On advancing to Doctoral candidacy

After roughly 2 years of joining my Ph.D. advisor's lab, I advanced to Doctoral candidacy on Friday, 05/10 i.e. I successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis proposal, and answered relevant questions (dubbed "the orals") posed by a 5-member committee without sounding too flustered. I think I've finally managed to collect my thoughts on how I feel, and on my performance. This could prove useful for freshman Ph.D. students (or Masters students with a Ph.D. in mind) who might be overwhelmed with the mammoth journey of graduating with a Ph.D. I am at the half-way stage at the moment, and here are a few reflections from my experience as a Ph.D. student so far:

- Advancing to candidacy is a nice feeling as I am one step closer to graduating with a Ph.D. I spent the whole of the Spring semester fussing over this day - and it was very gratifying to have my efforts pay off.

- It also means that my academic journey has just begun - now that I have defended my thesis proposal, getting the work done in time [read: the next 2 years] is of paramount importance. 

- I had an informal written exam week with my 5-member committee three weeks before my orals. Because my thesis chapters incorporate concepts from Biology, Evolution, Statistics and  Programming, the questions I was asked spanned a wide spectrum and helped identify my weak areas. Now that I think of it, I feel I should have taken a mini-written exam a few months after joining the lab - it would have likely sharpened my understanding of the system I study well ahead of time. It would have given me more time to think about the bigger picture in terms of where my system sits in the context of other systems.

- I realized that the way one presents his/her work to one's Ph.D. committee is very different from the way one presents to a general audience, when I gave a practice talk a week ahead of my orals to my advisor and my peers. Their feedback was invaluable. Following their advice, I employed parallel writing - mentioned the knowns and the unknowns regarding each of my thesis projects, had my hypotheses, dataset and goals listed clearly on separate slides, dabbled in Powerpoint to make stuff appear/disappear and eliminated/reduced slides with TMI (Too Much Information). From 40 slides during the prep-talk, I was finally down to 20, and it was a lot cleaner. 

- I had a 20 minute time-slot to present my proposal (This is committee-dependent. In any case, you do not want to talk about your content for more than 20-30 minutes. Anything beyond that is TMI), so I practised what precisely I wanted to convey in every slide 3-4 times over. 

- The fact that I was over-prepared for the orals really helped. I was able to expect follow up questions from almost every slide and had back-up slides ready. While answering questions, using one of those 'I'm glad you asked' slides convinced me that the session was going well. As a result, I did not feel that I was being grilled - in fact it was a pretty smooth affair.

- As far as Science goes, I am curious and information-thirsty by nature. I think that was one of the main reasons I was able to get thus far. And it will have a big role to play eventually in my graduating with a Ph.D. and more importantly, in my future career as a Scientist.

The Foot-In-Mouth Chronicles - Part 3

(Originally posted July 2009)

Another three months have whooshed past. Yet, it looks like it was yesterday that I'd put up Part 2. Seems like space travel to me.

October 2008.

So I run into this gentleman at the cafeteria on the first floor for breakfast.

And my head goes - Hey, you've seen this guy before. Where? Of course, back on campus. What's his name? Ah yes. (But no, I am not taking names here. We'll call him Vats. You'll see why.)

Being quite the professional socialite (which in hindsight, I realise was an innocent mistake by a fresher at work), I decide to introduce myself to him.

"Hello, Prof Vats, this is a BITSian. How're you doing?"

He shakes my hand with an air of one out to crush the phalanges to calcium powder. Very well, he says. Preliminary introductions follow. I get my plate of idlis and we take a table together.

"So you're a Computer Science engineer? And you're in a biotech company?"

"Yes, sir. Up on the third floor."

"Yeah yeah, I know your Manager pretty well. He was in my junior batch."

"Ahan. Yes, loads of BITSians everywhere, sir. Your wife was one too, right?"

"No. She's just a Math Prof."

Yeah I remember, I was registered to her for Math 1 in my 1st year." (which was a bluff. I know, anything to keep a conversation going)

"Oh you were?"

"Yeah. Vidya ma'm's ad-cal classes were pretty engrossing."

"Her name's not Vidya. It's Padma."

Strike 1. Ouch. I bite my lip. Of course, her name wasn't Vidya, it was something else. The person I ended up quoting accidentally was a delectable senior who was TA in my Data Structures lab in 3rd year. Between silly algorithms and agreeable tutors, you know what (rather, who) gets in the pipeline first.

"I am sorry, my mistake. Nevertheless, it's been 4 years of good fun, and now it's over to a completely new world, shouldering a bit more responsibility!" (Lord, I really need to hide my face somewhere)

"Hmm."

2 minutes silence. Think of something else wiseguy, goes the brain. My hands aren't idle in the meantime. They've worked away on transporting the idlis to their rightful abode, and in double quick time on this occasion, considering this was the best way I could tackle an embarrassing moment. I finish my meal, and note he has more than half of his Pongal to go. Dining table etiquette demands that you wait for your companion to finish. I decide to resume the half baked conversation.

"So how's your work here? How different are you finding work here, as opposed to BITS?"

"Oh it's great. I'm still doing research, so that way it's not much of a difference, but then this is the industry, so there's a bit more pressure, as you may have realized."

And then the foot-in-mouth moment you've all been hoping for.

"So what does your company do?"

"We manufacture a lot of pharma products. Specifically, condoms. We cater to the needs of over 40% of the world's population. Durex and Kohinoor, they're both our brands."

I stare. This is like Strike 2 and 3 rolled into one. It felt like he'd pounded my head with a mallet. Let's face it, you may call it fortuitous to get to hear about the birds and the bees through someone who's no less than a professor, but I was stumped for a reply. I marvelled at the attempt to keep a straight face. My attempt, of course. By now, he'd probably described his job description enough times already.

"Oh."

And I nod my head. Couldn't do anything else, the tongue seemed to have twisted itself into a helix.

As he finished his pongal and bade goodbye, I was left wishing that I'd let a little of the sambar remain. To drown my ruddy face into.

Credits: The plate of idlis, which was the only point of that brilliant morning.

PS: If you still haven't got the Vats funda, you shouldn't be here. This post carries an Over-18 rating. Kids, shoo!