PhD development seminar: getting started with research

I am teaching a PhD development seminar for first year PhD students in industrial engineering and related disciplines. The purpose of this course is to prepare students for the dissertation research in industrial and systems engineering. The course helps set expectations, introduces campus resources to students, and creates a cohort of student to connect students with their peers.

Today's #PhDdevelopmentF2020 seminar speaker is Dr. @AGSm1th who is discussing first steps in research from a recen… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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🍁 𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

Working in industry before starting a #PhD can be helpful for developing a healthy work-life balance as well as a d… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

An early challenge included taking courses that were challenging while also being expected to make research a top p… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

Another challenge is research challenges that are open-ended and not in bite sized chunks. Most research ideas do n… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

In terms of managing #PhD research: "It's important to make progress every day." One way to manage research is to m… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

Literature reviews are important. If you miss a paper in your literature review, it's not a fatal error. Journal re… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

The best way to overcome writer's block is to avoid it in the first place. Writing frequently or writing a little e… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

Good skills to learn right away: learn #LaTeX, #github and #subversion in your first year. Version control and make backups!

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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 😷 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 🗳 (@lauraalbertphd) October 12, 2020

I am creating a series of blog posts featuring some of the classes from the semester. Those, along with previous PhD related posts, are tagged with the “PhD support” tag.

Other posts in this series:

• First steps in research (from professors)
• First steps in writing