Tuesday, February 24, 2004
What don't kill you makes you stronger.
Suddenly I realised that I should not feel despair or pessimistic. A sense of confidence and determination filled my mind as I thought about now and the next few years. Of course I will be busier than most people. My time will be spent working and studying. There won't be much of it left for recreation or relaxation. Who wouldn't be stressed if he/she's got to do extensive research while simultaneously working on two different projects.
And what do I get out of it? Fulfilment, knowledge and experience. Those alone would have made the efforts and sacrifices very very worthwhile. Thinking back, I realised that I've always felt this overwhelming sense of self-motivation, whenever hardship or difficult situations arise. It's like part of me.... something pushing me towards my goal and ambition.
It's always great to feel alive and enthusiastic again!
Suddenly I realised that I should not feel despair or pessimistic. A sense of confidence and determination filled my mind as I thought about now and the next few years. Of course I will be busier than most people. My time will be spent working and studying. There won't be much of it left for recreation or relaxation. Who wouldn't be stressed if he/she's got to do extensive research while simultaneously working on two different projects.
And what do I get out of it? Fulfilment, knowledge and experience. Those alone would have made the efforts and sacrifices very very worthwhile. Thinking back, I realised that I've always felt this overwhelming sense of self-motivation, whenever hardship or difficult situations arise. It's like part of me.... something pushing me towards my goal and ambition.
It's always great to feel alive and enthusiastic again!
This could officially be the first day of my Ph.D. program, after a long and extensive meeting with my supervisor.
First thing we did was to, each of us, conduct a supervision role perception workshop and then compare our results. Our thoughts were similar interms of the topic/course of study but we hold different perceptions interms of staff-student relationships and frequency of meetings. In terms of the thesis, the only concern is the amount of contribution the supervisor should have on the thesis. I was worried about the quality of work and the clarity of explanation whereas Roy thought that he should be wary of contributing too much to the thesis. An encouraging thing is that he thinks that my control of the English language was adequate for a Ph.D thesis.
The positive outcomes of this exercise is that we have reached a certain level of understanding and internal agreement about our supervisor-student relationship. We agreed that from the start of the program until the submission of the thesis, I should publish a number of scientific papers for journals and conferences, with his help or it would be a joint publication. These would give me enough practices because these papers will be reviewed and assessed by experts in the field before they are accepted, which is sort of like Ph.D. mid-term reviews or assessments.
Shape Memory Alloys.... that's gonna be the thing that will govern the next three years of my life. Good news is that I may likely be one of the few candidates to finish within three years because I've already have extensive knowledge and experience with the topic. Bad news is that I will not have a relaxing life for this period.
First thing we did was to, each of us, conduct a supervision role perception workshop and then compare our results. Our thoughts were similar interms of the topic/course of study but we hold different perceptions interms of staff-student relationships and frequency of meetings. In terms of the thesis, the only concern is the amount of contribution the supervisor should have on the thesis. I was worried about the quality of work and the clarity of explanation whereas Roy thought that he should be wary of contributing too much to the thesis. An encouraging thing is that he thinks that my control of the English language was adequate for a Ph.D thesis.
The positive outcomes of this exercise is that we have reached a certain level of understanding and internal agreement about our supervisor-student relationship. We agreed that from the start of the program until the submission of the thesis, I should publish a number of scientific papers for journals and conferences, with his help or it would be a joint publication. These would give me enough practices because these papers will be reviewed and assessed by experts in the field before they are accepted, which is sort of like Ph.D. mid-term reviews or assessments.
Shape Memory Alloys.... that's gonna be the thing that will govern the next three years of my life. Good news is that I may likely be one of the few candidates to finish within three years because I've already have extensive knowledge and experience with the topic. Bad news is that I will not have a relaxing life for this period.
Friday, February 20, 2004
Today's a bad day for me. We're currently looking for a new place to stay... somewhere close to Manuka.... but it seems that most of the house have been taken or won't be available until the end of March. This is bad for us 'cause our housemates plan to leave by Mid-march, which means that we'll either have to pay for the whole place ourselves or find another temporary place when they leave.
We'll just have to hope that tomorrow we can convince one of the agents to lease a place for us. Usually we can find out about properties for lease on the Sat or Wed newspapers but recently I just realised that almost all of the properties are advertised on allhomes
We'll just have to hope that tomorrow we can convince one of the agents to lease a place for us. Usually we can find out about properties for lease on the Sat or Wed newspapers but recently I just realised that almost all of the properties are advertised on allhomes
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Well well... finally I have been tempted to create something like a website. Wonder why I would even bother to start one?
Probably due to peer pressure. But it's probably a good idea because now that I've started my Ph.D. I'll probably need to get a website going to tell people about my research.
Speaking of which, I reckon I'll need to get going on it. I gave myself the month of February to slack off and relax. But now that the month's almost over, I plan to be more diligent and attentive to my research and study. A friend of mine just had his mid-term review and it didn't go smoothly apparently. I guess Ph.D. is more of doing your own research and making your own contributions instead of asking for direction from the supervisor. Of course the role of a supervisor is to point you in the corrent way and to provide technical advice and suggestions, but you shouldn't rely too much on the supervisor. That's the main difference between an honours project and a Ph.D project.
But whatever comes, I think I'm prepared... Got my own plannings and priorities sorted out for 2004. Just gonna follow it through and never slack off.... welll... not too much at least..
Probably due to peer pressure. But it's probably a good idea because now that I've started my Ph.D. I'll probably need to get a website going to tell people about my research.
Speaking of which, I reckon I'll need to get going on it. I gave myself the month of February to slack off and relax. But now that the month's almost over, I plan to be more diligent and attentive to my research and study. A friend of mine just had his mid-term review and it didn't go smoothly apparently. I guess Ph.D. is more of doing your own research and making your own contributions instead of asking for direction from the supervisor. Of course the role of a supervisor is to point you in the corrent way and to provide technical advice and suggestions, but you shouldn't rely too much on the supervisor. That's the main difference between an honours project and a Ph.D project.
But whatever comes, I think I'm prepared... Got my own plannings and priorities sorted out for 2004. Just gonna follow it through and never slack off.... welll... not too much at least..
