Finding a PhD Topic

1. Finding a PhD Topic Kathy Yelick EECS Department, UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2. Who am I? • Why CS? • Hooked on the first course • Why a PhD? • Feeling of where I fit in • Personal: • BS/MS/PhD from MIT • Berkeley Assistant Prof. in 1991 • Married Jim in 1993; Megan in 1996; Nathan in 1998 • Timing: Tenure in 1996, Full Professor in 2001, Joint LBNL Appointment • Hobbies: • Skiing, Soccer Mom, (formerly) crew, hiking, biking

3. Fear of Topic Selection • Settling on a PhD topic is often a low point in graduate school • Even for the most successful students • Why? Because it is very important! • You’ll work on it for a few years in school • Often will work in the area for years after • Will define your area for your job search • But, you can change areas later • The topic is likely to shift along the way

4. What is a Topic? • The difference between a project or area and a topic • What is the thesis of the thesis? • Base on Five Heilmeier Questions 1. What is the problem you are tackling? 2. What is the current state-of-the-art? 3. What is your key make-a-difference concept or technology? 4. What have you already accomplished? 5. How will you measure success? • Acks: • Based on Patterson’s “How to Have a Bad Career…”

5. What to Consider in Choosing a Topic • What kind of job are you interested in? • Top 10, teaching, gov’t lab, industry • What are your strengths? • Programming, data analysis, proofs (key insights vs. long/detailed verifications) • What drives you? • Technology, puzzles, applications • Practical considerations • Does your advisor know anything about it? • Do you (your advisor) have funding for it?

6. Digression: Advisor’s Perspective • The funding rat-race • Your write a grant proposal • You make promises ~3 years out • Not too specific, but specific enough… • It gets funded • You hire student A to “work on the grant” • Student takes an interesting left turn • Hire student B to finish the grant work • Write another grant to cover student A

7. 5 Ways to Find a PhD Topic

8. 1) Flash of Brilliance Model • You wake up one day with a new insight • New approach to solve an important open problem • Warnings: • This rarely happens • Even if it does, your advisor may not agree that it’s a great idea

9. 2) The Apprentice Model • Your advisor has a list of topics • Suggests one (or more!) that you can work on • Can save you a lot of time/anxiety • Warnings: • Don’t work on something you find boring, fruitless, badly-motivated,… • Topics can be too close to an advisor’s interests

10. 3) The Phoenix Model • You work on some projects • You think very hard about what you’ve done and are doing to look for insight • Re-implement in a common framework • Identify an algorithm/proof problem inside • The topic emerges from your work • Especially common in systems (the theory variation is the stapler model) • Warnings: • You may be working without “a topic” for a long time

11. 4) The Synthesis Model • Read some papers from other fields • Look for places to apply insight from another field to your own • E.g., databases to compilers • Warnings: • You can spend a career reading papers! • You may not see any useful connections

12. 5) The Expanded Term Paper Model • Take a course in your area or in an area that gives you a new perspective • E.g., theory for systems and vice versa • Do a project/paper that combines your research area with the course • Low risk topic selection • Warnings: • This can distract from your research if you can’t find a related project/paper

13. What to do when you’re stuck • Read papers in your area of interest • Write an annotated bibliography • Read a PhD thesis or two • Read your advisor’s grant proposal • Take a project class with a new perspective • Do some non-thesis work for your group • Keep working on something • Get feedback and ideas from others • Do an internship

14. Don’t be Afraid to Take Risks • Switching areas can be risky • Move outside your advisor’s area of expertise • Don’t know the related work • Starting from scratch • But it can be very refreshing! • Recognize when your project isn’t working • Hard to publish negative results

15. “Technology And Courage” Ivan Sutherland, 1996 • Courage: to perceive risk and proceed in spite of it • Research: high probability that an attempt will fail • If inadequate courage, Work up courage, reduce risk, reduce perception of risk, or don’t do it • External Encouragement (rewards and punishment) • Deadlines, groups of people, mentors, seminars, tenure, taking / teaching classes, starting companies, stock • Self Encouragement • Getting started: warm-up project, break into tasks and do 1st one • To continue: refuse to let urgent drive out the important • Rewards • Thrill of discovery, following curiosity, beauty, simplicity, fun • Acks: • From Patterson’s “How to Have a Bad Career…” and • Sutherland’s paper at http://research.sun.com/techrep/Perspectives

16. It’s Not About the Topic • It’s about the area: • Is it important? Timely? Jobs in the area? • And the tools: Many researchers have one really good hammer • Use it to solve many problems • More experienced than others at using it • Can be a theoretical technique, a software system, etc.