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Thread: spending all days and weeks to elaborate the graphs

posted
13-Jul-18, 12:29

by rewt

posted about 2 days ago

Quote From ollie:
Fortunately, they are the right ones that my supervisor recommended me to use. I see your point, but still need to use time more wisely. Balancing two different activities may help me rather than investigating all the day on a single task.

Are you spending most of your time setting up the simulations or running them? If it is taking forever to run can you get acces to a faster computer? There probably is a high spec desktop somewhere that you can use/book.

Or can you set up batches of simulations to run overnight? A few people in my office write their simulations during the afternoon and leave them to run/complete overnight. Then review their work in the morning, so that you spend your working hours doing constructive tasks.

Thread: spending all days and weeks to elaborate the graphs

posted
13-Jul-18, 09:46

edited about 7 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 2 days ago

Yes it is normal. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your skills be. Next time you do it, you will probably do it faster and better because you know the software more. Keep trying and eventually it will become second nature. It can be tough and frustrating but you learn through failure. Though you might be able to speed things up if you can find another PhD student will knoweldge with the software, and trade help for beer.

However is it the right software? You might be trying to use the wrong software for your probem. So have you checked what other researchers are using or what your supervisor recommends? I would check that first.

Thread: IP Theft

posted
12-Jul-18, 09:32

edited about 58 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 3 days ago

I feel sorry for your daughter G57 but that is a sad part of academia. It is publish or perish and if you have a good idea, it isn't yours until you publish. Even then they can just reference your work. That is why they recommend you to only present work that is close to publication or present at a published conference.

The real question is how identical is it? Like I know someone doing a virtually identical project as mine at a nearby university but he is in a different department with a different approach. We are looking at the same objective and after talking with him, we realized that weren't really competitors as we were doing quite different experiments. Same project outline

If this Spanish group is EXACTLY the same, I can only recommend your daughter to speed up. If they are hiring now, she probably has 3-6 months to get a paper published and beat them to it. Try and work out what their expertise is or what equipment they have and do what they can't. A lot of academic papers are about differentiation and if you can reach the same conclusions with different methods, that is acceptable.

The plus side is that if your daughter does get published first, the Spanish group will have to cite her. Got to get them lovely citations.

EDIT: it isn't IP theft or professional misconduct, it is the ivory tower that is academic research

Thread: Revise and resubmit-passed viva exam second time round!

posted
12-Jul-18, 09:12

edited about 8 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 3 days ago

It is nice to hear a positive story here. Congratulations!

Thread: How are you?

posted
09-Jul-18, 18:49

by rewt

posted about 6 days ago

We have a moderator?

Also, I am doing fine; labs are awful, I have no data, I have massive writer's block and imposter syndrome but I got a free lunch today so everything is much better.

Thread: PhD fellow vs PhD candidate

posted
09-Jul-18, 18:44

by rewt

posted about 6 days ago

Is it an official title or what they call themselves? If it is the former - pass, if the latter they might just be calling themselves that to blow smoke. I know a third-year student that calls himself a "PhD fellow" as well and he made the title up himself to make his LinkedIn sound better. After so many years of education, you sometimes want to drop the student moniker and at least pretend to be something else.

Thread: Poster Software

posted
09-Jul-18, 14:27

edited about 19 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 6 days ago

In hindsight, I agree with you both (tudor and nutty) about powerpoint and word being good.

I was trying to make a few good infographics to explain my concept and making diagrams/infographics in Office is pretty horrible. I tried both Inkscape and illustrator, while very good for graphics they are woeful for text and making a poster. I would clarify and say that if you want some nice graphics, make them outside powerpoint and then just import them. So much easier.

Thread: Applying for RA positions instead of role requiring PhD...

posted
04-Jul-18, 19:17

edited about 59 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 1 week ago

There is someone (different department) at my uni who keeps bouncing between RA roles and her self-funded Ph.D. The department keeps getting grants for medium length research projects but can't justify a post-doc or someone full time. So she usually does 6-12 months of RA work to fund her research for 2-6 months full-time before the next RA role comes along. She seems to enjoy it and gets her name on soooo many papers.

So, I would say there is no stigma of doing RA work as long as you are good enough to show potential to do actual research.

Thread: Supervision of one master student gone bad

posted
03-Jul-18, 21:47

edited about 13 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 1 week ago

I can feel your pain, I got landed with a summer student with a weeks notice and told "to use him". Like no guidance or forewarning and lots of expectation. Considering all my equipment was broken this summer he has had a fun few months reading. Though he at least he doesn't have to write a thesis.

It is unfair for them to expect you supervise a master's student by yourself. It can be hard to be critical of work if you have followed the progression through all the drafts, you became emotionally attached. Take it as experience and next time you can try to think more objectively about it. It is your first time "supervising" someone and you are only human. It will get easier as you do it more like everything in life.

It also sounds like you are perfect to be a PhD supervisor now. You are good at telling students their thesis is awesome, for them to fail a viva because of your bad advice. Literally half the supervisors on this forum are like that, so you are comparing yourself to too high of a standard.

Thread: Poster Software

posted
03-Jul-18, 12:16

edited about 22 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 1 week ago

Hi Guys,

Usually, I use powerpoint to make my posters because it was easy. But recently a friend recommended Inkscape (it is a knock-off version of illustrator) because you could make betterlooking posters. His posters look amazing but the Inkscape is very different

So I was just wondering what software do you use to make posters? Or are we all boring powerpoint users?

Thread: What a phD thesis is

posted
03-Jul-18, 11:23

edited about 25 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 1 week ago

I think it depends the subject about what constitutes a thesis

You say you want to do a detailed then general analysis. Does that mean you have a detailed discussion of your results, then talk about how it fits in the field (lit review) and possible future work? I have never seen a future work section in a thesis but the rest can definitely be included if you structure it right, but your supervisor will know more.

My take on a PhD thesis is that is like a craftsman's masterpiece that he does to end his apprenticeship. Where you show that you can look at the field, find an unanswered question, break it down into simpler questions, do several chapters of research, then try and conclude it by saying that you have answered the question. In the end, it should be a body of work that shows off all the skills you have developed to become an independent researcher.

PS: I am still in my first year and haven't started my thesis, so I am probs not the best

Thread: Is it okay to expect advisor(s) to offer a word of condolence?

posted
03-Jul-18, 11:05

by rewt

posted about 1 week ago

Hi karmah,

Again, sorry to hear about your loss. The last few months must have been hard. Though academics can be socially useless and sometimes don't know what to say. By not saying anything they might be trying to avoid there own social awkwardness. Are they saying negative? Like making comments about being away? If they are just ignoring it and trying to give you some space/privacy.

However, they should at least ask how you are doing.

Thread: Good enough grades for funded PhD

posted
03-Jul-18, 10:55

edited about 10 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 1 week ago

Agree with chantedsnicker that is possible with a 2:1 but it depends on the competition. Your average looks good with only 2 modules bringing you down which isn't too bad.

It also depends on the field you are going into, if the PhD is close to one of your high scoring modules or your thesis, you still have an excellent chance. Apart from grades (which are important) they want to see a passion for your field and possibly relevant skills/experience. If you can show them you have a good chance.

Thread: co-authoring yes or no

posted
12-May-18, 15:19

edited about 12 seconds later

by rewt

posted about 2 months ago

Go for it!

Some want to collaborate with you, that is a good sign that people think you are good enough to publish. The more you publish, the easier it will be. Don't hesitate because you think you will fail or because you want to have the perfect paper on your own work, you would just be delaying the inevitable.

Though is this a stand-alone more ap or is he/she is trying to piggyback off your work? If it is the latter I understand your hesitation and giving away authorship when you are close to doing it solo, is hard.

Thread: Last chance to complete my Master's dissertation (Political science)

posted
10-May-18, 12:34

by rewt

posted about 2 months ago

hi cowsandbeef,

It is very doable and don't give up hope. Chantedsnicker has some very good advice. To get over anxiety, I w focus on achieving a good grade, on what I can achieve and not the possibility of failure. You get no-where if you just procrastinate.

Sometimes, what I do when I am having trouble getting started is that I just write in plain non-scientific English. I force myself to keep writing a simple flowing argument with minimal proofreading (I only fix spelling mistakes) until I have finished. I usually get 1000-2000 words of what is pure utter garbage but when I come back to it the next day I have something. It will be useless but you can look at and see what you need you need to do to fix. As you will have a basic argument with a semi-flowing structure and you can then edit it until it is better. It isn't efficient but it can sometimes overcome writer's block.

Goodluck! You can do it!