Tag: phd life

2019 Year in review

Welcome 2020! A new year is the perfect time to reflect on the past year, so I wanted to take a step back and think about it. 2019 was one of the most successful years for me professionally (and personally) with a range of experiences and productive outcomes. Quite a few achievements I’m really proud of happened this year. This post is mostly a note for myself to remind me of all those 🙂

I started the year on a positive note – I allocated quality time for me to do some coding for a novel graph analysis method I developed for writing analytics. Recovering from my laptop loss from the previous year (noting how important backing up your work is), I redid it from scratch, and made a version better than what I had last time. Coding up those interactive automated revision graphs was probably the first successful outcome in the year for me.

My biggest achievement this year was completing my PhD from the Connected Intelligence Centre. Even at the start of the year, I hadn’t started writing my thesis and I was still finishing up data analysis. Even when I started writing my thesis in February, I was unsure if I could complete it before the August deadline. The main chapter seemed like a monster job since most of the analysis had to be done newly and I hadn’t written it up before. The best decision I made at that point was to start off with this hard chapter instead of the starting or the easier ones, where I had already written stuff (like a lit review or an introduction). A pat on the back – I stuck with the deadline of completing it before I flew out to LAK19 in March- it was quite intense, both emotionally and physically taxing, but I made it! I emailed the first version of this chapter with an overall skeleton of the thesis to my supervisors when I was on a bus home – I was literally making use of every minute I had before flying out to the conference.

My participation in LAK19 was quite a success. I’ve written a whole post on it before, so I’m not gonna dive into details. But I presented a full paper and got some amazing comments, facilitated a workshop (almost solo since my co-organizers couldn’t make it at the last minute) and joined the SoLAR executive committee. I had received the ACM-Women in Computing Scholarship to attend this conference.

While I was writing the rest of my thesis, I applied for a Lectureship at UTS Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation and got it! I decided to go for this one over postdoctoral research positions to stay long term in academia. Searching and applying for jobs are such an ordeal and my skills were dusty; I’m super glad mine went smoothly since it was the only job I applied for, and the timing worked out perfectly.

I had to start the lectureship in July, which pushed my thesis submission deadline a month earlier. I couldn’t take a break after thesis submission, so I took a small break after sending out the full draft of my thesis to my internal reviewers in June. I went home to India for 2 weeks, which just flew by. I worked super hard to submit the final thesis after my return, to the point where I didn’t really want to take another look at it anymore! Finally, I submitted my thesis on the 25th of July, 2019.

I started lecturing right from the first month of me joining the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation. It was pretty hard, truth be told, as I was trying to juggle between a few different things. First time teaching a subject from preparation to delivery, handling student queries, the admin, the mentoring, managing difficult students – it was a handful. I even dropped my plans to take part in the 3MT competition coz my schedule was so tight.

In the meantime, the reviews for my thesis came back. I passed with flying colours and the reviews were extremely positive, with appreciation of it being one of the best theses the reviewers had reviewed! Both reviewers accepted the thesis for publication without any changes. I did make some minor changes for final publication based on their comments and my degree was conferred on the 12th of November 2019.

I also got a few invitations (both internal and external to my university) to take part in events, which went really great. I was invited as a panel speaker at Intel, Sydney where we discussed ‘Artificial Intelligence Today for Our Tomorrow‘ with some great minds. I co-organised a workshop with our Faculty staff on Data in September for the Festival of Learning Design. I gave a short talk at UTS TeachMeet “The Future Starts Now“ in October,  hosted by the School of International Studies and Education, UTS – Video of Highlights here. I visited the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University, Melbourne in October to participate as an invited delegate at the “Advancing research in student feedback literacy” international symposium – had good conversations and set plans to move the research forward in our upcoming work.

I received the Future Women Leaders Conference Award and visited Monash for two days in November for the conference, where there were a series of workshops and talks supporting future women leaders in academia from engineering and IT. I also created from scratch and published a podcast (Episode 3 of SoLAR Spotlight) that month – lots of learning happened in putting it together, from preparation to editing. I do have regrets in turning down some good opportunities that came my way, just because I was not having enough hours in a day to manage everything. But I guess it is a part of growing as an academic, since you prioritize and decide what is more important, and try to achieve work-life balance. In the end of November, I co-organized a workshop at ALASI. That was the end of work-related events in 2019, but the best was yet to come.

I went to India in December for my long-awaited wedding with my sweetheart. It was a big fat south Indian wedding, so lots of prep and stress, but loads of fun! Here’s a picture from the wedding 🙂

Preparing for a doctoral consortium

There are many opportunities for doctoral students to participate in a doctoral consortium in the ed-tech research community, amongst others. A Doctoral consortium is usually organized by conferences where graduate students come together to present their work to experts in the field and peers, and get feedback from them. The expert panel might also offer advice on career and other skills. Some conferences also offer Young Researcher’s workshops/ Early Career Workshops which are useful for graduating students and young researchers in the field.

Having attended two doctoral consortium in different conferences, I would recommend PhD students to do it at some point of time.  I found it useful for a number of reasons, so in this post I’m going to list why I think so and how to prepare for a Doctoral consortium – some tips on making the best use of it.

Why participate?

  • Enhancing research skills: It’s a wonderful opportunity to put your thoughts together and think about the big picture of your research. It helps you identify the core ideas of your research and present them succinctly in a limited time. Explaining a potential 60,000 word thesis of your PhD in less than 30 minutes is a great skill to acquire. In some conferences, you might be asked to present a poster explaining your research as well. Also, it is a place where you can actually discuss more about your methodology and design, and not just the results.
  • Expert feedback: It is a great place to get some early feedback (and criticism) on your PhD work and thesis statement. It’s nice to have some extra eyes other than your phd supervisors. You become clear on what your claims can be and what your limitations are. You will be prepared to answer any question and know what to expect as possible questions next time when you present your work to different audiences. Even if you don’t get great advice at all times, you will most likely walk away with a better understanding of what you want to do. And if there’s a certain problem you’re grappling with in your research, you can ask for specific advice.
  • Networking: You meet other PhD Students from closely related fields. Not always do we get a chance to meet students from other universities around the world and know about their research. They are also sailing on the same boat, so it is always good to connect with your peers to get some support, and their feedback on your work. It is also a good opportunity to network with experts in the field and introduce your name in the research community. Who knows, the academic expert you impressed might be the person who gives you a job when you graduate 🙂
  • Financial Support: Most conferences provide some level of financial support for grad students who get accepted to the doctoral consortium. This is especially useful for self-financing students, as it covers registration fees or travel depending on the conference.

Based on my experience and the advice I’ve heard, here are some tips to make the best use of your time at the Doctoral Consortium:

  • Pick the right time to go – Best to go when you have conceptualized your research and done some work, so that you don’t go as an empty slate. The experts want to see what you have thought through so they can give you advice. Also don’t go too late (for example when you are almost submitting your thesis) by which time you can’t make any more changes to your research and thesis.
  • Make a proper submission – Most doctoral consortium require students to make formal submissions which include a short paper describing the research, supporting documents like a letter of support from the supervisor, and sometimes your own statement and CV. They usually look for sharp minds who can benefit from the discussion and contribute to the research community, so make sure you follow the mentioned format while submitting your application with well-written documents.
  • Practise and be ready to explain your research – You are usually provided a limited time to present (15-20 mins), and given that you are attempting to present your whole thesis in this time slot, practise well in advance to highlight the key aspects. Even better if you can present to your local peers and get their advice earlier. Sometimes, we tend to run through some ideas quickly without noticing that they need more emphasis or highlight less important aspects more, which your peers can notice for you.
  • Go prepared with your questions & answers: It is always nice to be prepared with questions to ask advice from experts. If there’s a particular problem you’re grappling with in your research, make sure you point that out and ask for suggestions. This helps you get focused attention on that problem rather than spend a lot of time on other minor things you are  not very interested in. If you want feedback from a specific expert, you can try mentioning that too. Be prepared to face tough questions and criticism on your research work (a good rehearsal before your phd defence). Also, if your peer’s work is previously made available, take some time to read about their research so you can contribute to the discussion and add value with your feedback.