Greetings everyone,
I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct section of the forum but hopefully I am.
I just finished my masters degree in electrical and computer engineering and I am convinced that pursuing a phd is the way to go.

What troubles me is the subject of it.
What i am interested in is hardware design. What I have already done in various projects is program an FPGA using VHDL.
So I would like to pair that interest with another field as the subject of my phd.
I have some background in cryptography, computer vision, computer networks and some other fields as part of my basic training.
So the big question is what is the most promising subfield of these or what else would you recommend.
I am open to hearing any kind of ideas.
Also, any general tips in starting a phd would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your inputs

Hi trys,

Yeah this is the right forum for you. So, you you know the tools and area you want to work in but want advice on what exactly to do? My honest answer is to look for funded PhD's with an open mind and see what interests you. Places like findaphd.com have a lot of PhDs on offer and can give you inspiration as well as putting you in contact with supervisors. I found my PhD scanning through there and I just saw a project that I loved.

You can still write your own PhD proposal but that would require you getting funding from somewhere, which is doable but not fun.

Goodluck!

Thanks for your answer !

I am indeed searching only for funded phd positions which most of times come with a predefined subject. I already know what I want half of the subject to be ( something that will include hardware design in FPGA/ASIC) but i need to find the other half. By that i mean I want it to merge with another field that will give the theoretical background this hardware implementation will be based on. I have some areas that I have already worked on and have some experience (the ones I stated on my original post) but I have trouble deciding which will be the "best" or if I should look somewhere else. I am open to any suggestions/advices :)