THESIS RESEARCH
H. T. KUNG
Presntation Outline
1. Introduction
2. Why Ph.D. thesis could be really difficult for a student
3. Types of Ph.D. theses (from Allen Newell)--not a topic of this talk
4. Growth of a star (the transformation process that some students go
through to become a mature researcher)--which stage are you in?
5. Stages of Ph.D. thesis research
6. Methods to get into the depth of a topic (or how to come up with
good ideas)
7. Breaking myths
8. Pitfalls to avoid (easy ones to avoid listed first)
9. Some other general advice
10. All the effort is worth it (believe it or not)
1. Introduction
* Expectation is high.
- No simple recipe
* Different talents
* Different approaches
* No clear contract
* Faculty: speechless
* Student: speechless
- Examples
d. Thesis proposal
- Purpose
* A research plan
- Varies a lot
* A review
- Need ideas
e. Producing results
* Theory--be lucky!
- Be flexible
* Completeness is forced.
- Recommendations
- Outline first
- Iterative process
* You had better know what you have been doing by now.
h. Defense
* You know that your results are good and you will
present them well.
* Psychologically important
- Absolutely no surprises
i. After defense
- Publication
- Follow-on work
6. "Methods" to get into the depth of a topic (or how to come up with
good ideas)
* Look at examples
- Correlate results
- Do some comparisons
- General comments
* Talking to people
7. Breaking myths
- You must believe that you can do better than advisor for
some research areas.
- Theory
* Proving P /= NP
- System
- System research
- Theory research
- Stay away from areas that have been thoroughly mined by your
ancestors.
* Family pressure
* Financial pressure
* A job is waiting
* Equipment is retiring
* Cox-Denning case
* Relationship is unique.