Indiana University
Bloomington Campus

The goal of this page is to help new graduate students learn what is expected of them, to develop successful approaches to completing an advanced degree, and to acquaint them with tools and background knowledge found useful by other graduate students and faculty.

The information may be relevant to all graduate students, new and old, Master's and PhD candidates, and especially those concerned with any facet of research.

Contents:

Motivation: Back to top.

In years past, we have heard that our graduate students have a wide variety of experiences; some already know or adjust quickly to the unwritten "culture" of being a successful graduate student, while others feel that there were too many things that people assumed they knew without being told. These pages consist of loosely structured and open-ended discussions about topics that we have heard cause concern, particularly among our new graduate students with little direct research experience. Contributions and suggestions from students on how to improve this page are always welcome.

Topic Summary: Back to top.

• Introduction to Graduate Culture: General discussion of differences between undergrad and grad. What is research; what isn't research. Computer science vs computer programming. Research "mind set." What's different - your responsibilities: Typically, you must
  1. TALK to faculty and get them acquainted with YOU; no one will automatically seek you out. You need to show your thinking ability to get people interested in you.
  2. Identify the areas that, for whatever reason, are best suited to your knowledge, skills, style. Compare Theory, Analysis of Algorithms, Logic, Programming Languages, Compilers, Computer Graphics, Scientific Visualization, Computational Science, Systems, Parallel and Distributed Computation, Hardware, Databases, etc. for "style" and talents.
  3. APPROACH: do several 790's in different areas, both to get to know faculty personally, and to test out your range of skills and interests - might discover talent/interest you were unaware of.
  4. GET FIRM FOUNDATION: can easily waste a 790 when you should have taken a well-designed course instead; need to think hard about how to mix a solid background with research. This is last chance to get to know basics before you may wind up teaching them or looking foolish mis-answering a question at a conference talk. GOAL: be able to make intelligent hallway conversation at any conference anywhere: many, many jobs depend on being intelligent in chance lunch or hallway conversations at meetings.
  5. PUBLISH: you need concrete evidence that you have met peer-reviewed scrutiny, both for final PhD evaluation and for job search. Example: student who had done many videotapes was asked "what value are these" - answer was 4 of them accepted by tough peer-review competition for national exhibition and distribution. Submit papers to conferences: Special travel support from College, Dept. and advisor's research grants are often available to help send you to present a paper.
  6. BREADTH: Make a habit of attending COLLOQUIUM, dropping in on special-area seminars outside your area.
• Health issues:
  • Repetitive Stress Syndrom and carpal tunnel, radiation, eye strain, sleep disorders are all things grad students need to be aware of.
  • Need effective balancing of project scheduling and time apportionment for courses vs AI's and research.
  • Mental health is a non-trivial issue: stress, overwork, lack of sleep, uncertainty of success in research - are hard on you. There is no dishonor in getting help -- be aware that all of us have had our share of problems. IU has an excellent and confidential mental health organization that you should not hesitate to consult.
  • Spouses and significant others: frequent source of yet more stress if a partner doesn't understand or buy in to the grad student work ethic; things go smoother if you clearly understand and agree on the pressures and sacrifices that the research ethic often demands. -- Many faculty, and presumably many of you, will eventually meet the "two body problem" - trying to get satisfactory jobs for two people in the same place at the same time. No easy answers...
  • None of us is perfect: work with other grad students and organizations for constructive feedback if you have the energy, rather than being silently angry about "the dept did this or that to you." We're stressed and overworked, too, but we do try to help find solutions when we are made aware of a problem.
  • Resources: optometry school, university health service, international services has special experience with international students' problems.
• Reading: How to read and benefit from technical articles. "Reading a paper" is DIFFERENT from "reading a best-seller!" -> if you cannot explain the main points to someone else, you're not done yet. How to organize a literature search (get most recent review article, scan backwards, skim, then read-to-teach). Homework: read sample article, explain it to your neighbor.
• Writing: Emacs, Latex, drawing, graphing, image, and figure packages. General guidelines and procedures for technical writing. Books and resources.
• Latex Resources: Look here for information about LaTeX. The example files have been downloaded and can be examined here.
• Software. Can one learn structured code organization, formatting, interaction, debugging methods? Do some sample code as a homework exercise?
• Proposals: Writing proposals. funding sources. Proposal styles and restrictions. Boilerplate. Budgets.
• Research Areas: Research area summaries from guest speakers. Potential speakers include:

  Graphics: Hanson, McMullen, McRobbie, Dillon
  Logic: Leivant, BC Smith, Barwise, Dunn, Moss, Allwein
  Theory: Purdom, Rawlins, Wise
  Scientific Computation: Bramley
  Parallel Computing: Gannon
  Programming Languages: Friedman, Dybvig, Haynes, Liu
  Hardware: Johnson, Prosser, Mills
  AI: Gasser, Leake, Port, BC Smith, Hofstadter
  Systems: Stoller
  Databases: van Gucht, Robertson
  

Bibliography: Back to top.

• Nicholas J. Higham: Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences, SIAM Press 1993. ISBN 0-89871-314-5. $25.00
• David F. Griffiths and Desmond J. Higham: Learning LaTeX, SIAM Press 1997. ISBN 0-89871-383-8. $15.50. Download examples.
• Leslie Lamport: Latex User's Guide, Addison-Wesley 1994. ISBN 0-201-52983-1
• Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach, and Alexander Samarin: Latex Companion, Addison-Wesley
• For a WYSIWYG TeX interface, see the LyX system.

• Peter J. Feibelman: "A Ph.D. is Not Enough! A Guide to Survival in Science." Addison-Wesley 1993.
• Richard Reis: "Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering." IEEE Press 1997.

  TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR looks at the full range of North American four-year academic institutions while featuring some 30 vignettes and over 50 other individual stories that bring to life the principles and strategies outlined in the book. See http://cis.stanford.edu/structure/tomorrowprof.html.

  IEEE PRESS: May 1997/Softcover/400pp
  List Price: $39.95
  Member Price: $35.00
  IEEE Order No. PP5602-QCL
  ISBN 0-7803-1136-1
  

Survival Skills and Ethics Workshop Outlines (from Univ. of Pittsburgh); the workshop page is accompanied by a large Bibliography of references useful to a grad student concerned about these issues, including some books on teaching if English is your second language.

How to be a successful grad student (from CMU): "A Survival Manual."

"How To Be A Good Graduate Student" has all sorts of pointers on how you should be spending your time as a grad student, including special advice for women.

Local Indiana grad students have their own contributions to these questions. See Tom Loos's parting comments, and some pointers to similar material, "What Every Graduate Student Should Know," assembled by previous CS graduate students.