Recommendations for Ph.D. students
- Useful Things to Know about
Ph.D. Thesis Research, by H. T. Kung. (original URL)This is a must
read before starting your Ph.D. thesis. If you don't agree with
this document, making a Ph.D. thesis is probably not for
you.
- Everything I
wanted to know about C.S. graduate school at the beginning
but didn't learn until later, by Ronald T. Azuma (original
URL) Another must read before starting a Ph.D. thesis. A small excerpt
from this document:
The most basic question every
Ph.D. student must know the answer to is: "Why the hell am I
doing this?"
[...]
If you do not have an acceptable
answer to this question, then don't get a Ph.D. I repeat: if
you do not have a rock-solid reason for getting the Ph.D.,
then it is better that you leave with a Master's.
- Applying to
Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science, by Mor Harchol-Balter.
(original
URL).
- Doing Research Very good advices on
starting a Ph.D. thesis (in particular: How to find a supervisor
, How to find a topic, How to be effective, How to survice in grad school), by Michalis Faloutsos. (original URL).
- "You and Your Research" by Richard Hamming.
This talk from Richard Hamming is about the
difference between good researchers and researchers that do first-class
work. Here is a
link to the PDF
- How to Have a Bad Career in
Research/Academia. This talk from Professor
David A. Patterson is a must read. Here is a link to
the PDF,
the PowerPoint
with some animations (that you should not use), and
the original
web page
Scientific writing is an art. It is the art to make clear to the
largest audience the most complex ideas. It is hard, it is counter
intuitive, it must be learned. Two excellent references are: