Hi

I really appreciate if anyone could help me to get these papers (published by ACTA press):

1. Travis Dierks, Bryan Brenner, and Sarangapani Jagannathan, DISCRETE-TIME OPTIMAL CONTROL OF NONHOLONOMIC MOBILE ROBOT FORMATIONS USING LINEARLY PARAMETERIZED NEURAL NETWORKS, International Journal of Robotics and Automation, Volume 26/2011.
doi: 10.2316/Journal.206.2011.1.206-3412

2. Mahdy Eslamy and Seyed Ali A. Moosavian, DYNAMICS MODELLING OF SUSPENDED MOBILE MANIPULATORS: AN EXPLICIT APPROACH WITH VERIFICATION, International Journal of Modelling and Simulation, Volume 31/2011.
doi:10.2316/Journal.205.2011.2.205-5300

Thanks

never give up.

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======= Date Modified 12 May 2011 05:00:01 =======
Hi Sparkles...

I don't really know how to deal with this problem as I am also facing the same situation. I feel that I am the most stupid person that have ever existed in the world. I had a laboratory presentation/ seminar two days ago and still didn't know how to answer a lot of questions although I thought I had studied the paper thoroughly. I got confused everytime my supervisor or the lab assistant asked any question. Everything in my mind got mixed up and I didn't know which one is which. I wanted to cry one bucket of tears after the presentation, but my tears refused to come out. Sometimes I feel I won't get this PhD and I really don't know how am I going to do my work in future- if there is any future afterall... - sorry for the rant.

However, I think it is good that your supervisor has pointed out chapters and things that you have done very well. I never get this kind of recognition from my supervisor. Maybe you are putting a very high standard for yourself?

I also agree that it is important to just keep going and not to give up no matter what we think or what other people say. Most probably we'll feel more stupid if we give up. Sending papers to conference or journals is a good way in dealing with this problem. If the papers are rejected, the reviewers' comments may help us in correcting our way of thinking about the research problem/ method etc. We can learn a lot from our mistakes and become cleverer or more matured in our study. On the other hand, if the papers are accepted it shows that we are not as bad as we think we are. One more thing is, I think it is also better to get enough rest because the negative feeling amplifies when we are so tired. I usually feel that small things/problems seemed to be much heavier/ bigger when I am exhausted.

======= Date Modified 08 May 2011 06:29:29 =======
Ever since I moved to the new dormitory, I have been going to the lab/ office from 10am-7pm, Monday- Friday and sometimes I come during the weekends too. I'm sharing my room with a roommate so it's not very convenient to do my works in the dorm. There are 20 other students in my lab/ office, but they are not so noisy, and it is quite motivating to see others working/studying too. But maybe I will spend more time in dorm once I start to write my thesis completely (when my all my simulations and experimental works are finish) in the hope that my roommate spend most of her time in her lab during that semester. 

======= Date Modified 07 May 2011 10:27:17 =======
Hi Salsaroc

Are there any undergraduate MATLAB classes/ tutorials that you can join?
Are there any other graduate students who are using MATLAB that can teach you?
There are also some tutorials in the internet or youtube or the 'Help' file that you can try to study by yourself if you have the software(although it is much harder than studying it in a class).

======= Date Modified 01 May 2011 03:43:13 =======
Dear Zaracer,

I can relate to your situation. Before starting my PhD, I was also required to do a second master although I had already received my MSc from my home country. The reason is that the PhD program that I enrol in is an integrated program in which I have to do both master and Phd although my original intention was only to do PhD. I had already checked about it with my supervisor before coming, and he told me that I only needed to do PhD since I already had an MSc. But, when I arrived here, it was a different story....

Feeling so dumb and maybe cheated I did my second master in the university for 1.5 years. I passed the subjects/ classes, attended an internship (which was part of the program and didn't know about it before coming), but my master research was hellish. I didn't get much guide/ support from the supervisor, I was condemned brutally during my viva, my final paper (which was submitted to the panels) and slides were not checked by my supervisor and he was not even there during my presentation. But thank God I passed due to the reason that the work was accepted in an international conference. Then I continue to pursue my PhD and now, I am in the 3rd year PhD (4th year of the overall graduate studies in this university).

I am delayed from starting/ getting my PhD, still suffering from the lack of supervisor support, feeling lagging behind, having not much progress, no one to refer to/ discuss with in this lab, and now, facing the earthquake and nuclear problem. All these years have been really painful, but I choose continue my PhD because I really need it badly. I do cry a lot, have been on sleeping pills every now and then, have been wanting to quit so many times, been picturing myself jumping in front of a moving train, and really don't know whether I will be successful in getting this PhD, but here are some of my efforts in coping with the situation:
1. My 'strategy' is to just fulfill my university graduation requirement which are besides the thesis and viva, I have to publish 2 journals. So I am only going for the 2 journals, then the viva will be easier for me.
2. Just try to do the work and send it to conference/ journal. By this I can get some feedback form the reviewers and it is a bench mark that I have achieved something although not much. It also motivates me work/ catch the deadlines.
3. Meet the counsellors.
4. Get enough rest and avoid from being burnt out.
5. Visit this forum/ read others' stories to get some support/ motivation.

From what I read in this forum, there are many people who quit, move on with their lives and happy. Some also quit but return for the 2nd time and successful. Perhaps it is better if you take some rest now and make the decision when you are more 'sane'/ rational.

From my experience and what I read, the first year of PhD is usually slow with nothing much achieved. However this will get better in the second/ third year.
There are also times when people do not have progress/ do not do anything for months, but it does end.
In case you choose to continue, perhaps you can also try to send and present papers in conferences to get some confidence from the research community outside your university.

A friend of mine whoe submitted her journal later than me has already received the result. Her paper is accepted for publication. I'm so stressed!!!:-s:-s:-s

Hi everyone...

Thank u so much for your replies. It's comforting to get/read all these.

I submitted a paper from one of my PhD thesis chapters to a journal about 10 weeks ago and still have not get any reply from the editor. The status in the journal website/system says that the paper is still 'with the editor'. This means that it has not even been reviewed by the reviewers yet (as far as I know the paper is first checked for its format, then it will be evaluated by the editor for its scientific assessment and finally sent to the reviewers). I wanted to email the editor to ask about this but I'm so afraid. My friend told me that previously she had sent a paper to the same publisher (but different journal). After not receiving any reply, 9-10 weeks later she emailed the editor to inquire about it and finally was informed that her paper was rejected. Besides that, from my own experience, I received a quick response to make corrections (not rejected) when I submitted a paper from my masters thesis about 2 years ago (but the paper was submitted to a different journal). So, I am pretty worried and scared to email the editor. But, I think I'll wait for 2 more weeks, in the mean time finish the part/work that I'm doing right now and then send an email to the editor to ask about the paper.

Sorry if I sound so weak/ pathetic, with the current situation of my work, this earthquake, tsunami and radiation, there are so many things in my mind right now. But I feel better after reading your replies. At least, for the journal paper...

there is still hope... there is still hope... there is still hope...

Hopefully all of our papers will be accepted for journal publication...

======= Date Modified 30 Mar 2011 13:39:36 =======
Hi everyone...

I just would like to ask anyone who has the experience of submitting papers to journals:

Is it true that if the journal editor/ reviewer takes a long time (longer than the normal duration) to reply whether the paper sent is accepted or not, it means that there is a high possibility that the paper will be rejected? Or is this only a myth? Usually how long does it take for them to reply?

Thanks

congrats!!!
:-):-):-)(up)(up)(up)

======= Date Modified 12 Mar 2011 05:54:50 =======
Hi Chococake

I'm not sure what database it is, the above information is the only detail that I have about the paper. It is actually a reference of this paper:
Optimal-tuning nonlinear PID control of hydraulic systems, by G. P. Liu and S. Daley, 2000.

Hi

I really appreciate if anyone can get this paper as I can't access it through my university's library.

Le Quoc, S. Xiong, Y.F. & Cheng, R. M. H. (1992). Identificatioan and control of non-linear hydraulic systems. International off-high & powerplant congress and exposition, Milwaukee, SAE paper 9221622.

Thanks

Hi everyone…


I’m doing PhD in mechanical engineering and my work involve in setting up the formulation to solve the problem, numerical simulation of the method/ formulation and hardware experimentation/ validation of those two. My problem is that I really want a PhD but feel scared to do all these works especially the experiments. I’m scared if the experiment won’t work, if the results are not as good as I expected, if I will break the mechanism/ devices as it takes more than one month to get them repaired/ made new. This slows down my research and I spend a lot of time on the formulation and simulation part as to delay/ procrastinate from doing experiments. My supervisor has already suggested me to change my topic as I am going so slow and so that I can publish paper as soon as possible as I am required to publish either 2 international journal papers or one international journal and one international conference papers in order to graduate. I don’t want to change my topic, but I really need to work faster and overcome my fear. Has anyone ever felt the same way like I do, and care to share how to cope/ deal with/ overcome this feeling?


Thanks

Hi Peach

Thank u so much for trying to help. I really appreciate it.

Hi.

I really appreciate if anyone can help me to get this paper:

Drewer, G. R., N. Ahmed and G. J. Jameson, "Suspension of High Concentration Solids in Mechanically Stirred Vessels," IChemE Symp. Ser. No. 136, 41 (1994)

Thanks.