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Finding a Research Topic

Janie Irwin

CSE, Penn State

with credits to Kathy Yelick, EECS,UC Berkeley

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The RealEquation

Topic

+

Advisor

=

Dissertation

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Fear of Topic Selection

Settling on a PhD research topic isoften a low point in graduate school Even for the most successfulstudents

Even for the men

Why? Because it is very important! Its the next two (or three) years of your

life It will define the area for your job search

You may be working in the same area (ora derivative) for years after

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Things to Consider

Do you have a preassigned researchadvisor or do you have to find one?

What kind of job are you interested in?

Top 20, teaching, govt lab, industry What are your strengths? weaknesses?

Programming, design, data analysis, proofs

Key insights vs. long/detailed

verification/simulation What drives you? bores you?

Technology, puzzles, applications,interdisciplinary

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More Things to Consider

Does your advisor know anythingabout the topic? What is youradvisors style?

Are you more comfortable working aspart of a team or alone?

Do you (i.e., your advisor) havefunding for you to work in the area?

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6 Ways to Find a Topic

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1) Flash of Brilliance Model

You wake up one day with a newinsight/idea

New approach to solve an important

open problem

Warnings:

This rarelyhappens

Even if it does, you may not be able tofind an advisor who agrees

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2) The Apprentice Model

Your advisor has a list of topics

Suggests one (or more!) that you canwork on

Can save you a lot of time/anxiety

Warnings:

Dont work on something you find

boring, fruitless, badly-motivated, Several students may be working on the

same/related problem

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3) The Phoenix Model You work on some projects and think

very hard about what youve donelooking for insights Re-implement in a common framework

Identify an algorithm/proof probleminside

The topic emerges from your work Especially common in systems

Warnings:

You may be working without a topic fora long time

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5) The Synthesis Model You read some papers from other

subfields in computerscience/engineering or a relatedfield (e.g., biology)

And look for places to apply insightfrom another (sub)field to your own E.g., databases to compilers

Warnings: You can spend a career reading papers!

You may not find any useful connections

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What to Do When Youre Stuck

Read papers in your area of interest

Write an annotated bibliography

Read a PhD thesis or two (or three)

Read your advisors grant proposal(s) Take a project class with a new perspective

Serve as an apprentice to a senior PhDstudent in your group

Keep working on something Get feedback and ideas from others

Attend a really good conference in an area ofinterest

Do a industry/government lab internship

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Dont be Afraid to Take Risks Switching areas/advisors can be

risky May move you outside your advisors

area of expertise

You dont know the related work You are starting from scratch

But it can be very refreshing! Recognize when your project isnt

working

Remember, its hard to publishnegative results

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Thank You

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