Hello everyone, now please be gentle!

I am in my final year of a BSc Aerospace Technology & Management degree. I am also a type 1 diabetic and also a recreational pilot with the ambition to become a professional pilot at somepoint when regulations allow (currently prevented by a blanket ban). I love academia and I am very passionate about aviation, flying and even diabetes/medicine.

I really want to channel these passions and self motivations towards obtaining a PhD in a topic based around diabetes/aviation human factors, this would also provide hardcore evidence to the regulators I wish to challenge the blanket ban system against as well as providing me with more professional recognition on the subject I would have studied.

I feel there could be a big scope to this project and I need some advice/help how I go about taking it from an idea in my head to an application and position at a univeristy in the near future.

I await your replies! :-)

Karl

56 viewings and not 1 reply... =(

It's an incredibly specific topic: you've probably stunned us into silence!

Seriously though, if you're doing an aerospace degree you should have local contacts at your university who could start pointing you in the right direction, towards potential supervisors. You'd probably need a supervisor from the aviation side, and another from the medical side.

University staff should also be able to advise you on the chances of getting funding, and where to look.

Good luck!

Haha, is it rare for a student to have pinpointed a subject area/topic before even starting?

I cant really ask my university as I do not want to continue there, I would like to go somewhere else but having emailed nottingham and cranfield I still havent heard back!! :-(

thnanks for your reply! (up)

Conflict of interest? You're a type 1 diabetic and want to be a professional pilot. I can already guess what your thesis will conclude even before you've written it -- they should change the rules. You'll have a hard time convincing anyone this is genuine unbiased research and not just a personal crusade.

======= Date Modified 09 Dec 2009 13:02:59 =======
Nice post! ;-)

Well I see it from a different angle, the CAA and other authorities wont act further without more evidence/more studies/trials into diabetic flight, there is very little being done within this area and is on the 'back seat' of the CAA's or EASA's agendas.

Also: I can already guess what your thesis will conclude even before you've written it -- they should change the rules.
I think thats a very narrow minded response, I am not sure of your knowledge of diabetes and aviation but there is a large scope for this project not all leading to a change the rules- how can I be taken seriously by aviation authorities if its a biased skewed report not taking all accounts into respect in a balanced and equal manner.

You say conflict of interest but everywhere I see when investigating about PhD's says:

How do I choose a research project?
Primarily you should look for a project which interests you. (http://www.findaphd.com/students/explain.asp)

But you have to be interested in the topic. "You are going to do this for three or four years and it can get terribly boring if you aren't interested it in," warns James Hartley, research professor in psychology at Keele University. (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=210079§ioncode=26)

There is no point in me spending 3 years on a subject that has little interest or doesnt tap into my passions.
I dont want a PhD to cause a vendetta against the aviation authorities- thats counter productive, I want a PhD to produce a paper which has meaning and value thats been backed with scientific reasearch/experiments which will be taken seriously and myself to be taken more seriously as an adcademic within this field.

Karl.

Karl that's fine, but if someone were to cite your work it might read something like this:

"According to type 1 diabetic and aspiring professional pilot Karl B, the aviation industry should allow type-1 diabetics to become professional pilots (Karl et al., 2011)"

If the person citing the source a la Cloggs is unable to assess the merit of the work independent of the motivation of the person who did the work, then they're really not worth worrying about.


You really need to ask around the departments you would be studying in. If you start at your Uni you can at least get a good idea of how to do it if you wish to move elesewhere.

======= Date Modified 09 Dec 2009 14:43:56 =======
Hi Karl. Well this is a toughie. My PhD work is in mental health and I have also experienced severe mental health problems in the past, which has seen me spend a lot of time in hospital in the past. I have been a lot better for the last few years, and part of my motivation for what I am doing is my own mental health history and treatment etc. I am not working directly in the same area of mental health (I am working with people with a different diagnosis to mine), but some of the underlying principles I am researching are similar. In the future I hope to continue working in the area my PhD is in, but also to expand into research which is closer to my own mental health difficulties. I guess my overarching (very general) aim is to make things better for people with mental health problems, particularly with respect to care, but I am aware that I cannot just go on a crusade to 'prove' or 'shout out' the message I want people to hear from my own experiences. Whilst my experiences motivate me, I have to make sure they don't prejudice my research. So at the moment, I am concentrating just on my project so I can learn the necessary skills to earn me a career in research and think about a change in clinical population when I am more established. To make the sorts of changes I (and you) would like to bring about will take more than a single PhD project...it could take a whole career and more, so I think it is important to set yourself reasonable goals and make sure that you can take the opposing viewpoints of other people on board and concentrate on doing unbiased research. I am absolutely not suggesting that you haven't thought of this, or wouldn't be capable of it, I am just trying to look at the parallels between your situation and my own and share a few experiences and thoughts of my own. But all research starts from a small project and from someone stirring up the interest in that field, so I see no reason why you shouldn't go into that research if you want to...just be aware of the limitations of doing a PhD project- it won't change the way the world works in one swoop. Best of luck, motivation is one of the key things required for a PhD and I'm sure you will have buckets of it. KB

Could you spare a couple of those buckets for me KB? :-)

Not really. My own topic was self-proposed. But they're not commonly specified here. I think we were wowed by your precision!

You should still be able to ask your university for advice about other possible places, other possible supervisors elswhere, the steps to take etc. Do you have a tutor that you could speak to?

Well, I also though of my project because of a personal experience, but I will not use my experience in my research. I mean, I know what is happening and I am trying to find out why this is happening (albeit I have my own explanations which so far are consistent with the ones that my participants share).
I don't think that you can't work on the subject that you like, but you have to look at it at the most subjective possible way. You can't talk about your experiences and you can't let your experiences guide your research. You have to be impartial otherwise there will be huge holes in your study.
Why don't you talk to your tutor? I bet s/he can offer good guidance and maybe suggest one (or more) universities where you could apply

Am throwing several your way Cobweb...they will be delivered via Robin (robin)