reasonable requests. Most large conferences will have the ability to project from remote sources.

To actually present, however, will require some infrastructure on your end, including some sort of video link (maybe just a web cam) and adequate band width for the link. It might even be possible for a prepared talk to be sent to them prior to the conference by digital media. But you can explore the possibilities with the PC or CC. But you need to do it early.

A third possibility is to have you not present at all, physically or virtually, but still have your paper appear in the proceedings.

Happily, digital solutions exist. Sadly political issues make some things hard.


Professor reaction to sci-hub articles Suppose hypothetically I download certain new research articles from sci-hub which I read and eventually liked. Now if I contact the authors for follow up question/discussion, then is it a good idea to tell them that I read their papers through scihub (if they ask me how did I get I came across his paper).

I cannot tell you what authors would care in general, but I can tell you that most authors I know would not care at all. No one gets a dime from a paper anyway.

I advise you however to not mention such a detail: it's actually irrelevant in that context, because you would be writing to discuss the content of the paper, not the ways to get access. When you write to someone, especially someone you don't know, avoid irrelevant details: people are busy.


Are European schools experiencing the same cost raise as American schools? After factoring in government subsidies (or lack thereof), is the total price for one year of undergraduate education in Europe increasing at a rate similar to America?

This answer is based on the situation in Sweden, I think similar principles would apply in the Nordic countries and possibly in north Europe.
First cost of education is very low compared to US, as can be seen in the following references:

Sweden Abroad's paper on education costs in Sweden

Higher Education Finance and Cost-Sharing in Sweden

There are no tuition fees for European citizens (non Europeans pay a tuition fee which varies based on the University and the Education. For example a technical education for a non European may cost in the range of US$12000/year. The government also provides a grant and a loan on favourable conditions. Everyone who wants to study can get a seat.

It could be argued that even when the government subsidies something there is still a real price, and if there is a real market driver the price should go up.

The government provides resources to a University based on the number of students and the number of courses provided. The amount differs based on the course. For example for natural science and technology the amount is higher than for social sciences. Half the amount is given when the student signs up for a course and half when he or she passes the course. Since the government provides means based on the number of students, there is no reason for why supply and demand should not be met and there should not be any price driver as in US.

For certain very popular educations there are limited seats, and the college would then limit access to these seats based on scores. But money is still not the driver.

For commercial education such as a professional MBA at Stockholm School of Economics there are market price and there prices have increased dramatically over the years. The current cost is in the range of SEK 500K.


How should I handle questions about family/spouse on the job market? According to the (US-centric) "The Professor Is In." Facebook live podcast it is illegal/problematic to ask a candidate in a job interview about family - specifically, it is a problem to ask about how a spouse would react to your appointment or what a spouse would do for work if you are hired. Nevertheless, I have often been asked these types of questions!

How should I respond to these questions as an early stage career academic? Are, they, in fact, illegal?

I am interested mainly in the US context, but I would also like to know if my reaction should differ if I were interviewing in other countries. Is there an answer that is safe in all contexts?

The webinar I watched indicates that candidates should know these questions are illegal but should not complain if they want to have the best shot possible of getting the job.

I have thought a lot about this topic. I am a married woman with a kid who had attended the big professional conference while 7 1/2 months pregnant. Most of my interviewers knew this information about me, so was often asked these questions on the job market. [1] I also mistakenly revealed the information a couple of times because I wanted to know about workplace culture. In the end, I got 0% of the jobs where the department knew I had a kid and 100% where they didn't. (Not statistically significant because of low sample size, but still...) Ever since that experience, I have paid special attention to articles on this topic.

I would abide by a few principles:

1) Provide as little information as possible. Anything you reveal may be held against you. If at all possible, provide a deflective, non-answer answer (including a joke). Frankly, any member of the search committee who is aware of the laws/cares about the discrimination will probably be grateful to you for avoiding this complication to the hiring process. Finally, even if you have a "good answer" like "my spouse would be happy to move," the committee may still decide not to believe you and penalize you for a two-body problem.[2]

2) Be collegial. A great deal of weight is placed on collegiality once you have made it to the stage of a flyout. This is why you should not just say "That's illegal." or respond in a way that might be confrontational (especially if you are a woman or person of color). In my case, I found that people who asked these illegal questions were using them as a lead in to sell you on aspects of the university such as great child care, fun couples activities in town, etc. When the asker (possibly incorrectly) thinks they are helping you, they take umbrage at a confrontational response.

3) If the information is already out there, give them the answer they want to hear. First, assume anything that they can Google is "out there." This includes wedding announcements, gift registries for babies, etc. After you account for the information that is part of the "public record", I think you are under no obligation to be actually honest about details. You should spin your situation to your heart's desire. They should not be using this information, so it should not matter, right?

4) Pivot back to job-relevant topics as fast as possible. Any time you spend discussing personal matters like this could probably be better spent positioning yourself as the most qualified applicant who would be the biggest asset to the department. So move back to these topics as fast as possible.

Some examples:

"Do you have children?" "Some days I feel I have 60 children! I can't tell if my undergrads are 19 are 9 most days. I often find that they don't listen well to directions... [here is one way I have handled that in my teaching]"

"How is your new baby sleeping through the night?" is "Great! They are such a good sleeper and I am back to full-time productive research!" (HA!)

"Are you married? What would your spouse do if you moved here? The university career services office is happy to help with spousal relocation." "It is great that the university is able to offer that type of support for new faculty. Are the students in the department also able to take advantage of career services? What are the placement rates like for new graduates from the department?"

[1] It was clearly something that the committees discussed about me. I had a prep call with a faculty member in advance of my first flyout. The conversation started with the person asking me what my daughter was going to be for Halloween. I had never met her and she did totally different work so did not attend the professional conference where I had been pregnant.

[2] Important study related to this topic (paywalled): journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417739294  This finds that hiring committees often use information about marital status to make problematic assumptions about female candidates and illegally use that info in their decision making. The examples (the researcher was allowed to sit in on real hiring meetings at an R1 university) were incredibly egregious, including not offering the job to a top candidate because, even though she insisted her husband was happy to move, they didn't believe her.


Is it common to ask professors for an editable copy of their lecture notes (so I can improve them)? I'm a grad student in Italy, for context. My professor wrote some lecture notes about a course I just finished. They are not well written, not because the professor isn't good but because he wrote them in a rush since he wanted to give us some material for the period of Coronavirus, so he wrote them lesson-by-lesson. I think future students could benefit from well-written notes, and I would like to ask the professor the LaTeX source of the notes to add some lectures that he skipped and fix some grammar/paragraphing issues (and obviously give them back to him afterward, without sharing it with anyone if he doesn't tell me to). Is it common to do this? I don't want to seem over-flattering.
Update: the professor was super kind and he replied that he thought it was a good idea, but only if this didn't interfere with my ordinary classes. I'll write a few more chapters and then send them to him.

No, in my experience this is not common.
But that shouldn't stop you from asking. Your suggestion is certainly within the reasonable parameters in which simply offering your help wouldn't be offensive. (Provided of course you do so tactfully, i.e. following the usual etiquette when pointing out that someone else's work could be improved upon.)
I have friends who would be very happy to receive such an offer as they would finally turn their messy notes into something of high quality! But bear in mind that while accepting your offer may seem like a "no brainer" to you, there might be perfectly reasonable reasons why your professor might turn you down. For example, even though your offer seems like a way to improve the lecture notes at no cost to the professor that is not the case. Improving the notes will require co-operation and further editing by your professor as your professor will have to make sure that you did not introduce significant mistakes or misinterpretations. And they simply might not have the time for that!


Publishing as sole author on politically charged topic I have been working on a manuscript on a politically charged topic, I will be able to complete this work mostly on my own so I should be able to submit as the sole author.

However I am concerned to submit as the only author because of the nature of the topic and because I do not have any previous publishing record so my submission might be overlooked. Should I try to get someone else more known on board, or try to publish this on my own since I have done all the work?

I want to begin by acknowledging that I am stepping far outside my core expertise by answering this question: as a mathematician, the chance that I would write an academic paper on a politically charged topic is essentially zero.

I firmly believe that PhD students have the right to work on whatever they want in addition to their assigned thesis work and duties.  (In fact, everyone does.)  When I read other questions on this site in which students in the laboratory sciences say that their advisor tries to shut down their side interest in X, I got dismayed.

Being a PhD student requires a great deal of single-mindedness.  I think it's nice for a PhD student to have at least one project or publication which is not directly connected to the subject of their thesis work: that shows breadth.  However, this should not come at the expense of their thesis work.  Sometimes people with very independent personalities put more time into their independent work than their guided work, and this can be a good decision, but they should still get guidance on that decision!

In this case, I am a bit concerned that the OP may be going out too far on her own.  This is a side project which has some difficulties -- including political ones -- to the extent that the OP is wondering whether she needs more faculty assistance.  She also says that she has not published anything previously.  So the OP has chosen in my opinion a rather tough side project.  How much effort will it take to bring this project to successful completion (including publication)?  The OP doesn't know; that's part of the question.

I recommend that the OP talk to her advisor about this project, including the question of how much time to spend on it and whether to try to publish it now, later or never.  If the paper is sufficiently politically charged, then it has an unusual property among academic papers: publishing it may damage the OP's reputation in certain circles.  This is already worth a serious conversation with the advisor.

Finally: adding coauthors solely to increase the chance publication is both unethical and a suboptimal strategy for the solo author.  I have a different idea: if the paper is hard to publish because the author is so junior, the author can just put the paper in her pocket until she is less junior, and then try to publish it later.  (There is also something to be said for not having your first publication be controversial, at least in many academic fields.)  What a PhD student needs to do most of all is complete the strongest possible PhD thesis, and this strategy ensures that the OP is not getting derailed from that.


Is it normal to "extract a paper" from a master thesis? I have finished my master thesis and now a couple of colleagues who were involved (one of which was the supervisor) are interested in "extracting a paper" from it. We have already written one paper on a topic covered in the thesis, but in a bit more detail. I am worried that this would be considered self-plagiarism since I have already done the thesis and am only really summarizing one part of the thesis.

It is plagiarism only if you do not properly cite it.

If you have not published the thesis itself, of course you can publish parts of it or summaries of it or even the whole thing unchanged.  The requirement to avoid "self plagiarism" is to cite.  For example, in the introduction write:

  This paper is taken from my thesis [title] done in [date] at [school] under the direction of [advisor].


Is there a smarter way to search for PhD theses for a specific topic? Google Scholar seems to have the entry for almost every thesis I can find in google.com. However, I do not know how to search specifically for theses alone.

For instance, to find a PhD thesis written specifically for a topic, I Google the following

  "Topic Name" PhD Thesis

The results are not bad, but it would be nicer to have a result as provided by Google Scholar.

I have had some success by doing a similar type of search in Google Scholar. For example, if I want to search for dissertations related to convex optimization, the following search terms in Google Scholar

  "convex optimization" dissertation site:edu

returns many useful results. In the above example, the search is restricted to those institutions that are archiving their dissertations on the .edu domain. Obviously, you can alter the domain, if need be.

You can also substitute "thesis" for "dissertation", but Google Scholar seems to be smart enough to give results for either, no matter which one you use.


Could an undergraduate with an applied physics background get a research spot in a university lab in aerospace? I am an undergraduate who has a very impressive resume in applied physics related to lasers and ultrafast optics but my major is going to be in the aerospace field.
I want to do research in an aerospace field but I have very little coursework or experience in that field. My resume shows that I am good at picking up advanced topics fairly quickly.

Would I have a shot at a research spot in university research lab in aerospace even though I have very little experience in it?

EDIT: I am looking for an unpaid internship in a lab where I can hopefully get co-authored in as an undergraduate (next fall).

Yes, that seems reasonable.  Start knocking on faculty doors.


Is it professional to have a "cited by" section of a personal website? I'm not sure if there's a word or phrase for a "reverse bibliography", but that's what I'm looking to put on my website - a list of other papers that have cited my own work. The goal is to show that my work has had influence and has spread beyond just the paper itself. Is this common in academia, or is it only common to list one's own papers?

For any well established research, they will usually have quite a large number of citations, which would make a "cited by" section would be exhausting to maintain and large beyond meaningful readability.  A better route is to link to an database that actually engages in curating ones citations, such as Google Scholar.

I do, however, sometimes see people maintaining a collection of notable articles in non-scientific media.  These are not normally picked up by citation databases and are valuable for showing that work is having impact outside of the scientific community, as well as (sometimes) providing a nice introduction to the work.


Dual major in mathematics and physics I am doing dual major in mathematics and physics and I want to pursue my future study in theoretical physics, I mean want to do PhD in it.
Although, I am dual majoring but my university provides only single transcript for both major, and I have got good grades (9.4/10) in physics but bad in maths, thus overall grade is 7.8/10.
My question:
While applying for graduate admission, which grade should I put in the application?
The overall grade or physics grade?
Please help.
Thanks

I think that nearly every university would require your grade as represented in your transcript - your overall grade. If you hide that, then you could be accused of misconduct.
However, you can, in other materials, point out that your physics grades are higher and report it. There is no problem with that. Perhaps a simple phrase in a sentence in the SoP would serve.
Being "selective" permits all sorts of potential abuse.


How to effectively supervise grad student calculus teaching assistants (TAs)? Those of you at universities where calculus is taught in small sections with graduate student instructors;
what sort of structure do you have for supervising/mentoring the graduate students and overseeing the administration of the course?

E.g., does this duty rotate among tenure-track faculty, do you have a dedicated instructor who does this on a long-term basis, or do you have some other structure?

I'm not in math, but I have supervised several times multiple sections of a first-year software design course taught primarily by grad students (usually I also am teaching one of the sections).

Weekly meetings are helpful, at least an hour, especially for first-time TAs
Collaborating on course content (presentations, exercises, quizzes, homework, exams) via the cloud (e.g., Google apps) is great
My policy is to share all my content with new TAs when they come on board, with the agreement that they'll improve and re-share it back.
I try to get extra $ for "tutoring" hours for them, outside the course, so as to make the work less painful. Anything that boosts morale and shows you're on their side is great.
I try to nurture leadership within the group, as turnover is high.
I used to pay (out of my pocket) an end-of-semester team-building social outing (I felt it was worth it, to have motivated TAs). However, when the department chair found out I was doing it, he started covering the cost from then on, if I invited him, too (this has become a normal thing, since it's essential to get and keep for a while the motivated TAs).
If you can approach it as a management problem and apply some management techniques (don't take on their monkeys), it's feasible. Also, I scooped a few good research students (and was able to spot some I wouldn't work well with) thanks to the experience.
My department doesn't rotate this kind of responsibility, since courses are generally "owned" by only one or two professors. We are unionized, and have considered having this kind of supervision recognized formally in terms of teaching load (which it still is not). It comes up every time our collective agreement is re-negotiated, but the % of faculty it affects is small. The P&T committees take it into consideration, however.


Disclosing consideration for funded Master's during PhD program admissions As an undergraduate in the admissions process for a PhD program, should I disclose my status as a finalist for a separate and prestigious fellowship that would fund a Master's program? (I have already completed my applications, so any disclosure would occur after having been made an offer by a PhD program.)

If so, when is the appropriate and responsible time to disclose this information?

Importantly, if I were to receive the MA fellowship, I would certainly accept due to its prestige.

My concerns are twofold:

1) I do not wish to lessen my bargaining power by disclosing this information too early in the admissions process (i.e. during negotiations over PhD funding or prior to an official offer).

2) I do not wish to provoke the ire of admissions boards and department faculties by withholding this information until too far into the admissions process. Particularly because I intend to complete my PhD after the MA program, should I happen to be awarded the fellowship.

In terms of a timeline, notification for MA fellowship recipients will be made between March and late April. Most PhD programs expect a decision notification in April.

If we're talking about a program such as a Marshall or Fulbright scholarship, such awards are usually considered sufficient grounds to postpone enrollment while the fellowship is being pursued.

On the other hand, I wouldn't raise this possibility until it becomes an actual issue. You're introducing unnecessary obstacles in the admissions process that way. If an offer comes along from a school or one of these fellowships, you can deal with it then


Ph.D Transfer from other country to US In this application cycle, I got a PhD offer from Nanyang Technology University at Singapore and will study in the field of programming language. However, I recently received a mail from my supervisor which is said that he will soon leave NTU for some reasons. After searching the faculty list of NTU I found there is no other professor who works in programming language.

I don't want to compromise on the topic I will do during my PhD. Maybe it is a good choice for me to find a matching supervisor in some other universities.
But I have to go to NTU to do my PhD because I have no alternative choice now since this application cycle is ended.

What I want to know is that is it possible to transfer my PhD from singapore to US if I re-apply for some American universities after my current supervisor's leave?

Any advise will be so much appreciate for that I somehow don't know what to do.

In general, it is difficult to transfer between universities in different countries unless one is moving with the thesis advisor. This is in part because of funding rules: usually, money in one country cannot be used to fund graduate students working or studying in another country. (In the US, for instance, graduate fellowships are normally valid only at US universities.)

If you were to attempt to transfer on your own, the most likely scenario is that you would be expected to start the PhD over; depending on the department, they may not recognize coursework completed at your old school, or at best may choose to give you placement out of the equivalent courses, but still expect you to complete additional electives. It would be even more challenging to move your project over, if funding isn't available to work on the same project.

Since you are just starting, perhaps it would be possible to complete a master's degree in Singapore, and then try to transfer to another university for the doctoral studies. (I'm not sure how doctoral programs in CS handle an international master's. In my department, though, students with master's from abroad were still expected to complete the "core" coursework requirements.)


How many professors are there in technical fields with no degree whatsoever? Peter Beck has recently been appointed an Adjunct Professor in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Auckland. As you know, Peter Beck is the founder of Rocket Lab, which has put payloads into space, but Peter Beck also never attended college and even dropped out of high school.

How many Adjunct Professors are there in technical fields like Aerospace Engineering without any college degrees? How many high school dropout professors without degrees?

I don't have numbers, of course, nor even proportions, but I suspect that the number is small.

But more important is the question of how such a person would be hired and what sort of position they could hold. The problem is that a school or university wanting to employ such a person needs some assurance that the person is competent for the position. Not holding any degrees makes that more difficult in general.

But some people have excelled in a field with no formal education. That isn't especially unusual, actually, but not a lot of them will want to teach. But some will. Many will want to do it only part time and money isn't the driver for them, so a position as an adjunct can be attractive both to them and to a university. But no one will be looking at it as a career path.

I suspect that Harvard would be happy to have Bill Gates teach a course occasionally - probably not in BASIC language, though.

Luminaries in a field are probably offered such courses fairly frequently, I'd guess. But especially if the institution is looking to establish a long term relationship with future funding in mind.


What to do if my advisor insists on early attendance? I have a genuine problem in waking up early in the morning. My advisor prefers to walk in my office whenever he wanted to. Lately, he started to complain to me about not showing up in the morning. Even the way to
 he used to come to my office has changed, he started to open the door without knocking and then the first thing he checks my computer screen.

I tried to tell him that about my difficulties and suggested scheduling meetings instead. He told me these are the rules of the institution and I have to follow them.

Long story short, I started to come early in the morning but I can barely get anything done.

Update 1: I reviewed the contract, it explicitly mentioned that working time starts no later than 9am. My contract is with an institution not the university directly.

Update 2 : I consulted a doctor and I have been diagnosed with depression. Besides the medication that was prescribed to me, I was asked to take a rest from the school.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your thoughts.

As a fellow night owl, I feel your pain. Normally I would suggest concisely explaining your difficulties and suggesting a work-around to your advisor, but it sounds like you've already done that. Sadly, your advisor does have the right to set working hours, so you have no real recourse other than finding a different advisor.

The situation might be different if you have a medical diagnosis/disability -- but I don't think "night owl" will qualify, since waking up early is not harmful to your health (not sure about French law though). What I've done in similar situations is to use melatonin to fall asleep early and caffeine pills to wake up -- probably not the healthiest solution long-term, but it does the trick for me.


Peer review prior to beginning a study? In scientific research there are a number of problems today:

Studies that aren't reproducible.
Studies and papers that are criticized for their methods, conclusions, or bias.
Industry-funded studies that are discounted due to accusation of conflict of interest.
Individuals and groups who are defensive of their work due to their personal and/or financial investment, and are inherently not open-minded toward critical feedback.
Even if researchers are open to critical feedback and scrutiny, it may still be infeasible to re-run a flawed study due to logistics, financial, and time limitations.

From my experience in engineering, arguably the most valuable ROI effort in a large project is getting early peer review before significant investment is made toward an approach.

If a group of peer reviewers had a chance to give their feedback on how a study was going to be performed, then the results are more likely to be valid, and the reviewers are more likely to accept whatever the results will be.

I am not a reseacher and am completely unfamiliar with the process of publishing a study or a paper.  However, the only peer review I have heard of is where only final results are reviewed.  I am curious:

Do journals, institutions, etc. have processes that require peer-review of initial proposals and procedures before a research study is allowed to commence?
If not, why not?

I suspect that such a process would have the potential to greatly increase the quality of studies, and prevent much wasted effort where studies are published that never gain acceptance (presumably due to quality problems but perhaps for non-technical reasons as well).  Curious to hear others' thoughts.

Yes, some 225 journals do operate under such a model, called Registered Reports. As you suggest, the approach has a lot of advantages. The tagline is:

  Registered Reports: Peer review before results are known to align scientific values and practices.

Clearly, this is not yet a majority view, but as a methodology it is in the ascendant. The umbrella term is preregistration.


How to study better when underprepared for grad level theory course I am a 2nd year PhD student in the area of digital communication networks. I am taking an information theory class and we had our midterm last week, which was open book, open notes. I did poorly on it--I got a 68, while the class average was a 90 with a standard deviation of 16. This class is the theoretical foundations of a lot of communication, so obviously I'd like to do well and understand the material. A 68 when the rest of the class did so well means that I'm not understanding essential aspects of the subject.

The grading scheme in this class is weird, in that the midterm score is thrown away if I do better on the final. So I have the chance to redeem myself on the final...problem is given that I actually did study for this exam, I don't know how to do better.

The subject matter is inherently difficult for me. I have all the prerequisites (which is just 1-2 probability classes, I have taken two), but I have always struggled with more theoretical math.

I always go to lecture and do the homework. The homeworks take a long time because they are hard for me. I do each of the problems on my own, and then on the day the assignment is due, I go over my answers with a friend who is also taking the course. For this exam we were provided with 3 practice exams. I spent as much of the weekend studying as I could. We had a homework due on Saturday that I spent all Saturday finishing, and then I studied all Sunday and most of Monday. I managed to complete one and a half practice exams in that time.

My current style of studying worked well for undergrad and master's courses, but clearly my methods are not working here. Arguably I could have started studying for the exam earlier, but I actually spent the week before the exam working hard on the aforementioned homework assignment (at the expense of my own research). I did well on that homework, and I assumed spending time understanding material from the homework would be beneficial for the exam. That did not turn out to be true.

Is it reasonable to try and dedicate more time to the class? My preparation for the exam was already at the expense of doing nearly no research that week. Has anyone had an experience where they did poorly on a class like this at first, but then managed to recover? How did you do it?

Finally, the poor grade has made me feel unmotivated and want to avoid working on the material, which is probably the exact opposite of what I need right now! Any advice on getting over this psychological aversion?

It's great that you have a study partner.  What you could add is some regular visits to office hours (TA and instructor if there are both).

As for sacrificing research work at crunch times, this is something you should discuss with your research supervisor.

Edit (responding to comment)

Thoughts about how to benefit from visiting office hours:

Go over portions of the lecture notes you're not solid about.
You may have some gaps in your background knowledge and skills, which you can work on with one-on-one guidance.
You can bring a draft of your homework:

Check your reasoning.  Your instructor or TA can point out places where you make a leap of faith in a proof, where you could consolidate some steps, or ask if you've considered such-and-so other approach, e.g. indirect proof.
Get unstuck on a problem.
Better understand the relationship between an example worked in class and the problem posed in the homework.

Get additional practice with certain key types of problems.
Learn tricks for working more quickly -- which can be extremely valuable in an exam setting.
Practice explaining a topic.  At a key juncture your instructor/TA can ask you to be more precise if necessary.  Getting feedback about which of your ideas are correct and well put in itself can help you gain more confidence.
Request a practice exam, and have it evaluated.

In short, in office hours you can receive tutoring at the source!  (Always being sensitive to the instructor's or TA's need to balance your needs with those of the other students.)


How can I email a CS professor looking for Phd. students? This year I will submit about 16 aplications to different universities for graduate studies at the US. However, I found that there are new professors looking for Phd. students. So as a foregin student with only a bachelor of science in computer science, how should I approach to a professor looking for students?. My background is the following:

CS major at the first university of my country
A research thesis
3 research papers in the field of the professor's interest. (not ground breaking, the first one is in a local congress the second is in an international conference indexed by springer's LNCS and IEEE, the third is also indexed in springer.)
3.0 GPA
I will take the GRE and TOEFL the nexts weeks

After all, I read 2 papers of this professor an I would like to be his Phd. student. If he would like to know me I will take a trip to the USA just to talk with him. How can I email to this professor and let him know I am an international enthusiastic stundent that wants to extend his work.

This is kind of a tough question.  As a faculty member, I get tons and tons of these emails and frankly ignore most of them.  I feel kind of bad about it, but the main problem is that these emails usually don't give me any (positive) information that isn't already available from the Ph.D. application.  If I'm on the committee that year, I'll probably see the application.  And if not, well, either someone will bring it to my attention and ask me to have a quick look at the folder or not, but an email isn't going to change that.

I can at least tell you what not to do.  Don't write more than 2-3 short paragraphs.  Don't use more than 70 characters per line.  Don't include attachments.  Don't tell me how much you want to work with me.  Don't tell me how hard you work.  Don't brag about how great you are.  Don't prostrate yourself before me ("Respected professor, it would be the highest honor to work with such a great scientific mind...").  Don't try to impress me.  Don't use a script to try to make a mass email look like I'm the only professor receiving it (believe me, it's obvious the content wasn't written just for me).

Do include a link to your home page, especially if it contains papers and software.  Do try to engage me about something other than the admissions process, but this is tricky because if it's just a transparent effort to try to improve your admissions prospects, I'll get annoyed, and if it's a dumb question about one of my papers, well then I might not be impressed.

Frankly, the thing that works the best is when it's not the candidate but somebody whose judgment I trust who emails me and suggests that I look out for the person.  I don't like this because A) it tends to favor people in the US, and B) I have this feeling that I'm missing out on loads of talent for the simple reason that it's much harder to identify and evaluate good people who aren't compared to people I already know.  (I will say is that if I'm on the admissions committee, you are in my area, and you have a great statement of purpose, I will read whichever publication you make sound the most interesting.  That's a big time investment, but it has definitely paid off for me as I've found some great students that way.  I could go on about the admissions process, but that's not your question.)

I guess basically the more genuine contact I or my group has had with someone not about admissions, the easier it will be to realize that I might have good chemistry with the student and read the papers.  In one recent case, one of my Ph.D. students had previously interacted with a candidate and told me that the guy was a great hacker.  I looked at the application and quickly put the candidate at the very top of my list.

addendum

Obviously what I wrote is just one professor's perspective, and faculty members are all different.  As the OP points out, some faculty actively want potential Ph.D. students to contact them and advertise that on their web pages.  And maybe for more junior faculty, or schools below the top 10, or people who just have better email habits than I do, email is a useful recruiting tool.


Cite submitted paper in my master's thesis Some time ago, I and another person submitted a paper to a conference. It has not yet been accepted. In my master's I want to express that the results of my algorithm (included in my thesis) have been compared to those of another algorithm in the submitted paper. In other words the derivation and results of my algorithm are included both in the thesis and the paper.
How do I cite the paper?
I know this question has been asked many times but I were not able to find previous answers entirely reflecting my situation. Most importantly, the review process of the conference is double-blind and I am afraid that by specifying the name of the conference in my master's thesis, I am jeopardizing the anonymity.
But if I cannot mention to which conference it is submitted, very little of the actual bibtex entry remains. I suspect that because of this it best to simply cite it as @unpublished with a note specifying the status.
I hope someone can confirm this for me or provide a better alternative. I simply do not want to make a fool of myself.
Update:
I eventually got around to speaking to my supervisor and we agreed that a citation of the form

Author A, Author B (Me), ... Title Of Paper, Submitted, 2020

was appropriate. I reference this citation in the overview of my thesis and mention that parts of my work have been submitted to an international conference. As Buffy points out, some form of citation is absolutely required to avoid self-plagiarism. By citing myself I clearly indicate that I revisit material that is also submitted in a paper.
I included the title of the submitted paper in the citation. Necessarily this puts anonymity at risk. The theses submitted to my university will be published. As its review process is shorter, we expect the thesis to be available before the paper is accepted. Therefore it is theoretically possible that the reviewers could find my thesis and cross-reference the title of the paper I cite to the paper submitted to the conference. However, we concluded that this is quite an unrealistic scenario.
Note that the name of the conference submitted to is left out. This is done primarily as the actual conference is, for me, unimportant (until it is potentially accepted). What matters is that I have contributed material to a paper, which reflects well on my thesis.
If you are more profiled than I, perhaps you must take further steps to anonymize the citation such that it cannot be cross-referenced to the paper. If so I would suggest you confer with your supervisor.

Perhaps you can use time to your advantage here and update a citation as you learn more. But submitted, not yet published is a better description than simply unpublished which can give the impression that it won't be published.

But if the thesis itself will only be seen internally at the university until the decision is made by the conference, then it might be safe enough to just give the full citation. And, if it is accepted you would probably want to update it in any case to indicate that fact.

I think you understand already that citation isn't optional and must be done, but only the form of citation is being addressed here. Above all else, avoid self plagiarism.


Will sitting for the IELTS Academic module void the validity of my previous General Training module score? I have already taken the IELTS GT examination and my score has not yet expired. If I take the IELTS academic exam, will my previous score be voided? I need to take both format of exams for different purposes.

For the best information you could Contact IELTS

That said, from reading the information booklet (pages 3-5) on their website the two tests have some sections that apply to the both GT and Academic tests which are speaking and listening. They then have 2 modules that are different for each test, which are reading and writing.

They are also used for two different purposes

  IELTS Academic is for test takers wishing to study at undergraduate or postgraduate levels, and for those seeking professional registration.

  IELTS General Training is for test takers wishing to migrate to an English-speaking country (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK), and for those wishing to train or study at below degree level

From this it would seem unusual that the results from one test would void the other when they are both different tests.

Edit based on OP comment:
After the OP contacted IELTS thay said that 'they are both separate results and it will be your choice entirely which one you wish to present when applying to institution's.' which confirms that one test would not void the other.


Recommendation letter from a research adviser who is expelled from the university My undergraduate research adviser is expelled from the university for political reasons (in Middle East) after more than a decade of teaching and research. Now they have even forced the department to remove his name from the faculty list on the website of the department and they have taken away his academic email address.

I am applying to graduate schools in US and I want to include his recommendation letter in my application. What are the chances that the admission committee rejects my application due to

My adviser not being listed on the department webpage.
Not having an official email.

Some additional info: He has tens of publications which indicate his affiliation. He does have the letter head of the university, which can be used to print the letter on. The webpage of the department cannot be easily found by one search. One must find it through the university website which can take some effort.

This is a tricky situation, but as long as everyone is careful and honest, you should be fine.

Here's what I would recommend.  Yes, you should ask your former advisor to submit a reference letter on your behalf, from his non-academic email address.  You should mention in your statement that he has left your university, but you should not say anything about why he left.  Any further details are up to your former advisor to reveal, if he wishes to do so.

Your former advisor absolutely should not submit his letter on university letterhead, because he is not affiliated with the university.  He should include a very brief bio describing his former affiliation and listing his departure date.  If possible, he should include some external evidence of his scholarship, like a pointer to his Scopus or Google Scholar profile.  If he wants to describe the circumstances of his departure, he should keep the story very brief; his letter should focus on you, not about him, his former employer, or their political conflicts.


What accounts for a good PhD experience? We know that there are multiple horror stories regarding people's PhD experience.
I too had a minor setback : my advisor asked me to change advisors since my progress was not upto the mark.

What is it like to do good research? That is what could be the possible sufficient check marks I need to see in my program which would indicate if I should quit or strive ? I am asking this because not all challenges are positive and not all are negative.I was wondering that the more happier people might have not contributed enough on the e-community and it would be helpful to see the timeline of a successful and fulfilling PhD. ( we all know about the bigger Yes\No ( quals, defense etc) , I am more interested in the daily/weekly grind

Thanks

I don't think I've ever met a PhD student perfectly happy with their work, but there is a clear pattern among the few I knew who were doing quite well: a good work relationship with their PhD advisor. This means:

Shared interest in the topic and shared specific goals (it seems obvious but it's not always the case, far from it)
Good communication, and especially mutual understanding on how the collaboration works:

agreement on the balance autonomy/supervision, i.e. what the PhD student is supposed to do on their own vs. what they are supposed to ask their supervisor advice for.
clear communication policy: emails or meeting, meetings frequency, open door or scheduled appointments, etc.

It's a matter of finding the right way to work together between the student and the advisor. For example some advisors expect their PhD student to be quite autonomous, others prefer to be involved in every decision; both styles can work, as long as the student and the advisor are on the same page.

There is no general objective way to evaluate a PhD in progress, this is why good communication with the PhD advisor is essential since they are the only person who can give this kind of feedback. If the relationship works smoothly, the PhD student can be confident even when problems happen and doesn't waste too much time and mental energy questioning their own work.


How to deal with my results being stolen? I have experienced a couple of times the following problem: I have asked another researcher to cooperate and provided mathematical results (as a basis for an algorithm). The cooperation has not proceeded as fast as expected and the other party has taken my results and integrated them into a work that he has published with other people. There are two questions:

How to initiate cooperation with new people and still avoid this problem? The mathematical properties are central in our research. New algorithms cannot be created, unless we first invent some clever properties that prune the search space (so, the properties are the heart of the algorithm, the rest is usually straight-forward). So, they have to be invented first and this inventing happens to be my speciality. Unfortunately, it is easy to proceed without me, when I have done this difficult part. So, I don't know whom and when I could give the results. They should be shared pretty soon, since we should all be able to ponder together how to integrate the new properties in the algorithm. Sometimes we may also find that they are not useful or strong enough and new results are needed, so ideally this invention-brainstorming process would be iterative.
How should I refer to my own results, if others have published them first? Should I still give a reference to their publication, when I use them for something new? This is now an important question since I have invented a new use for one of my previous results. (Naturally, I don't like the idea I should refer to somebody else for my own invention.)

I would also like to understand the behaviour of those other researchers. I have a few hypotheses:

It's possible they underestimate the invention work, because I
usually present only the final results as nice compact proofs +
explanation what the result means in practice. In reality, deriving
the results may easily take 100 hours or more - proving by trial and
error, guided by intuition and earlier results.
I have been only a post-doc, when this happened, so I had no authority. They may think it is easier to get a paper published if it is written with some better
known researchers.
These people have been from other countries and had a different mother tongue than me, while they have published the results with
people who were either geographically close (even the same research
group) or spoke the same language they did. So maybe the question is
about easy communication and cooperation?
The original research had suffered from delays, like rejected project application. It would have continued but not in the original schedule (from my part). So maybe they wanted to get things published faster or even assumed I won't get any funding for future research.

What do you think is the explanation? Understanding the reasons would help to avoid the problem in future.

How to initiate cooperation with new people and still avoid this
  problem?

You need some basic trust in the people you want to cooperate with before starting to share ideas. In some cases, you might know coauthors of them. Talk to them and hopefully they will drop hints on whether the collaboration was fair or if you need to be careful. I have indeed gotten warnings from other researchers (inside my own institute) regarding who I can trust and who tries to steal ideas. And I also pass on such information (after validating it) to new researchers.

But most important: Before starting any serious exchange of information, define basic rules for all of you. For example, anything which is developed throughout this collaboration must only be published with everyone agreeing to it. Create proof of this via a digitally signed email.

Of course, you might not be able to fully trust ANY person. So take care and create proof of your initial ideas. I tend to create repositories with revision-tracking (via GIT or SVN) of the joint work during collaboration. Everything should be stored therein, for example, any paper that you are writing or simulation data. Even if you get into trouble later on, you can proof, WHEN and WHAT you contributed.


What if funding info not uploaded while submission but acknowledged? To the best of my knowledge, when some authors are funded by some industries, they should (or sometimes have to) acknowledge the industry by writing the funding ID.

What happens if someone acknowledges the funding info, in detail, in the manuscript, but does not upload them to the submission system of journal, while submitting the paper?

It seems that the published info of that research will be public only in the published paper and not the journal private database, and therefore that public information will be the official reference in the case of conflict of interest.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this is accurate?

It might be helpful to note that:

The context is artificial intelligence - computer science.
The funding institutes are European.
Based on European regulations algorithms cannot be patented because patenting them is equal to publishing the algorithm (unlike US regulations).
Thus, I do not understand if conflict of interest is, even, possible in this field.

There are two different things here: (1) Acknowledgement and (2) Online information. These two things are different.

(1) Acknowledgement is provided by the authors and it appears in the printed (online and offline) manuscript. Acknowledgement can go to a person, a set of persons, a lab, an university, a funder and such like.

(2) Funding information appears in both manuscript (just below abstract, sometimes) and in the online journal website. This is exclusively provided to thank the funding organization. And, if the research is funded, then it is a must.

If you don't provide such information while submitting the paper, though you have acknowledged in the manuscript, it won't appear on the journal website.

However, here is the alternative. I believe that you have submitted the first version of the manuscript. If it comes for a revision request, then while submitting the revised version, you can edit the funding information in online submission system.

Alternatively, you can email the journal editorial office to make an arrangement with the submission system so that you can edit the submission again. Note that if the article is already under review, you can't change anything now.


I have 14 F's on my transcript and I am finishing late. Do I have any chance of getting accepted into a master's program in Germany? Because of multiple factors including depression, attention deficiency, laziness and immaturity I've managed to accumulate 14 F's during the first two years of my computer science education. I'm finishing a semester late and I'm currently on my last semester. For context, I come from relatively poor European (non-EU) country and my university is considered pretty decent in my country.
Starting from third year I believe I changed myself for the better and so I managed to pass all my classes and more or less catch up to my peers. My GPA is currently 3.0 and I'll most likely graduate with the same GPA. I'm not an exceptional student in any way and I don't have any amazing projects to redeem myself. With my level of (un)success, I am aiming for average universities at best.
While I realize that I've pretty much destroyed my chances of pursuing higher education considering all my failures but I wanted to seek more opinions before I completely give up on it. Thank you.

Your chances might be not that bad. MSc admissions in Germany, specifically in CS, are not highly competitive. In fact, universities have an incentive to admit and keep as many students as possible, since the number of students has an effect on how much money they get.


PGCE usability and validity abroad My two questions are about the English PGCE (in my case, I would be interested in Physics).

1) I did a bit of research online (and also know the Italian and French education system from direct experience) and it seems to me that the PGCE is not very useful in order to teach abroad. What about English speaking countries (Australia, Ireland, USA, etc.) and International or British schools?

2) I understand that the PGCE carries the credits of a master degree. Does this make it useful or "spendable" in any other sector? If, for example, after my Teacher Training Year decide to do something different from teaching, would the fact that I acquired a PGCE give me any advantage in comparison with another way of obtaining QTS?

you cannot teach with a PGCE, you need to pass the Agreg or CAPES examinations, at which point you are placed at a school. New teachers have very, very little say in where they teach.

PGCE credits are loosely equivalent to masters credits, but my experience is that few universities will APL them in because it's effectively a professional training course. If you carry on learning at the same institution, they might have a scheme to "convert" the PGCE to an MA or MEd.


What type of content (depth/breadth) or structure of slides (PPT) is expected for a short presentation for Asst Professor interview in the UK? I have been recently offered an interview for Asst. Professor at a mid-tier UK university.
I have completed my PhD from a top-tier (Oxbridge) university in the UK and had applied for this position without really expecting an interview call. At the start of the interview, I am asked to deliver a 10 minute presentation titled "How would you contribute to the research agenda in the Department?"
In my opinion, the question is rather asking "How would your research fit the department"? Please correct me if I am wrong.
The current situation is I have researched the department and find that the department has a research center but my research specialisms do not necessarily fit the research center. For example, my specialisms are financial investments and the school research center focus on cooperate finance. In this case, how should I address "my research fits well with the department". In addition, I am struggling to figure out the exact meaning how should I answer "contribution to their research agenda".
My current problem is that this interview is scheduled immediately (within 5 days), and this doesn't give me sufficient time to contact my former PhD supervisor(s) for their valuable advice.
My specific questions are:
How deeply technical should I go in the presentation slides for such an opportunity? (i.e. are details at the equation-level required and journal citations expected?)
What sort of answers do that expect？ or Which aspects should I discuss in order to address this question? Currently, I can only think of some answers such as potential collaboration with potential staff or contribution to the next REF or etc?
Should I discuss my publications, conference participation, research pipeline or achievements so far?
Should I identify the grants that I shall be applying to (in particular, the specific EPSRC schemes that exist for early career researchers)?
Are there any other aspects that I may have completely missed here?
I am really sorry to be naive in asking a lot of questions here. This is a valuable opportunity for me and I'd like to give it my best.

There are two ways to "fit" with a department. One way is to do similar things to what they do (and publish). The other is to complement their scope with something that is different enough that the overall scope expands.
If you know what they do, then you can decide which approach is better for you to take. The first implies collaboration. The second implies new opportunities for everyone.
Perhaps the techniques they use in their work will apply in some way to yours. And vice versa.
But to know what to say you need some idea of what they do and how they do it.
The stuff about grants and other things you mention can be used to fill in, but they explicitly want to know about "fit". Think about that, primarily. It would probably be a mistake to describe yourself as entirely independent of their threads.


We want to start working in a new research direction. How to proceed as the first student in the group? I'm a graduate (Master's) student in Engineering/Applied Physics (EE, specifically). A few months ago when I wanted to choose my specific research topic, my advisor got especially interested in one of my suggestions and, even though no one in our department had worked on that topic before, she insisted that I pick this as my dissertation topic (I think because of the novelty and hotness of the topic, besides my own interest). She told me that, starting the next year, she will ask the new students to work on this same topic. I accepted and started my studies.

Now since it's my first experience doing research as a member of a research group, I'm a little confused about how we (the group) should proceed about starting a whole new research direction. There are some new basic materials (like unfamiliar/unconventional math and physics for EE students) that are actually needed to be learned, besides the leading-edge research papers.

From my own perspective, this is my dream topic to work on as I'm going to get back into serious Physics after some unpleasant engineering years, and I think in long-term this is going to be great for me as a researcher, as I'm getting familiar with a field while still being in its dawn. For PhD, I'm planning to move to one of the leading research groups in the field. What are some advice for me, as the first student working on this new topic in the group with no one having any prior experience in it, to make the best outcome in short-term (publications, PhD admissions) and therefore being able to prove my competence in research?

(Also as a side-question, from the group's perspective: How do research groups, especially small ones, embark on a new research direction? Does it start with an enthusiastic student convincing the advisor to start working on the topic, or with an interested professor finding a enthusiastic student? What are the student's and the advisor's responsibilities in each case, as both have near zero experience in the field?)

For your question from the research groups perspective there is no definitive answer. Many things are possible and it depends on the group, the students, the field and whatnot. However, if you plan to enter such endeavor, you should discuss plans and responsibilities.

For a personal perspective: It is a lot of work to go into a new field. Read basics, but stay up to date. Talk a lot to people who work in the field to get a better sense, what the pressing questions, the important goals are and learn the jargon. Listen to talks on the topic, prepare well ad ask questions to get in discussion.

The bad news is, that nobody can guarantee any short-term outcome (unless you can somehow figure out some low-hanging fruits in the new field)…


Publication Approval Letter I will publish a conference paper and as I'm a PhD student the committee asked "If the corresponding author is a PhD/MSc student, he/she also should send a Publication Approval Letter from his/her supervisor".

What does it mean? What is a Publication Approval Letter?

Judging from your comment, this publication approval letter is supposed to show that your supervisor approves of the publication (i.e. that your supervisor is aware of the publication and has no problems with you publishing it). You'll have to ask your supervisor for it.


What does "getting scooped" mean? I hear (and use) the phrase 'getting scooped' to refer to an instance where researcher A uses the ideas of researcher B and publishes before B can publish.
Is this strictly correct, and does it necessarily connote bad faith? Alternatively, is it still 'getting scooped' if researcher A came up with the idea on their own and just happened to publish first?
Any history or etymology of this phrase would be much appreciated.

There's no suggestion of dishonesty in the word.

scoop:
Informal:
Publish a news story before (a rival reporter, newspaper,
or radio or television station).
"time and again we have scooped our rivals with the top stories and pictures"

https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
But do listen to Tom Lehrer's  Lobachevsky.


Are abstracts confidential during the review process? In an answer to a question about the confidentiality of reviews, I basically said you cannot reveal information about the review until the paper is publicly available. This question about revealing information after publication is making me rethink my answer. The question I have is, is the information (e.g., title, authors and abstract) that you are given to decide if you want to review confidential?

It seems to me that the process of agreeing to do a review is NOT

Please review our reviewer guidelines (including confidentiality policies),
If you accept these guidelines please look at this abstract and let
us know if you want to review.

Rather, it seems it is

Please look at this abstract
If it interests you, please consider our review guidelines.

This suggests to me that the initial information (title, authors and abstract in a non double blind review) are not confidential.

I checked the peer review policy of Nature and Science, I guess that should is the best we can get. The policy can be found here, here (both Nature) and here (Science).
A bunch of relevant quotes from the Nature policies:

As a condition of agreeing to assess the manuscript, all reviewers undertake to keep submitted manuscripts and associated data confidential...
Nature journals keep confidential all details about a submitted manuscript and do not comment to any outside organization ...
Referees of manuscripts submitted to Nature journals undertake in advance to maintain confidentiality of manuscripts and any associated supplementary data.

And some from the Science review policy:

Reviewers are contacted before being sent a paper and are asked to return comments within 1 to 2 weeks for most papers.
The submitted manuscript is a privileged communication and must be treated as a confidential document.

I would read it conservatively. That is, consider an abstract to be a part of the manuscript, hence the same rules governing general manuscript should apply. Apart from that, both journals state that in advance to being sent the manuscript, the (I guess still potential) reviewers agree to keep the matter confident.
I think an answer may also lie in the exact process handling review. First, a potential reviewer is invited and sees a title and possibly paper's authors. Then he/she has to log-in into a review system, but I guess, somewhere in the process accepts general terms and conditions which established the contract. And only then the reviewer sees the manuscript. I am not sure if all journals do it this way, but those I reviewed for did so. Well, besides some special issues handled outside the journal submission/review system, where the case would be unclear.

I just checked the reviewer invitations I received from journals in my field and I found that the only disclosed thing in the invitation e-mails was the submission's title. I must accept/decline to review and only afterwards I saw the manuscript, or its abstract.


Should a lecturer be friendly with students? I have been thinking about this question for a while and did a few googling here and there; but, didn't get anything good. Probably, academia could help.

I am early in my teaching career as a lecturer (I am just 25 now) and also working towards my PhD.

My classes are very interactive and I sometimes become very friendly with my students. Sometimes, I make difficult theory so simple for them to understand in their own language or sense. Maybe that is good for students. However, it kills a lot of my time inside the class.

Sometimes, I can feel that students are trying to take undue advantages of this friendly behavior of mine. They try to become very frank when the papers are evaluated. They just sometimes make my time horrible so that they get a better mark than they deserve. Is it the outcome of my style of teaching?

In general, should a young lecturer be friendly with his/her students, either inside a class or outside of class?

I have felt that here students are more focused on grades than learning something new. (I am making it generalized; however, ratio-wise it is true)

Krantz in How to Teach Mathematics does actually want to become friends with his students (Sec. 3.1, Breaking the Ice):

  Since I so enjoy a class once we have all become friends, I find the
  period of tooling up to that happy steady state generally too long and
  too painful. What usually happens is that there is a period of two to
  five weeks during which the students look at me as though I am from
  Mars... You should consider ways to make yourself seem like a human
  being to your students... Find some way to open up to your students so
  that they will open up to you... My view is that you should show
  students from day one that you are a person, and that you are going to
  spend the term doing your best to communicate with them.

But elsewhere gives this warning (Section 2.10, Grading):

  You do not want to develop the reputation among students as an
  instructor with whom grades can be negotiated. I've had this rep, and
  I don't know how I got it... This process is unpleasant and (can be)
  degrading both for you and the student. Doing a careful job of grading
  in the first place, and posting carefully written solutions for
  students to see, can help to assuage much of student discomfort with
  grades.

Now, Krantz is a teacher "of long experience" (Sec. 3.1), and I can see this being interpreted differently/incorrectly if you are close in age to your students. Also, this will vary based on your institution and quality/maturity of students that you're getting. In my experience at community colleges, the strategy I was forced to start using early on was to be relatively strict at the start of the semester (adamantly not allowing any bit of variation from the course policies when students test them), and then becoming a bit more flexible and friendly later in the semester.

Added: More Krantz (Section 5.9, Begging and Pleading):

  It really is true that if you look and/or act like a student then
  students will find you more approachable. They will more readily come
  to you with propositions that they wouldn't consider broaching with a
  more wizened (or older) faculty member. In short, younger faculty are
  more vulnerable. This is one reason for dressing differently from
  students and maintaining a slight distance. Again, this may sound
  cold. But I speak here from hard personal experience.


How to deal with papers/authors that provide no details of implementation? I was reading a conference paper relevant to my area of study, and I found it interesting - they did what I was planning to do anyways, and had some extremely promising results.

Now, I don't really believe their claims, as the success seems a bit extreme (300-400x speed up for an algorithm by switching from CPU to GPU). It feels like they compared optimized GPU code to an unoptimized CPU algorithm. Nevertheless, I am in general a reasonable person, so I wanted to see what they did and how they did it.

Unfortunately, the paper is very vague on the implementation used. There is a snippet of pseudocode that doesn't really share anything new (it is obvious). I emailed the authors and asked them for source code, if at all possible. The first author replied to me, and provided a GitHub link. The code in the repository is undocumented, and isn't exactly for the implementation I asked about anyways. It is for another implementation they did (also distributed computing).

I tried contacting the author with some questions, but he has never responded to me again... So that link has not been successful.

The paper doesn't have many citations, and all of them but one are self-references. I haven't found evidence that anyone built on these findings so far.

So: I figured I would just move ahead with my idea and not rely on their implementation. However, do I need to address this paper somehow in my thesis? I assume so - the committee could ask me about it, and how my work is different. But how can I compare my work to something else that I have no source code for? Do I take their word for it and compare my results to their published results? Am I allowed to criticize work that provides no supporting code? Probably not...

Should I pester the authors some more? They are probably sick of me by now.

In your thesis, I think it should be safe to say something along the lines of

  "John Doe et. al. claim in [22] that the algorithm would run 400X faster with their implementation, however, the details are unclear."

and leave it there. If you are asked more about it in your defense, you may politely state that you tried to approach the authors for more information but could not get it.


How to explain a bad grade to a delusional student? I guess this comes up quite often in educational context. There is a student who attended a seminar where they were supposed to study an assigned research paper and deliver a presentation to the class. The presentation delivered by the student was very low quality as was also reflected by the low grade given by a group/committee of seminar tutors (from post-doc to associate professor level). The evaluation turned out to be a big blow to the student's ego and even after several weeks, the person can't digest the failure, despite very careful explanation on the spot, as well as several interactions and (failed) attempts to "better the grade by performing some extra work". The student is all the time coming back with requests for additional explanation of particularities of the failure.

What is/are the right pedagogical technique(s) to handle such a situation?

clearly, the student has a high self-esteem and opinion about him/herself
probably did not face a situation of a miserable failure before in the past
the student does not seem to see/accept the relative difference in his/her performance and the rest of the peer group
the committee of tutors was very careful in assigning the grade and went through a thorough discussion. This is not a question of the grade fairness, but a question of student's self-perceived feeling of receiving an unfair treatment

My first question to you would be

  Did you lay out the assignment expectations and how the grade would be determined when you gave the assignment?

If the answer is "yes" (and I expect that it is), I would use that as a starting point for explaining to the student why he/she did poorly.

That aside, it seems that either (1) the student didn't understand what was expected (regardless of the question above), and/or (2) the student isn't prepared for the type of work required, and/or (3) the student had a bad day.

It sounds to me like the answer is firmly #2, as repeated attempts to improve the grade hasn't worked.  Given that you've already spent a good deal of time with the student, it might be time to have a heart-to-heart discussion and say that it is time to stop thinking about that grade and to move on.  Obviously, you need to do this diplomatically, but (as they say), to make an omelet you need to break some eggs, and sometimes a firm and diplomatic "get over it" is appropriate.  I would pose the following questions to the student:

Do you have a clear set of goals that you are working on for the class?
Do you know what other grades are going to be part of the final grade for the class, and do you have a plan for making sure you are ready for each assignment / talk?
Do you conduct practice talks with other students in order to get constructive feedback? (if not, you should!)
(If the problem is English language skills) Have you sought out on-campus help with your writing or speaking skills? (this is available at many larger universities in the States)

Depending on how much time you are willing to devote to helping the student improve, you could also offer to sit in on any future practice talks to give pointers and feedback.  Likewise for written work -- you could offer to pre-read assignments.  This is a slippery slope, so tread carefully.  You want to avoid having the student see you as an always-available tutor, but there are times when providing such support is just part of the job.

Finally, I would stress to the student that one bad grade does not make or break a student, and it is better to make mistakes while in school than later when they might mean more in the bigger picture.  School is about learning, and you learn from mistakes.


Do physics graduate programs recalculate undergraduate GPA's for admissions? Do physics graduate programs recalculate undergraduate GPA's for admissions?
This is quite common among medical schools but I would like to know if this is a common practice by natural science graduate programs. I have searched quite a few resources online and haven't found a conclusive answer. To clarify my question, recalculation means including EVERY course taken, even the first attempt of courses retaken for a higher grade (because of a grade of D- or lower when taken the first time).

I would guess that, independent of field, most places do some recalculation, even if informally. Some people/committees just put more emphasis on some things than others.

There is also the situation that grading systems vary widely, especially if there are international students involved.

However, if you have a specific worry that you took a course and did poorly, but then later re-took it and did fine, then that may show up, but it may not be the devastating issue that you fear. It might raise questions, but such things occur often enough that you aren't unique. You may need to explain the situation adequately and indicate that in spite of past problems you are a good candidate and likely to be successful.

There can be a lot of reasons for a bad grade. But most people will look at the entire record, not just something that is anomalous.

The only exception might be if the institution has so many applicants that it has to use crude measures, such as GPA cutoffs, to get the pool down to a manageable number.


Vacation for Summer Graduate Research Assistantship First year PhD student here, in Computer Science

I will mostly likely be on a research assistant ship this summer. Is it too much to assume I will be able to take two 1-week vacations at different points during the summer? As a graduate student with a family, my family time is very important to me.

I know the answer to this will likely be "ask your advisor," so my follow-up question to that is: how do I talk to my advisor about this without seeming like I am lazy and don't want to work?

Two one-week vacations during a calendar year is completely reasonable.

That said, it's possible you work for an advisor who would find this lazy. In my opinion, that makes them an insensitive jerk, but my opinion won't help you graduate no matter how many times you link to this post.

I really don't think this is something you should need to "explain" to a human advisor. Give them warning, let them know your plans, be flexible where flexibility is possible and firm where it is not.

I asked in a comment about funding - it might be more complicated if you have different funding sources throughout the year (for example, if you teach fall/spring and have an RA for the summer). I still think a reasonable advisor should consider that you are working year-round regardless of funding and give you a break, but it might be a harder sell if your RA is summer only to take two weeks. In that case, I would just suggest to be reasonable - if the summer RA is the same kind of work as what you do during the rest of the year, it shouldn't really be an issue. If you are doing different work as an RA (which is quite common outside STEM but shouldn't be common in CS...) than your normal year-round research work, then I think you should either try to align your vacation with other breaks that are available during the rest of the year or work out an informal arrangement that is fair to you and your funder.


Should I finish my undergrad in 3 years (this year) or 4 years? Which option is better for graduate school application? Chemistry major, I can graduate this year with a high GPA (3.95+, with 2-3 graduate-level class) decent research (2 year+, started in freshmen year) and likely 2 publications (one first author, one second author, both on journals with IF around 6).
My biggest concern is the recommendation letter. Having one less year is really hard for getting recommendation letters. I stayed in my school for my freshmen summer research. Also this year because of covid. So I may end up with only one strong recommendation letter from my research advisor.
Does the fact that I can graduate in 3 years outshine the recommendation letters problem?
Or It's best for me to just take another year for getting more publication and get a summer research position so I'll get a recommendation letter from professors in other university?

There is no benefit to graduating in less time except getting a year ahead. No one will be impressed by a 3 year graduation.
It's more important that you show proficiency in courses related to your intended area of study, and obtain research experience.
If someone's option was to graduate a year early or do a research project, I think the answer is obvious: stay and research. You have some research experience already, so your decision seems mostly between applying right away for grad school or gathering more experience for awhile and then graduating. The choice is entirely yours, there is no "best" answer.


What is the role of your advisor and other lab members in your research work? I have a very simple question : how involved should a Ph.D. advisor be in the work of a Ph.D. student ?
Should he / she be correcting the work assigned to the student after few days / weeks of student's work, won't they check anything for simulations outputs for example ? or should they be saying few guiding words and it's up to the student to write code, simulate and write the paper ?
Thanks.

I don't think there is a universal answer. Different advisers have different styles.  I look over the code that my students write and offer suggestions on how to improve it (and sometimes do it myself); my students like that. My adviser did not have any significant programming skills despite being in computational mathematics, and was mostly hands-off -- but I think he was an excellent adviser anyway.
In the end, different students need different advising styles, and one of the things I have learned advising 8 graduate students so far is this: what works with one student does not work for another one. I suspect one could also turn this around and say from the perspective of the student: The style of one professor may work for them, whereas the style of another may not.


How should I prepare myself for a Master's degree in Computer Science from Stanford or Berkeley? If I am already working as a Software Engineer? Let me begin with a little background information about myself first. I studied physics for my Bachelor's degree from a public university (within the top 20 physics program in U.S.) Now I am working for a robotics startup in Silicon Valley as a software engineer. Not very long ago, I discovered a strong interest toward AI and Machine Learning. I've been taking courses from Coursera and Udacity for convolutional neural networks and deep learning. At work I've been working on the implementation of simple computer vision. However, I feel that I am still lacking a strong theoretical foundation in the field. Thus, I wish to pursue a Master's degree in AI/ML.

Financially wise, a Master's degree has a steep opportunity cost for me. My annual salary is in the 100~150k range. If I take two years off for the program, it will cost me at least 200k including tuition (considering my taxed income.) The best way for me to save money is to stay in the Bay Area because I can live with my parents; that alone will save me the money for rent and food.

Here's a little academic background, I have a 3.6 GPA in physics and 3.5 overall GPA if humanities courses are included. I only have A's and B's on my transcript. My upper division physics courses are mostly A's including the two graduate courses I took in Condensed Matter Physics. I also did research in the field but didn't make any significant publication. They only won me scholarships and poster presentations.

I think I will need to retake my GRE. My verbal portion was merely average, very average. My quantitative portion was about 95th percentile.
So beside GRE and GPA, who should I ask for letter for recommendation for a Master's degree in Computer Science? Also how should I prepare myself before I apply?

Your advice and opinion are greatly appreciated!

Whom should I ask for letters of recommendation for a Master's degree in Computer Science?

See if someone remembers you from your undergrad.  You can send an unofficial transcript as an attachment to jog their memory.  Also ask someone where you work, if unveiling your plan to that person isn't too awkward.

  How should I prepare myself before I apply?

Pick a couple of programs you're interested in applying to. Read the program of studies carefully, then check the courses you would be signing up for in your first year, to see what the prerequisites are. This will guide you in your course selection, and give you a fair view of how well prepared you are. Make sure to look at the textbooks used, to gauge the level of difficulty.

Notes: The cost of living is much lower in a less built up place, such as, for example, Madison, WI; if you get a TAship, which shouldn't be a problem in CS, you won't be paying tuition, and you'll get a stipend, which will cover slightly a frugal but not spartan life, but not many plane tickets to California.  However, if you prefer to stay in CA, I would think there would be plenty of opportunities there.

I'm not sure how fresh the GRE needs to be.  The application instructions should make that clear and if not, you can email your question.  Don't worry about your verbal GRE.  As long as you didn't embarrass yourself (which you didn't), for a CS master's, that doesn't matter; especially since your nonverbal score was strong.  When applying for a geek degree, it's fine to come across as a geek.


Attending a conference where my ex-supervisor and his collaborator are present, should I attend? I have been asked to attend a conference and present from my current employer since this conference is highly focused on my research point. In this conference, my ex-supervisor and his collaborator are going to be present and one will give a lecture. My current employer doesn't know about my story since they did not ask. I am afraid and confused on whether to avoid the places they are going to be in as they have tried to destroy me before and it was very harsh or face my fears and face them without speaking. I am also afraid that they would do badmouthing to my current employer.

What could be the best thing I can do, I am highly interested in to be in, but I am afraid of them and I don't know in case I refused attendance, what kind of accuses I can explain to my current employer ( the project I am working in is cooperation between different university, and each university is going to submit their students for this conference which focused only on my research field).

First of all, I’m sorry to hear that you’re going through this.

I would ignore them in the conference. I don’t know if this motivates you, but going to a conference, doing an amazing job and still shining in my field despite their sabotage attempts would be really satisfying to me.

On a professional level, if your job requires conference attendance and you categorically refuse for whatever reason, it will not help your career. Don’t let them sabotage you further!


What to do if professor comments on candidate's age in an admissions interview? I'm 34. I received a degree in computer in 2008 and have been running a business ever since. Recently, I decided to apply for a postgraduate program in healthcare in January.
To show that I was interested in health care, I completed a one year certificate course in a related field last year. A few days after I had submitted my application form and two strong recommendations, they arranged an interview for me.

The interviewers were friendly at first, and the questions were not very tough.
I was feeling confident until the senior interviewer (Prof. Joe) suddenly asked me if I wanted to become a nurse. I said yes. He smiled but then told me that all successful applicants last year were twenty something (at least 12 years younger than me.) I was taken aback by his comment. Was that a negative connotation?

Edited to add:

I had read the professional recognition information on their web. The programme is accreditated by the nursing council and graduates are eligible to apply for registration as nurse, so I could not understand why he asked if I wanted to become a nurse.
The certificate course tutor had told us about the average age of nurse population.

Are you sure you're not reading too much into this? It seems to me like all he was doing was quoting a stat. More often than not, it's industry and not an academic field, that tends to discriminate (sometimes without even realizing it!) based on age. I have to agree with one of the responders though that the professor was treading on thin ice, and in retrospect, he probably wishes he hadn't!