1st acceptance

2 days after receiving my 1st rejection letter from the journal in March, I received an acceptance letter with nice reviews from a conference for the same paper. Accepted for presentation. A few days ago, I was notified that the paper will go into the conference's Best Paper proceedings.

Not too bad for a 1st year summer, I guess...

A post-3rd-semester recap...

I've just completed my 3rd semester in Dec 2008, and now finishing up with the 4th semester (i.e. 2nd year).

Significant milestones:

1. Cleared my qualifiers in Jan. 4 long exams in a week (Two 12-hour papers, two 4-hour papers, and 1 full day of pre-reading for 1 of the paper.) My initial plan was to start preparing for the qualifiers in Oct. However due to an urgent research project, I could only really do the readings in mid-Dec. I think I read about 120 papers - that's like 3600 pages. I seriously don't know how I did all these readings...

By God's grace, I managed to clear the qualifiers successfully. If I were to do this again (and thankfully I don't have to), I would really try to prepare much earlier. 

2. Submitted a paper to a journal in Jan....

And it just got rejected. We (the other co-authors and I) received a 2-page assessment on a paper that represents 10-months of toil. I always wonder how it would be like to read a rejection letter. Now I know. And I'm beginning to wonder how it would be like to read an acceptance letter.

So basically I'm done with coursework (although I will continue to do more....). And I just have to focus on research and more research. Trying to get a project started for this summer. Hopefully that will work out well.

Useful Things to Know About Ph. D. Thesis Research

Quick notes on thesis writing.

Writing tips for PhD students

An interesting read by John Cochrane.

If I were to redo the 1st year....

Just thinking of what would I have done differently for the 1st year in the program.

1) Use a bibliography software from Day 1. Use it to record each of the readings that I have done. The abstract, theories, hypotheses/propositions, results & findings, AND comments and thoughts. I think this would be very useful when preparing for qualifiers. (Sadly I only started to use it towards the end of the 1st year.)

I heard of people using Endnote. Since I'm a poor grad student, I have looked for some free solutions. One is a web-based, basic bibliography system at www.gradjournal.com. Another is a freeware application JabRef. Take your pick.

2) Get involved in some research groups. Keep myself busy with a two or three group and/or individual projects in hand...

3) For every research idea that I have, I would bounce it with one or two profs early. Research ideas evolve, and time and expertise are of essence. Share with the profs the idea, get their opinions, read more, and fine tune the model, and the cycle continues.

Summer research project

I'm working on a summer research project, as part of the requirement for PhD program. Very early this year (like in the 1st week of Jan), I managed to connect with a company that was (and, I hope, is still) interested to work on a project together. However, the communication with that contact person was kind of slow... due to his workload, he would take couple of days, sometimes weeks, to respond to my email, etc. Nevertheless, there was some (slow) progress.

My plan was to collect the data through the company during the summer - by June, but not later than July. Give myself 2 good months to do data analysis. A shocker came in late May, just after my final exams, that person whom I have been talking to over the last 5 months was leaving the company. Given that he was my only point of contact in the company, I had to quickly find someone else to liaise with. It took two long weeks of silence before I received the confirmation from the company, that the project would proceed. The communication with the new contact person was going pretty well, and I thought we can do a pre-test in early July (slightly later than my initial plan).

But somehow during the last two weeks (late June), things kind of slow down once again. Early July is now here, but we are still a few steps away from a pre-test. Hopefully, we can pick up steam over the next 2 weeks... 

So many  ups and downs, so many factors beyond one's control and influence. I have learnt two things through the various periods of waiting. First, always be hopeful. During the 2 weeks of silence in early June (when my 1st contact left, and before the 2nd contact responded), I was stubbornly hopeful that the project would go on. In fact, my advisers were kind of concerned about the possibility of doing the study with the company, and suggested that I think of alternatives. My first response was that I would not give up until I hear a definite "no" from the company. I continued to work on the ideas, etc., albeit at a slower pace.

Second, silence presents opportunities. Even before my advisers asked me to think of alternatives, I already had some thoughts on how else I could get the data, or what else I could examine. The time of waiting allowed me to put more thoughts to develop these ideas, which are possible projects for the future. Also, during the last two weeks, as things slowed down, I managed to enhance the data collection procedure. Had the pre-test have gone on as planned, I might not have been able to realize some possible blind-spots or work on them. Even during the early part of the year, because the communication with the first contact was kind of slow, I had the opportunity to fine-tune my ideas - so much so that the model I have now is quite different from the one then. 

Just some learning points, that perhaps could be useful in the situation that you are in. Disclaimer: being stubbornly hopeful involves risks... so calculate your risks properly. 

End of Year 1 (unofficially)

A quick review/reflection. Grade-wise, there is a disappointment for one of the early modules that I've taken. For the other modules (for which the grades have been returned), I guess I did quite alright. Research-wise, I'm kind of focusing on one particular project. Getting some help from some of the profs, but I'm really in the driver's seat. Still ding-donging with the data source - hopefully the data collect can start soon. (Anyway, I'm working on a paper that I was doing last year before the start of the program with another prof. Hoping to get it into a special issue.)

It is kind of pressurizing when you see your colleagues embarking on multiple projects, submitting papers to conferences (and getting accepted) , presenting initial results of data that has been collected - and you don't have much to show expect for a research proposal. Is it a matter of one not working hard enough, not networking wide enough, or not being proactive enough?

Anyway, still have an exams to take (next week).... Hope that my project will bear some fruits during the summer.