======= Date Modified 26 06 2010 22:06:54 =======
Ok, so viva is on Thursday, just doing final preparations, but this question concerns me!

I'm expecting them to possibly ask why I chose this project/topic/subject area etc? I guess I did choose it, but actually it was an idea already in the pipeline by my supervisors and they chose me to be their PhD student and apply for a studentship grant with this project. For the lab I worked in, my project was a bit of an aside to their main research area, and if it had been a PhD studying their main areas of intereste I still would have taken it.

I'm sure many students do a project that is already set out for them in someways, although over the 3 years I did take it down my own avenues I suppose. But what are you meant to say to this question in your viva?

Cheers folks! AL

If it was me I'd answer that the original idea for the project was thought up by my supervisor, but that I wanted to do it because .... [fill in the blanks] .... and that over time I made it more and more my own project.

This was the very first question I was asked. I was lucky with my history PhD because I designed the project all by myself. My computer science PhD was much more like yours though, so if I'd got to the viva stage for that I'd have had the same dilemma!