ECE 7930: Succeeding in the Graduate Environment

In this session, Professor El-Ghazaly welcomes students and introduces them to what this course is all about…

In other words, getting them acquainted with all of the unspoken expectations of them in a Ph.D. program

and the specifics of the Ph.D. program at Cornell.

In this session, current Ph.D. students at various stages of their degree programs are invited to share their thoughts and advice on the doctoral degree. Conversation starter questions for the panel are listed below, though conversation often deviated from the list once the ice was broken.

Starter Questions for Graduate Student Panel

1. In just a couple minutes, please briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your path to grad school.
2. Most people don’t realize that grad school is very different from undergrad. What was your transition like? Did anyone or anything help you?
3. Did you do research before coming to Cornell? If so, what aspects of being a researcher did you feel you got the best introduction and training in? What skills were missing?
4. How did you choose your PhD advisor (or if you did rotations first, how did you choose which labs to rotate into)? And, what is your present relationship/interaction with them like?
5. How did you settle on your thesis topic? How are you making sure that it’s both novel and impactful?
6. At Cornell, who or what do you go to to learn the skills you need to thrive in your research and doctoral endeavors, in general?
7. What do you do to relax? What hobbies do you have and how much time do you have for them?
8. When nothing in research seems to be working (as is often the case), what do you do?
9. How do you explain the PhD process to your family? How have you involved them in your life since starting the PhD?
10. What do you hope to do after you complete the PhD? And what have you (or your advisor) been doing to prepare you for that?
11. How did you find out about what is needed to apply to XX job after grad school?
12. Do you have any other advice or lessons-learned for these first-year students?

In this session, students come to learn that the research relationship between a Ph.D. student and their advisor/PI is very different from undergraduate advisor-advisee relationship.

Through, more in-depth discussion they learn about how to pick up on their advisor’s expectations

and how to communicate their research progress, including both the good and bad results.

In this session, students learn that the first step to any research project is reading papers.

Afterwards, the students should develop a hypothesis and/or research plan and try to test its potential quickly before delving deep into a series of long experiments.

The final step is always dissemination of the results.

In this session, students come to learn that skills alone are often not enough, but that everyone needs social capital – in other words, a network through which they can attain additional key information and resources.

Cultivating that social capital is especially challenging, but important for individuals who are underrepresented in their fields.

Guest speakers for this session came from programs across Cornell:

• Diversity Programs in Engineering (DPE)
• Knight Writing Institute
• Center for Teaching Innovation

In this session, students learn that applying for funding is often an important step along the way of any PhD journey. To apply for fellowships and funding, the first step is to read the requirements thoroughly.

Professor El-Ghazaly then delves deep into specific advice regarding each of the common aspects in fellowship applications.

In this session, faculty from across engineering, computer science, and the sciences are invited to share their thoughts and advice on the doctoral degree and the advisor-advisee relationship. Conversation starter questions for the panel are listed below, though conversation often deviated from the list once the ice was broken.

Starter Questions for Faculty Panel

1. In just a few minutes, please briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your path to graduate school and all the way up to being a faculty member today.
2. What does the first year of PhD research typically look like for a new student in your group?
3. How do you usually work with a student to identify the research topic/project for their Ph.D.?
4. What do you expect students to be able to do independently? What do you expect them to go to other students in the group for? And what do you expect them to come to you for?
5. In your group/in your field, what is a typical timeline for progress in research in terms of simulations, experiments, conferences, publications, and starting the job search?
6. Describe one of your most productive students, both in terms of their work ethic and their life balance.
7. Faculty life is known to be intense. Do you have any free time? If so, how do you like to spend it?
8. When you’re stuck and nothing in research seems to be going well (as is often the case), what do you do?
9. Describe your job as a faculty member and perhaps also how your role has evolved over the years.
10. If students are interested in pursuing a faculty position in academia after grad school, how best do you recommend they prepare and set themselves up for it starting now while in graduate school?
11. Do you have any other advice or lessons-learned for these first-year students?

In this session, students learn about how to select the right papers to read and how to read them in detail.

They also learn how to write their own research papers, what content should generally be included in each section of the paper, and what the publication process looks like.

In this workshop-style session, Professor El-Ghazaly leads the students through the structure and formatting of drafting a generic research paper in LaTex.

In this session, students learn how to structure and give captivating research presentations.

Every aspect of research presentations is discussed, beginning from the outline and content to the structure and delivery.

In this session, students learn about the inevitable. What to do when research progress seems to have slowed and they feel they’ve hit a wall.

Ways of attaining renewed inspiration are discussed.

And, if all else fails, a suggestion for how to reinvigorate oneself is given, alongside a relevant personal anecdote from Professor El-Ghazaly.

In this workshop-style session, Professor El-Ghazaly leads the students through importing data and formatting manuscript-quality figures using either Matlab or Python.

In this session, as the end of the semester nears, students learn that research is a never ending labor of love.

But, one can only love it, and how it nurtures the mind, if they also nurture their own body and soul.

Ideas and suggestions for ways to nurture the body and soul are given and discussed with students based on their interests and based on the resources available in the Cornell/Ithaca/Finger Lakes region.

In this session, the semester ends with the students learning more about the various career pathways that the Ph.D. can lead to.

Guests speakers for this session came from programs across Cornell:

• Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement – Pathways to Success
• Careers Beyond Academia
• CIRTL/Future Faculty Program