Thank-you all for your kind words and feedback. I wish you all the best in your research and hope it will all turn out for the best in end. WIth thought and prayer.

======= Date Modified 24 Jan 2011 17:17:16 =======
Yes, for me I have considered the choice of leaving the PhD (as I am sure most others do also), but its not immediate in my nature to quit so I guess that's what keeps me going on with this.

My supervisor is reasonably experienced however has around 3/4 PhD's student's to his name. Also the research I am doing is slightly further away from his direct field of study. I do also have some support from others in industry in terms of knowledge and advice, but do not have a university second supervisor. My supervisor seems to treat all students with the same level of support.

I keep a journal/diary everyday and add to do list's everyday and tick them off as you suggested. I find this does help. I often heard about these second year blues, but thought I would do my best to avoid it... It seems now that avoiding it is more of a challenge than I originally thought.

The other point for me is that I orginally did a PhD to try and make a positive difference in the world and very often this does not feel like the case. Also I feel that the PhD does not bring my true potential out everyday and I am not the kind of person to waste any precious time in my life.

Hello all,

I thought I would post here to help me get through what seems like a brick wall at the moment. I am trying to make progress everyday with my PhD. I am disciplined with myself everyday, planning my day, logging my hours to make sure I am putting in enough time. I am one year and 4 months into my PhD and I feel like the brick wall is higher than ever before in this project. My supervisor mentioned that he doesn't know if this PhD will be a success or not? Has anybody else's supervisor told them this. Naturally I am also questioning if I can really pull this off..

I make sure everyday I keep positive and motivated and keep the work rate up... along with lots of praying too!

Any words of advice or feedback others who have/do feel the same way on there PhD's?

Thanks

Wow, really interesting, my wife is doing a masters thesis in the music and dementia.

Hi Thanks, just wondered what your research subject area was Keenbean?

======= Date Modified 25 Nov 2010 11:40:45 =======
Hello all,

I am trying to get some feedback from others on the progress of my PhD. My supervisor seems ok with progress so far, there is a few things he has agreed provide me more support on. I don't really know how important this is, but I feel quite far away from submitting a conference paper or journal paper. A poster is perhaps not so far away. I am almost 1 year and 2 months into my engineering PhD. Am I thinking too much about conferences and journal papers? or should I be? Thanks.

Hello all,

I have two weeks to submit an engineering abstract for a conference in March 2011 and my supervisor has not put any pressure for me to submit at this occasion, but feel it would be good for me to do this if I can. It is my first conference submission, to be honest I don't really have any interesting work or results at the moment, but can put together an interesting abstract I guess?

Anyone have an experience/advice on this?

Thanks

Hello all,

I have never submitted an engineering conference paper before and I really wanted to work towards a conference and the deadline for paper submission is Feb next year, I am not sure if I can do enough to submit a paper (as postive and optimistic as I try to be). Even though I have been workign hard at it, I feel like I am behind where I should be (although I am sure this is a natural feeling durind a PhD).

Any words of advice/sharing of experience on this?

======= Date Modified 22 Sep 2010 10:35:13 =======
You could try posting a letter to the office to drop the note into the supervisors pigeon hole... you never know...

I think it really depends on the purpose of the presentation, but the following points I feel are common no matter what the presentation is:

1) Good eye contact with the whole audience
2) Know you presentation well, no reading from scripts of slides (its boring to watch)
3) Understanding who you are presenting too (age, background, etc) and adjust the style accordingly i.e. presenting a subject to kids would be different to adults.
4) All presentations should have a beginning, middle and end. (tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you told them... I am sure you have heard that one before)
5) Dress appropriately
6) Allow time for questions
7) Avoid sending out props during a presentation, it is distracting for all
8) Humour is good, but not making a joke of someone else's expense or work
9) Smiling
10) Using hands to emphasise important points (avoid being static), i.e. look at politicians present,
11) At the same time avoid pacing up and down, or slanting on one leg (it looks like you can't be bothered to be there)

I hope this helps :-)

Hello all,

I am just going into the second year of my Phd and to be honest, I feel this year is going to be especially important to work well with my supervisor, who is a really good person and I get on well with him. Can anyone offer suggestions as to what made a good student/supervisor relationship to maximise the outcome of the PhD. This way I can try to implement some of your ideas this year. Thanks.

Hello all,

Is it ok to scan images from books/journal papers for work which will not be published, i.e. annual reports, it would save me a lot of time at the moment? Just wondered if anyone knew the situation on this.

Thanks

Hi everyone, I hope you are all coping well and progressing with you research...

I am starting my second year, but feel like I have hit a brick wall already. I am trying to find ways to progress but seem to struggling at the moment, experts in the field have told me that there is not much more to be done on my topic which makes me feel demotivated (considering I feel I am quite a self motivated person. I need to make progress and feel pressured (personally as my supervisor does not put much pressure on me). I feel like I struggle with even simple things, and can't seem to get the help I need to solve them, I post on so many forums to help me, but nobody responds. I feel alone in my research (which I have felt for a lot of my first year anyway). Any advice or words of encouragement would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Hello all,

I have a over 100 engineering papers to review. I have most of the papers printed. Does anyone have any advice on reporting on the papers (I feel comfortable actually reading and making notes on the paper i.e. positives, negatives, question marks, etc).

I wanted to write up a lit review for this as part of my thesis, but I also need to present a summary of the this to a number of academics/company. Any advice on how to do this efficiently and to get the most of it? Thanks everyone. I look forward to you response.

Hi Everyone, Thank-you very much for your responses, I feel like there are others who understand this and feel similar feelings. Especially those who have had industrial/company experience and come back into academia. Thanks again and all the best everyone.