0.10 Expectations, guidelines, and keys to success for phd students  (Page 3/4)

Finally, it is a requirement to take and attend the departmental seminar every semester as a graduate student in our department. If you have needs to enhance oral or written communication skills in English, you should find ways to strengthen these. This includes thesis or technical writing courses, evening or leisure classes at Rice, etc. Most students in my group will be asked to explore such supplemental courses as Jan Hewitt’s technical writing course to enhance your paper and thesis writing.

Research

Research is the core of the Ph.D. experience, culminating in a dissertation that should represent an original and substantive contribution to your field. The following tips should put you on a path toward successful graduate research and outline some of my expectations for you:

• Publications – Peer reviewed publications are the primary method of disseminating the results of our research, and quite frankly are a common metric of progress and success in academia. Quality publications are your principal means of establishing yourself and your contributions as an engineer, researcher, and scholar. You can expect that this is not only an important expectation for successful completion of your program and progress in my research group, but that a strong track record of publications will be essential in future job searches. Hence as a rough guideline I expect you to publish or submit at least 3-5 high quality papers in peer reviewed journals prior to the scheduling of your defense. You will be expected to regularly write papers for relevant conferences to help form the foundation for effective communication of your work and facilitate expanded journal publications.
• Dissertation – The dissertation is the legacy that you leave upon completion of your Ph.D. program. It should follow very smoothly upon completion of your journal papers. Many of them will comprise the core chapters of your dissertation. However, it is noted that you can expect to conduct research and potentially publish papers that do not constitute core dissertation research. This will provide some varied exposure, diversity of experience, and the opportunity to build a strong resume.
• Research Content – Much of your research may be tied to and is in support of funded grants awarded to our group and potentially supporting your assistantship. Additionally, you may expect to work on several different projects throughout the course of your Ph.D., some directly related to your core dissertation work, and others that provide varied exposure to complementary topics. You will be responsible for conducting this work under my guidance and documenting research progress, including the opportunity to interact with our sponsors. While we must fulfill the obligations of these grants, this is not intended to limit your scope, creativity, or pursuit of advanced topics beyond our project scope. In fact, some of the most novel and unique work may be inspired by questions arising out of other projects. I encourage you to think outside the box and raise these ideas for pursuits in our discussions!

• Reading – It will be essential that you continually read to stay abreast of our field in scientific journals as well as conference proceedings, reports, monographs, etc. One of the best ways to prepare for writing quality journal articles is through reading and critical assessment of other papers. You should embrace both historic papers in our field relevant to your work, as well as the most recent work published by other groups. This will help you to avoid duplication, see what has worked and what hasn’t, identify effective writing styles, develop ideas for follow up study, identify current gaps in knowledge, and develop new creative ideas for addressing problems. Hence don’t be afraid to also read tangential papers from different fields to consider novel application of new methods to our problems.

  I expect you to develop and maintain an electronic library of references, with notes and citations in EndNote, to facilitate sharing amongst our group. While you should conduct a very thorough literature review early on (i.e. semester 1), continual reading is a must. You should sign up where possible to receive email notification of tables of contents, and regularly search the library or proceedings to identify new sources. Consider such quality journals in our field as ASCE’s Journals (Bridge Engineering, Structural Engineering, Infrastructure Systems), Earthquake Journals (Earthquake Spectra, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics), Structural Control and Health Monitoring, Smart Materials and Structures, Engineering Structures, Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, Structural Safety, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, etc. The Fondren Library provides good support and a great source of information, so please utilize this resource.

• Conferences and Professional Development – Beginning in your first semester I expect you to participate in writing conference papers, either on ongoing or group research. This will help to develop your technical writing skills, which will be beneficial for conference or journal papers you lead author. Additionally, many of these conference papers will serve as a jumping point for more advanced journal papers. You can expect to attend approximately one or more conferences, professional society meetings, or workshops per year. Let me know if you hear of a conference that you are particularly interested in where you might be able to present a paper or poster. Conferences are very important events that enable you to share your work with the community, meet other leading scholars in our field, develop a community of graduate student peers around the world working in similar topics, stay abreast of the latest research and learn from others, network and meet potential collaborators, our research sponsors, and future employers. I expect that for those conferences that you attend, you will participate in and fully attend all of the events to make the most of your opportunities at the conference. Additionally, I am committed to helping you further develop your skills through other venues. We will work to identify other professional development activities that may be beneficial, or outside support to attend related events. For example, pre-conference workshops, OpenSees or software workshops, campus development activities such as thesis or technical writing session, etc.