Unofficial guidelines for prospective graduate students

Contacting Me

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. degree in one of my research areas. If you can't make up your mind about what to do with your thesis, you can still come talk to me.

Doing Research with Me

If you considering doing thesis research with me, you should expect the following:

• You must be motivated and stay motivated throughout your thesis research. You must be genuinely interested in looking for real high-impact scientific problems and solving them. Choose a problem or problems you'll love to solve for the next few years. That doesn't mean that you'll have to stick with them. Problems evolve and so are you. Better love what you do, so that all the hard work will be simply part of the joy ride. Research is fun, no matter whether it's part of a Master's or Ph.D. degree. You should be prepared, however; it is going to be an uphill battle.
   
• Be diligent. An important skill you'll need to develop is time management. And for that, no one can give you a better advice than practicing self discipline. There is a Chinese proverb saying that "learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back". If you find a problem, work on it and don't wait. Computer science is a fast growing field. Waiting is not an option if you are determined to push the envelop of human knowledge.
   
• Learn from the advice given by those smart people about graduate school as early as possible. Also, you need to closely follow the requirement of your graduate degree. Knowing the rule of the game can help you be more direct at achieving your goal. You should expect to graduate as fast as you can.
   
• There are three ways to develop a thesis. First, I have a project that you're interested and you'd like to participate, from which it's quite likely you can develop a thesis. Second, you see a problem you'd like to solve and that happens to be within my area of expertise. We work together towards a thesis. Last, you're generally interested in my research areas. You participate in my projects and, as the projects evolve and new problems surface, we come up with a thesis. In any case, it is important to remember:
   
  • You should start getting involved into research as early as you can, better when you enter graduate school. Whether it'll end up to be a research topic for you or not, it's likely you can develop your thesis early this way.
     
  • Your advisor is not responsible for finding the thesis problem for you and then solving it for you. An independent research skill is truly what matters at the end of the tunnel.
     
• I can't be your advisor if you fall into any of the following categories:
   
  • You are interested in a problem not in my research area. If it's not my research area, I don't have sufficient knowledge in the area to guide you through. If I cannot be resourceful in this case, you need to find someone else to be your advisor.
     
  • If you're not motivated or if you can't allocate much time for research, you're in the wrong business. Good research has to go beyond the number of credit hours stipulated in the book. If you can't make the commitment, I'm afraid I can't find a light-weight thesis topic for you to do.
     
  • The kind of people I hate are those who like to wave their hands too much, always pointing at this and criticizing that. If you don't do the work in the field and get your hands dirty, most likely you don't know the problem. It's fine to talk the talk, but more important is that you can walk the walk. There's a Chinese proverb saying "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand".
     
• To be your advisor, I can promise the following. We'll work on our projects together and we'll meet regularly to discuss problems and solutions. I'll provide you with necessary suggestions on research directions. I'll also help you with publishing papers and provide you with necessary support, such as computers, books, and travel money for conferences. If situation allows, I will support you financially on a research grant. And you should expect to graduate in a timely manner.
   
• To be my student, you'll be obliged to do the following. You need to keep up with good work, which means you need to maintain a good status in the program: making steady progress in research following your academic master plan whatever it may be, reading papers, doing projects, publishing papers (or at least trying to at the early stage), and giving presentations on your research. We will meet regularly to make sure you're on track. Details on these requirements will be clearly spelled out in our project meetings.