Coursework vs Research: Battle or Balance ?

Daqing (Daching) Piao, PhD

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Oklahoma State University

ECEN 6001 PhD Seminar Series

www.oil.okstate.edu Professor probes prostate problems

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Not good at all in time-management!

• 1984—1990• 6-year playing in college to find a way out of the BOX

• 1990—1999• 9-year running in industry to sneak back to the BOX

• 1999—2003• 4-year struggling in graduate school to earn the PhD cap

• 2003—2005• 2-year hanging around in New England to land a job

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There is no “life” BEFORE

you get your PhD !

Everyone wish to drop out from the PhD program after this lecture !

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What is the difference between degrees ?

• Bachelors are-------- “Smart” Students

• Masters are ------ “Stubborn” Survivors

• Doctors are ------ “Stupid” Scholars

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What is “PhD”

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/

Why “PhD” ?

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• Papa’s Hat got Dust• Personal HemoDialysis system (Aksys, Ltd.)

• Player Hater Degree• Port Hueneme Division (Naval Surface Warfare Center)

• Port Huron & Detroit railroad

• Portable Handheld Device

• Portable Hard Drive• Post Hole Digger (construction)

• Post Homicidal Depression (serial killers)

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• Pot--Hole Dodger (driver on poorly maintained roads)

• Pre-Hearing Detention• Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas• Probability Hypothesis Density• Process Historian Database• Push Here Dummy (point & shoot cameras)

• Professional Help Desk

• Professor and Head of Department

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• Piled Higher & Deeper

• Particularly Hard to Deal with

• Permanent ermanent Head ead Damageamage

• a Person’s Highest Degree

• Poor, Hard, and Difficult

• Persistence, ersistence, Hard-work, and ard-work, and Dedicationedication

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Too little timeToo much load

Too heavy stressToo “bossy” boss like Dr.

Piao

The life of an ECE PhD student

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Coursework vs Research

• Battle– Time confliction

– Course too much theory to understand ?

• Too many projects to do ?

– Research too tough, too complicated, spend too much time?

Battle in time-domain,

balance in k-space, knowledge-domain

Foolish Transform

Fourier + Laplace

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Research• TA ? Have to have research to get PhD• Theoretical

• Theoretical theory• Applicational theory (medical image processing)• Experimental theory

• Instrumentational• Developmental instrumentation• Experimental instrumentation

• Team-work, help others• Do your own part

Guide

Prove

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Research work

Method Problem

M

A B

C D

E F

N

P Q

Pre-existing knowledge

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Research work

• A different problem for a known application

• An innovative application of a mature method

• A novel method in an established area

• A new area within an existing discipline

• An unprecedented discipline for a ground-breaking application or problem-solving

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Coursework vs Research

• Similarity– Lead to your degree– Suck your time, drain your brain– Problem solving– Career training– Competition– Presentation (class, conference, seminar)

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Coursework vs Research

• Difference– Pay for coursework (someone pays)– Paid for research

– Competition in the (inter)national level---research

– Coursework—good or bad affect yourself– Research-----alive or dead affect the entire group

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Coursework vs Research

• Difference (roughly)– To use known details to derive known results

Known details Known resultsCoursework

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– To use known details to administer known expectations

Known detailsKnown expectationsNew product

development

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– To use known methodology to address unknown details

Known methodology

Unknowndetails

Applied research

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– To use unknown methodology to approach unknown expectations

Unknownmethodology

Unknownexpectations

Basic research

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Evaluation criteria• Productivity

– # of courses

– ------------------------------------------

– # of years to finish PhD

– # of publications

• Quality– 4000/5000/6000, A or B

– ------------------------------------------

– # of 1st author (contribution level weighting)

– # of Letters paper (impact factor weighting)

– # of talks (face credit weighting)

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Coursework vs research

• Which is more important?– Job in industry (general PhD level)

r– Job in industry (R&D centers)

r– Job in teaching college c+r– Job in research university r– Recommendation letter for job from Boss r

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Coursework vs research

– Fellowship/scholarship c+r– Award

r+c– Internship r+c– Getting degree r+c– Recommendation letter from instructors

» c

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Coursework vs research

• Which is more important?

– To make myself safe, 50% c, 50% r

– To make you safe 50% c, 100% r

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Coursework vs Research

• Time-management:– Work hard----------ultimate management

– No game, less sleeping (2:00 am ? 5:00 am ?)

– Persistent, die-Hard, and Determinant, (typically 3~5yrs for a PhD in EE)

– Not everyone can finish a PhD, treasure this privilege

– Stay oriented, focused (don’t be distracted when economy booms, nowhere to go when economy plunges)

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Coursework vs Research

• Time-management:

– You came for PhD, if quit or sleep in the middle, your uni-directional head damage won’t get recovered.

– “No life”, PhD’s “no life” is interesting & rewarding

– Keep accumulating small amount everyday, do not attempt to rush up a big chunk in a short time, it does not work out that way..

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• Time-management (my experience, may not apply to your case):

– Schedule the week:• Days for research• Nights for course• Weekends for back-up, or, catch-up (for

both)

• Observe the schedule for both course-work and research, though you do have deadlines to meet

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• Deadlines:– For student:

• Course work---homework, project, presentation, exam• Research----conference paper, features journal paper, data

when boss needs badly, student research proposal

– For Boss• Proposal, getting $$ in, $$ ends, requires students to deliver

results on-schedule• Advise student’s papers/abstracts, • Lecture notes, hw grading, other academic duties/services

– Win-Win, not lose-lose– Keep research moving, slowly moving traffic is better

than complete jam

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• Why put “day” for research? • You are paid for, $

• Good interaction with advisor, supervised

• Good discussion with group, connected,

• Concentrated and guarantee the time proceed Common time window

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• Time-management:

– Why spend so much time on research being an RA because you are paid for just 10/20 hrs/week ?

– RA position is not a regular job……– Don’t waste your own time thinking about how much work I should

do to match up the assistantship ? (not because I am one “boss”)

• The RA leads to your dissertation

• Working in restaurant---working for the boss to get money for living

• Working as RA----working for my dissertation while get paid

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• Time-management:

• We are talking about your degree! And you are working on new, “unknown” stuff.

» Overpaid during learning curve (1+ years)» Even-paid after know how and where to drive (~2 years) » Underpaid when close to graduate (1- years)

• Every effort you put into research will be paid off when you look for job-----------it does make difference !--------It is you who will look for the job, not the boss

• Want to stay in business in your research community ? Want to land a dream job ?

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Coursework Type

• Not related to research at all

• Somewhat connected to research

• Significantly associated with research

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Coursework Level

• Linking up

• Advanced

• Independent study (?)

4000

5000

6000

Buffer

Specific topic Particular purpose

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• Research topic into coursework – Term project or paper

• Electromagnetic Wave--------light transportation in tissue

• Estimation theory-------------- missile tracking• Microwave Array ----------------- probe design

– Independent study (?)

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• Coursework into research (great !)

– Develop term project/paper for a course to be included in your dissertation (one section, or one chapter)

– It will save your time when you write your dissertation, and make your dissertation more coherent. Though, no one will read your dissertation except you and perhaps your advisor (Dr. Alan Cheville)

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• Superluminescent diode, “semiconductor optical devices” final paper

• a complete chapter among 11

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Coursework vs Research

• Done with course ?– Do more and better research,

– Keep doing research when you write dissertation (post-doc ?) (dissertation, 10—2, three month)

– Done ?– Proved that Hard-work Deserves the name of “PhD”– Promoted as the Head of your Division

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There is no “life” AFTER

you get your PhD !

Now you enjoy “no life” as you have addicted to it

38http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/staffpages/richardb/notMad.gif

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http://www.jescomeao.org/images/profess.gif

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• Scared ?• The road-ahead becomes wider, brighter, more predicted

after getting PhD • PhD is the second largest achievement for me, just next

to my two boys!

Picture taken in 2005

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Daqing

Piao

In ~ 4 years, you will belong to the fish of scholars

Questions ?