Dr. P J Narayanan Advice to research students

       "But, I have been a student all my life ..."
       or
    Informal Advice to Research Students

       P J Narayanan, IIIT Hyderabad
       April 19,  2005

Congratulations on becoming a research student and choosing a path of
enquiry. You were a serious and studious undergraduate or bachelors
student just yesterday. Since you continue to be a student -- and in
some cases in the same institution -- life can't be all that different,
can it? Turns out it is!

The emphasis in undergraduate education is on comprehending the concepts
and developing the necessary skills in a broad area.  A course had
fairly well-defined syllabus and contents. Examinations and assignments
contained questions to which answers existed and were known to the
professor. There was only a little -- if any -- of tricky components to
the courses. The emphasis was on learning to a certain level; effort
usually guaranteed learning. Those who had the opportunity to go through
the research-focussed honours programme during the bachelors may have
had glimpses of deviations from the above model: glimpses into the
research-land!

The world changes when you become a research student. The problems are
neither well-defined nor necessarily solvable. The professor may know
only a little more than you about the specific problem. S/he often knows
less. The emphasis is not on achieving the defined levels of learning.
The goals are to understand the intricacies of the topic through an
enquiry into the various aspects of the given problem. The method of
enquiry is as important as its results.

Thus, finding a solution to the problem is not the end of matters
anymore. Finding better solutions than existing ones assumes critical
importance. Sometimes, establishing that a satisfactory solution does
NOT exist can be a more significant result. The question is no longer
one of finding a solution to the problem, but one of understanding the
associated issues, techniques, and solutions to master the problem
landscape. Your work does not stop at finding a solution to your
problem. Rather, it begins then. The enquiry is into the structure of
the problem (and the solution) and constraints thereof. That often
begins after one has a solution already.

So, what does it mean in terms of what one does every day? While it is
impossible to give a definitive manual on how to do research, there are
certain points worth reminding yourself continuously.

 - Have goals: Have (vague) goals for the next year, (reasonable) goals
 for the next month, and (very lucid) goals for the next day!
 This is easier said than done. Many of us are in an exact
 opposite situation. We have lucid goals about next year ("get
 the best paper award from IEEE") but only hazy ideas on what
 needs to be done today to reach there.

 Plan your time properly based on what you need to do. Do work 24
 hours when a paper deadline is around, but don't wait for them
 to psyche you into action. Your own goals should drive you
 steadily under peacetime conditions. It will not suffice to work
 VERY hard a week or a month before the thesis submission
 deadline (unlike what you did with exams or projects in your
 undergraduate days).

 - Immerse in your work: Tentativeness or inattentiveness is highly
 lethal to a successful research career. When you are into a
 problem, live it! Breathe it! Be disturbed by suboptimal aspects
 of it.

 Many students think of their research problem in the few minutes
 they may get between emails, chat sessions, tea-breaks, and
 general other "important" activities. This will lead you
 nowhere.  Five or six hours of concentrated work per day is more
 than sufficient if you are living and breathing research.
 Without that, 24 hours per day "spent" on research are unlikely
 to yield anything.

 This is where many students falter. They do spend enormous
 amounts of time in the lab, with a paper or program in front,
 and mistake that to be time spent on the research. No, sir.
 Quality time without distractions is absolutely necessary for
 research.  The goal is not merely to comprehend something or
 explain it in an exam any more. Deep understanding is the goald
 during research.

 - Look around: Pay attention to all aspects of the path you take.  This
 means, read and analyze every aspect of papers you read.  It may
 be sufficient to have a vague notion of a method used (e.g.,
 merge-sort algorithm or least-squares technique) to understand
 the main concept of a work. And that is the right approach for
 the first reading. You should come back and understand all
 nuances of the algorithm or the technique subsequently. To
 marvel at its mere beauty, perhaps. To realize it is not the
 right fit for *your* problem, often. No stone on the way should
 be left unturned by you.

 - Question everything: Marvel at everything you hear on the outside.
 Doubt everything you hear deep down! Nothing is sacred and there
 is nothing like a stupid question. Question each step. Argue
 against it. Find better options. Once you have found better
 options on your problem, doubt yourself deeply! Recurse in this
 manner till the right solution is found.  That is the way of
 research. Remember, your goal is not to solve a specific problem
 but to master the problem landscape.

 - Discuss: Share your ideas, doubts, anguishes, etc., with others
 including your advisor, other faculty members, folks from your
 area/lab, folks from other areas/labs, your dog, whoever!
 Others may give you good advice or may reflect your own ideas
 back to you, only for you to realize their worth/folly. The mere
 act of explaining your problem can (and often does) result in
 you finding the solution yourself. Explaining the problem to
 yourself can be tried but explaining it to others is likely to
 be more effective.

 Again, the difference with UG education is significant. A course
 project was given to you with the idea of you submitting it when
 done. No advisor gives you a research problem expecting you to
 solve it completely before seeing him/her again. In fact, trying
 this is a sure way to get onto the advisor's bad books.
 Advisors expect you to understand different aspects of the
 problem by reading, thinking, discussing about it; s/he expects
 you to present your understanding to him/her periodically. The
 advisor may even learn a thing or two in the process and that is
 quite frankly the reason to have research students.

 - Write: Put your ideas, theorems, algorithms, thoughts etc., down on
 paper.  They may only be a few vague points and not a
 full-fledged paper with introduction, background, and
 references. Writing the ideas systematically is the best way to
 relate them to other ideas, to expose the holes in them, and to
 recognize their true potential. Share what you write with others
 near and far.

 - Record and Summarize: Keep copies of the papers you read. Collate
 them based on the topic or techniques and keep them bound with a
 table of contents! Mothing is more frustrating than the feeling
 that you read "something like this somewhere" recently.  In
 fact, summarize the papers you read in your own words into a
 notebook. (Choose a fat one for it!) Summarize in words,
 summarize the formulae, the techniques, and the references!
 Don't be afraid to let the summary be longer than the paper
 itself. You understand an idea best when you write it down
 yourself in *your own* words.

 It is a great idea to keep notes on your own research thoughts
 and how they progressed. Detailed notes and not just keywords.
 You may revisit them one day and will find your own notes very
 handy. The IPR-evangelists will also tell you that the lab notes
 and discussion notes can be used legally to establish the
 ownership of ideas, should they be questioned.

 - Have diversions: Go away from your work often enough. This does not
 contradict the point on immersion. Have serious hobbies and
 interests. Learn to play a musical instrument. Sing, dance. Tire
 yourself hiking in the hills, Swim to exhaustion. Read
 philosophy, literature, biography, humour. Take your mind
 completely off your work for sometime. A refreshed and relaxed
 mind can produce truly innovative ideas.

 No time is as suitable to develop other interests and hobbies as
 the time spent on research, especially on a PhD.  Repeating an
 year in bachelors or lower classes attract a lot of
 attention. ("So you failed?") Taking an year extra for PhD will
 hardly be noticed.  (Nobody really knows what one does while one
 does a PhD anyway.  Those who do can be convinced that your
 thesis got a lot stronger in that one year!) Doesn't this golden
 opportunity invite exploiting?

 - Have faith: If all the talk about research sounds like magic, nothing
 can be further from the truth. Research is, in the end and for
 most people, about discipline, aptitude, and hard work. It is
 most wrong to think that a bright idea will strike you one day
 and then your thesis will be done. DON"T sit under a apple/mango
 trees with ripe, ready-to-fall fruits and expect to rewrite the
 theory of gravity! You will only have an injured head!

 Research thesis is not about a bulb lighting up in your head one
 fine day.  It is about building the necessary background
 painstakingly, identifying a problem, and working at it with
 devotion.  It is not about being super "brainy" or super
 "genious".  In fact, "ordinary" brains and systematic work can
 produce much better theses than "super" brains and low effort.


These are some of my suggestions for a bright research career. Think of
your research as a deep enquiry into an area. Question continuously.
Hard work will always be rewarded. Smart work will be rewarded
immediately.

What should one do from today, based on the above -- what can be
described as -- principles? Some of it could be:

 * Have a time-table. Fix the time at which you reach the lab, when you
 to take breaks, when to have lunch, play, eat, sleep, etc. This
 really helps. Completely "flexible" timing is a great recipe for
 disaster. Set a time table and start following it *today*. Don't
 put it off for tomorrow!

 * Manage your time well. Have priorities for different activities and
 allocate your time on its basis. This idea is exceedingly
 simple, but one that is perhaps hardest to implement.  You won't
 get anywhere in life without learning the act of time
 management, prioritization, and learning to say no to things
 that you spent time on till yesterday, you still enjoy, but is
 placed low on your priorities today.

 * Setup time to speak to others. Make it a habit to discuss your
 difficulties with others and help out theirs! Setup Special
 Interest Groups in narrow or broad topics and thrash things out
 among yourselves. You will be amazed how much you can teach
 others and others can teach you.

 * Never let the ball stay in your court for long. Work hard on the
 problem you have and get back to the advisor or colleagues or
 whoever. Continue to think about it and don't remove it from
 your thinking ever, but put pressure on others to solve your
 problem. Let the world provide solution to your problem; you
 only have to improve on it slightly at the end.

You can easily see that these points are not specifically addressed
towards research. They are golden habits that will take you ahead,
whatever it is that you do.

Research is highly rewarding, if you get through all of the above!  You
have the opportunity to choose your own problems and work your heart out
on them! You will have the thrill of creating: Be it theorems, machines,
products, solutions! You may experience the thrill of penury too
:-). But no longer. Few other jobs will leave you smiling in spite of
working 20 hours each day. This is a great time to be engaged in
IT-related research in India.

I wish you all joyous and productive research careers!

Rohit(CSTAR)

Details

Name: Rohit
Research Experience(years): 5
Lab: CSTAR
Occupation: Student
Professor: Dr. Kannan Srinathan
Area of Interests: Human in the loop systems, usable security, playful experiences
Link to your homepage or blog: http://rohitashokkhot.com

Motivation to pursue research

What was your intention or motivation to join a research program before you joined IIIT H? Interest,Aim and Purpose that made you pursue research program.

Honestly, I did not come to IIIT-H, thinking that I will be doing research. My interests were different. All I wanted was to be a security specialist, may be a hacker or a cryptographer. But soon after interacting with my guide, Kannan sir in the first semester class on "mathematical foundation", I started appreciating research and its my bed and butter since then.

How did you feel in your first semester when you have to select a lab and decide under which Prof. you have to work?

I was initially a Mtech student and in the first semester I enrolled for the mathematical foundation class, taught by Kannan sir. I loved the way he taught that course which goes beyond the textbook. The class used to start at 8 and often used to extend till 11 or 12. I felt very inspired by his thoughts and approach to life. All I wanted that time was to spend more time with him, which could only be possible if I was a MS student. So I asked him whether he would like to take me as a ms student. I did not wanted to do research under anyone else. to my surprise, he said yes without even asking anything and my research journey started. :)

What was your motivation behind staying in Academics rather than joining industry ?
In your opinion,what are the major differences between academics and industry?
Risk and creative freedom is only available in Academics.

What was your motivation behind pursuing Ph.d?
to challenge my creative capabilities.

Thesis

How did you choose your thesis area?And why did you choose that particular area?
Its long story...
In short, happened by chance... I am an avid reader... I read and take inspiration from variety of sources, which often goes beyond your study subject..
I started my research with a core distributed computing problem: Secure multiparty computation"... I finally landed up doing thesis in the areas of usable security and human computation.
I enjoy working on the human in loop systems, I particularly love designing secure systems that people can easily use. I am also keenly interested in exploring entertaining ways of human participation in solving computationally hard problems.

How did you narrow down to your search(for your thesis problem)to one particular problem?
I believe plans generally do not work in research.
You often start with something... and end up doing something else.
I would advise keeping options open, read a lot, not just whats happening in your research area (which you have to do anyway). Look for inspiration.

How was your experience w.r.t paper (or thesis) writing and do have any tips that will make paper (or thesis) writing process an easy one?

I still feel writing is the most creative yet difficult task. One needs practice as well as passion to master it successfully.

I would advice use the technique followed many good universities around. It is called "shut up and write"
http://thesiswhisperer.com/2011/06/14/shut-up-and-write/

read rest of the posts too... really nice blog..

Suggestions to existing research students at IIIT H

What do you suggest for newly joined research students with regard to choosing lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?What should students consider while choosing a lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?
First define and realize what are your passions.
I still think research is a personal business...
An adviser or a lab can only motivate you, they cannot spoon feed research...
You must be self motivated...
The lab and the adviser comes secondary.
But having good adviser as well as the labmates help, but it is not necessary...
In Kannan sir's word:
"A PhD student should meet his guide only twice.. first at the time of enrollment into PhD and second at the time of submission of thesis"

Does regular writing of your ideas and your understanding of a concept (or a research paper) in own words help? If yes how?
Yes.
Read and follow this (Reposting it again)
http://thesiswhisperer.com/2011/06/14/shut-up-and-write/

What practices would you suggest for young research students at IIIT H?
Read, think and have faith (a lot in yourself)
and have idols... find inspirations in the world that is around you that will inspire you to do something that you truly love...whatever you are doing is whether its path breaking or not will come later, first you must be fully immersed into it and love what you do.

How to resolve dilemma of either going for Ph.d or job? When a MS by research or dual degree is about finsih his programme?
Again listen to your heart (not mind)...have a lot faith in yourself and your decisions... people make mistakes but in the end everything turns out to be good... don't regret your decisions... because that is what you desperately wanted at one moment of time.

View about research at IIITH

What should be improved with regard to research culture at IIIT H ?Do suggest any change in structure of MS or Ph.d program?Why?

Anything which you felt lacking in research culture at IIITH while you were pursuing your research !!!!

Despite being a Research focused university, many things are still governed and favored to undergraduate education. It surprises me a lot, there are not awards or medals for ms students. You give gold medals, baniyan awards to UG students... MS students should also get some recognition... IIIT should highlight the research achievements... sometimes these small perks, a pat on the back matters a lot, and also help to inspire junior to follow research...

Secondly, research students have to struggle a lot to get travel grants and well as stipend... Things on the administrative side can be little more smoother so that one can fully concentrate on doing world class research and not have to worry about anything else.

In your opinion, how does environment at IIIT H helps an individual in pursuing research? Anything like freedom do it your own way, weather, green campus, …
friendly environment and world class faculty.

How does research program at IIIT H helped in your overall growth as a responsible person(or citizen) of society(or India)?

Program did not help me much, but my adviser did. I am a big fan of Kannan sir and his thinking, and I am thankful to IIIT-H for giving me the chance to spend little time with him.

Centre

How was your overall experience w.r.t work culture of your centre?
OK, I wish the administrative side could have been more transparent and smoother.

Does discussions with fellow researchers in same centre helps? How does it help?
Importance of discussions with fellow researchers !!

Yes. Discussion always help, even if the person is not an expert in your area.

He adds the different and fresh perspective.

Final Comments

Please quote us your favourite tagline which let you 'get going'?
"woh sikandar hi doston kehlata hain.. haari baazi ko jeetana jisse aata hain "
- from the movie "Jo jeeta wahi sikandar"

"Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest of forms"
- Sir Arthur cannon doyle.

Please add anything like comments,suggestions or anything you like to share,which did not get included in the questionnaire !!!
I believe, instead of the text post, you can have video interviews. and post them here.
Videos looks more authentic, takes less time, and does not give you the opportunity to edit what you just said :)

Akshat(SIEL)

Details

Name: Akshat Bakliwal
Research Experience(years): 2
Lab: SIEL
Occupation: Research Scholar
Professor: Prof. Vasudeva Varma
Area of Interests: Endless :D, Search Technologies, Web Text Mining and Analysis, Sentiment and Opinion Mining, Cloud and Virtualization, Information Retrieval
Email Id: akshat.bakliwal@research.iiit.ac.in
Link to your homepage or blog: http://akshatbakliwal.in

Motivation to pursue research

What was your intention or motivation to join a research program before you joined IIIT H? Interest,Aim and Purpose that made you pursue research program.

Well, At the beginning I had no Interest in Research. Was forcefully kept in Dual Degree program and was dreaming that it was BTech + MTech. On the orientation day came to know that It was MS by Research and Not MTech.

Now that I was in Research, I had no option to change. But gradually with time, I learned and got interested in research rather than normal BTech (SE) kind of thing.

During my BTech phase, I came across many things and thought that they could be fascinating for research and could contribute back to the society.

How did you feel in your first semester when you have to select a lab and decide under which Prof. you have to work?

Being a Dual Degree candidate, I had to select lab in my 5th semester, although it is not a compulsion but many of our seniors did this and recommend to select in 5th sem so that we can finish our Degree in 5 years. And my journey to SIEL is very very Interesting. I'll describe the journey later.

What was your motivation behind staying in Academics rather than joining industry ?
In your opinion,what are the major differences between academics and industry?
Well, I haven't tasted the industry yet and As mentioned earlier, I was a forceful entry into research. But gradually with time, I like this idea of research. It gives you freedom to work and most of the times without deadlines. ;)

What was your motivation behind pursuing Ph.d?
I am yet confused between Phd or Job.
On one hand, I think I have the whole life in my hands and Anyways would be working with some or the other company or academia. So, let continue the research as Phd.
On the other hand, I am scared about finishing it. If I couldn't finish it in time, the whole future which is in my hands would be trembling from my hands on the floor. :(

Thesis

How did you choose your thesis area?And why did you choose that particular area?

During my Grade (Class) 11, My computer was struck by a stupid virus and I lost all my data (movies, and music :D) while recovering. Since than I was like thinking that one day I will develop my own antivirus system. My journey in research started with CSTAR (lasted only 3-4 weeks). I meet Dr. Kannan Srinathan and explained him about my interest. He suggest me a Book on Cryptography and asked me to finish in a month and come back to discuss. I never returned back to him. :D

Then can contacted Rawat Sir. and started working on IPv6 and Its implementation in IIIT. This lasted for about 4-5 Months. During my 5th sem I took a course 'Introduction to Cloud Computing'. By the end of the course, I dreamt myself working in Cloud Computing rather than IPv6 for IIIT. Soon in mid of Sem 6, I switched from Rawat sir to Dr. Vasudeva Varma under Cloud Computing. I started working with an Adjunct Facult, Reddyraja A. from Pramati Technologies for this period. Reddy sir suggested me a problem on which I started working. This problem involved some concepts of IR and Cloud. While working on this problem, I unknowingly shifted to IR and left cloud computing way behind.

Thus, I am finally working in IR and specialization in Sentiment Analysis. This journey of 3 Labs and 4 Guides have taught me many things. Don't have a prejudice about any lab or area of research. Keep yourself open to problems and choose which finally makes you feel the best and grabs your interest the most.

How did you narrow down to your search(for your thesis problem)to one particular problem?
The whole story is explained above. As far as narrowing down to research area (thesis problem) is concerned. I finalized this after getting my publication, which was me IRE course project. After getting the first paper, I was kind of relaxed that If I continue in this area (sentiment analysis and Opinion Mining) I would be able to finish off my degree sometime.

How was your experience w.r.t paper (or thesis) writing and do have any tips that will make paper (or thesis) writing process an easy one?

My first experience was very bad. In the reviews, we got comments like the work is good but need a whole lot of effort on writing skills.

One should not write a research article in normal dialect English and at the same time not like Shakespeare. Your English must be well formed and professional. Less use of slangs or abbreviations. It should be easy to understand.

Another Important point, be to the point. You are writing a research article and not a Novel. Don't go about explaining certain standards in detail.

Most important: Run a spell checker before submitting an article :D .

Suggestions to existing research students at IIIT H

What do you suggest for newly joined research students with regard to choosing lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?What should students consider while choosing a lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?

I support Deepti's point for this. Don't go blindly on your Btech interest. Explore each area with some basic lab introductory courses. Talk to the people working in the labs, do a literature survey.

Tip: Take a new Notebook, Divide the book into 4-5 sections (one for each lab) and while doing literature survey, write down some things like what you like in that, what you think can be improved or some new research challenge which you think can be implemented. Based on this small survey of your's select the lab. and Consult the Lab HOD for the basic information on how things happen and go in that lab.

Does regular writing of your ideas and your understanding of a concept (or a research paper) in own words help? If yes how?

Yes. This is a very important practice for a good researcher.

This helps you understand the shortcomings of previous research, and somethings gives your ideas on how to work.
At many places, you would be committing the same mistake as some one did in the past. Reading them and noting them will help not commit the same crime (mistake) again.

"It is better to learn from others mistake rather than committing them yourself and learning. This life is very short to re-commit mistakes."

What practices would you suggest for young research students at IIIT H?
Read !! Read !! Read !!

List most important conferences and journals of your area. Download the proceedings for last 5-7 years and read them in chronological order. This practice will help you understand how things have evolved. and give you more directions towards your research interest.

How to resolve dilemma of either going for Ph.d or job? When a MS by research or dual degree is about finish his programme?
I think Nikhil Suggested an interesting strategy. In my opinion, you must do a small exercise.

Take a Big sheet of clean white paper. Make 4 Columns Phd + , Phd -, Job +, Job -.
Write everything which comes to your mind for each of these topics in appropriate columns. Do this exercise for 2 days (preferably non consecutive). Compare the two sheets and see which suits you well. This way you will have a justification, to what you are choosing for your future.

View about research at IIITH

What should be improved with regard to research culture at IIIT H ?Do suggest any change in structure of MS or Ph.d program?Why?
Anything which you felt lacking in research culture at IIITH while you were pursuing your research !!!!
In my opinion, IIIT H has to go a long way to improve the research culture.
1. Encourage Inter Lab interactions. People in CDE and SIEL are working on almost similar problems and they don't know about this.
2. Group Reading. especially for fresher men. Pick a set of research papers and have a group reading followed by intensive discussion on them. This helps you understand the problem and also clear some things which you might have missed.
3. Work in collaboration. Work with someone, friend, labmate, senior, Phd Candidate, etc. When you work alone you sometime loss after on repeated failing. The other member can help you motivate. Secondly, our mind restricts to think in one direction. Most of the times, Two minds are better then one.

In your opinion, how does environment at IIIT H helps an individual in pursuing research? Anything like freedom do it your own way, weather, green campus, …
Environment in IIIT H has both effects.
You can people working 24*7 and still lagging; and people working 7-8 hours a day and excelling in their area.
You get freedom to work, 24*7 access to labs and resources and probably because of which you tend to become less social and labholic.

Learn to manage time and do give atleast 1-2 hrs a day for yourself.


How does research program at IIIT H helped in your overall growth as a responsible person(or citizen) of society(or India)?

Research Program at IIIT H opened a New horizon in front of me. It helped me develop my thinking skills. Before coming here I never knew what research is and always thought of computer engineering as software engineering.

Centre

How was your overall experience w.r.t work culture of your centre?

In SIEL, work culture is great but this doesn't mean there is no scope of improvement. I think Dr. Varma is great and he help everybody with this research abilities. Lab mates are equally superb and talented. There were many situations where as many as 7-8 members of the lab entered into some fruitful discussions.

But the culture if work alcoholic (24*7), we can improve on this part.

Does discussions with fellow researchers in same centre helps? How does it help?
Importance of discussions with fellow researchers !!
Yes !! It gives you new directions and insights to think on. Helps you approach your problem in a better (sometimes multiple) ways. Helps you learn the pitfalls of your approach.

Final Comments

Please quote us your favourite tagline which let you 'get going'?
Live, Explore, Enjoy !!
I always believed my Research will take me to many places, where I can explore and interact with new people and Enjoy my life.

Don't be workholics. Working more doesn't mean working constructive. Work Constructive.

Anand Mishra(CVIT)

Details

Name: Anand Mishra
Research Experience(years):  3 1/2
Lab: CVIT
Occupation: Phd Student
Professor: Prof. Jawahar
Area of Interests: Computer Vision, Probabilistic models
Email Id: anand.mishra@research.iiit.ac.in
Link to your homepage or blog: http://researchweb.iiit.ac.in/~anand.mishra/

Motivation to pursue research

What was your intention or motivation to join a research program before you joined IIIT H? Interest,Aim and Purpose that made you pursue research program.

I am not among those who have big ambitions. I neither dream of solving a big problems nor of achieving something extra-ordinary in my career. I believe in a day to day progress. The progress to achieve the perfection in the work. the progress to learn something new, the progress to become a better person, the progress to understand the infinity. Since I am decided to do be in computer science, the best I can do was to join a research program. Fortunately, this motivation and intention does not change even today.

How did you feel in your first semester when you have to select a lab and decide under which Prof. you have to work?

I was very much sure with whom I am going to work and the "very" broad area before joining IIIT-H. This is more like an arrange marriage where you choose your spouse without having more interactions.

(My most of the decisions are like that, probably I don't spend much time on such decisions). The interest in visual data understanding came during my M.Tech. at BIT Mesra when I worked on some toy image processing/pattern recognition problems.


What was your motivation behind staying in Academics rather than joining industry ?
In your opinion,what are the major differences between academics and industry?

Academia gives freedom in thinking, innovating, and initiating. You can be a leader who can inspire many young talents to do good by your discipline and hard work. Isn't it a great motivation? Also, Its the academia which gives you freedom of learning in a pace and the way you wish.

What was your motivation behind pursuing Ph.d?

Want to truly understand concepts, understand the limitations and feel the infinity. Moreover, I wish to make career in academia. Thus the best I can do is to join PhD and enhance my skills for academia.

Thesis

How did you choose your thesis area?And why did you choose that particular area?

Thesis related questions are quite specific to individuals, thus tough to answer.

How was your experience w.r.t paper (or thesis) writing and do have any tips that will make paper (or thesis) writing process an easy one?

(1) Break down the task of writing full papers into sections, subsection, paragraphs and sentences.

(2) Write the skeleton, with dummy blocks for table, graph etc well before 20 days of submission
(3) Do not wait till you get all the results
(4) Revise the papers as many time as you can.

Suggestions to existing research students at IIIT H

What do you suggest for newly joined research students with regard to choosing lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?What should students consider while choosing a lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?

I will not ask new students to work too much on what you like. Since I believe its silly. You can ask yourself do you like DBMS, networks, algorithms, or wish to work on Pattern Recognition related work etc. Based on your answer you can decide lab. Then you should talk students in that lab. Never think choosing lab or adviser is THE decision of your life.

Does regular writing of your ideas and your understanding of a concept (or a research paper) in own words help? If yes how?

Writing / communicating is one of the important things in research. Even if your idea is great, if you fail to explain it simply, I would say your knowledge is of the unsatisfactory kind. Writing is an art and like other arts regular practice does improve writing skills. Its good to summarize and criticize the papers you read. It has two advantages: (1) You read the papers carefully (2) Your writing / thinking improves. (Preaching is always easier than acting).

What practices would you suggest for young research students at IIIT H?

I still feel too young to answer this question :) But since this question is asked I would say:

(1) Don't think that you can do something very novel in day 1. You should start working on toy
problems. Learn to systematically analysis the problem and solution.
(2) Be regular in work. Try to do something small even when you don't feel like working. Tenancy is important to finish the work.


How to resolve dilemma of either going for Ph.d or job? When a MS by research or dual degree is about finish his programme?

Ask yourself: (1) Do you enjoy teaching (2) Is money not that important for you?

(3) Do you enjoy the joy of giving/sacrifice (4) If family is important to you, does
it support your decision? (5) Are you ready to spend your next 5-6 years in a single problem?
If your answers are YES, you should go for PhD.
(Note: When I say enjoy teaching, I DON'T mean you have only option of teaching
after PhD. But such interest does matter in keeping you motivated during PhD. When
I say Money, I mean "PhD is not the optimum path to earn money" and are you OK
with that).

View about research at IIITH

What should be improved with regard to research culture at IIIT H ?Do suggest any change in structure of MS or Ph.d program?Why?
Anything which you felt lacking in research culture at IIITH while you were pursuing your research !!!!

The first thing which attracted me to CVIT is large group working on relatively narrow area.(This is more or less true for all other research centers at IIIT-H). I was always keen to work in such group where you can communicate your ideas. However, I still find many people who prefer to work from room, do not even give a presentation in a year, do not even discuss their problems with their colleagues. I believe such practice might make the entire environment dull in a longer run.

In your opinion, how does environment at IIIT H helps an individual in pursuing research? Anything like freedom do it your own way, weather, green campus, …

The first thing which attracted me to CVIT is large group working on relatively narrow area.(This is more or less true for all other research centers at IIIT-H). I was always keen to work in such group where you can communicate your ideas. However, I still find many people who prefer to work from room, do not even give a presentation in a year, do not even discuss their problems with their colleagues. I believe such practice might make the entire environment dull in a longer run.

How does research program at IIIT H helped in your overall growth as a responsible person(or citizen) of society(or India)?
"Work in Progress"

Centre

How was your overall experience w.r.t work culture of your centre?

Does discussions with fellow researchers in same centre helps? How does it help?
Importance of discussions with fellow researchers !!
Yes it does.
(1) It helps in improving your thinking skills.
(2) Your communication skills
(3) You can be updated with a lesser effort
(4) It can keep you going even when you are not doing great.
We have started a study group in CVIT two months back (Special thanks to Natraj J. for taking initiative).I am finding it very useful for learning, teaching and thinking.

Final Comments

Please quote us your favourite tagline which let you 'get going'?
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है
मुश्किलें बहुत हैं अभी इस डगर में
तु काँटों में चलने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है |

ये वक़्त है उठ खड़े होने का
अभिशाप को वरदान में बदलने का
तु विश्वास को मजबूत कर आगे बढ़ने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||

हारते तो वो हैं जो ठहर जाते हैं
आगे बढ़ते रहने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती
तु अविरत आगे बढ़ने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||

हो सकता है कि हँसना मुमकिन न हो
पर दूसरों को हँसाना तो मुमकिन है
तु दूसरों को हंसा कर खुश रहने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||

जब ख़ुशी से भी डर लगे, जब किसी का भी साथ न हो
जब ख़ुशी से भी डर लगे, जब किसी का भी साथ न हो
तब भी तु अकले चलने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||

तु दूसरों से अपने दर्द पर मरहम लगाने की आश मत रख
जिन्होंने दर्द सहा नहीं, वे हाल-ए-दर्द क्या समझें
तु दर्द से लड़ने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||

आने दे मुश्किलों को,
बर्बादी को आने दे
तु बर्बादियों को बर्बाद करने की आदत डाल ले
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||

वैसे भी, मैदान-ए-जंग में या जीत होती है या जनाजे उठते हैं
वैसे भी, मैदान-ए-जंग में या जीत होती है या जनाजे उठते हैं
तू दोनों के लिए तैयार रह
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||
ए मन तु ना हार अभी तो जंग का आगाज भी बाकी है ||
-- (My own lines)

Deepti(SIEL)

Details

Name: Deepti Aggarwal
Research Experience(years): 2 years
Lab: SERL|SIEL
Occupation: MS scholar
Professor: Prof. Venkatesh Choppella and Prof. Vasudeva Varma
Area of Interests: Information Retrieval(IR),Human computer interaction(HCI), web acessibility
Email Id: 
Link to your homepage or blog: http://pascal.iiit.ac.in/~deepti.aggarwal/

Motivation to pursue research

What was your intention or motivation to join a research program before you joined IIIT H? Interest,Aim and Purpose that made you pursue research program.

                 Its a hilarious story actually. When I was very young, I watched the movie Mr. India, which did strike some chords in my mind. I wanted to develop something similar to that "magic" goggles.

       Well, jokes apart. During my degree program, once I was in my library, I realized that library is full of so many books of my area and I had hardly covered one rack by that time. I realized that there is so much to explore and learn. I decided to do something great and to be recognized as a scientist. So I am here now.. :)

How did you feel in your first semester when you have to select a lab and decide under which Prof. you have to work?
             hmm.. yes it was really difficult to find out my area of interest and a suitable lab for me that suits my interests. Seriously I was ignorant about actual area of computer science. To me, there were only few areas like database, OS, networking. The actual research stuff were far away from my horizon.

Reading papers related to different labs, getting to know what was the hot topic of research in each lab and meeting to people and professors.. a lot of pressure and struggle!

What was your motivation behind staying in Academics rather than joining industry ?
In your opinion,what are the major differences between academics and industry?
   I did not want to do some labor job of copying and pasting some code snippets. I wanted to build something new on my own. I feel that industry envt. restricts your imagination and creativity.

Thesis

How did you choose your thesis area?And why did you choose that particular area?
             I feel that we can not decide our thesis area in first year or in first few semesters. In my case, my thesis area changed completely over the period of time. I joined under Prof. Venkatesh Choppella to explore Semantic Web. I found myself stuck and then my interests changed to human computation and web accessibility. So, I believe your interests changes gradually as your knowledge about several areas increase.

How did you narrow down to your search(for your thesis problem)to one particular problem?
                 In my case, I worked on two problems simultaneously. I think your courses help a lot to broaden your thinking and improve your imagination. During the classes, many ideas came into my mind, out of which maximum were really bogus. I discussed them with my lab mates and then zero-in to particular ones.

How was your experience w.r.t paper (or thesis) writing and do have any tips that will make paper (or thesis) writing process an easy one?
Most important is: Write, write and write.
Do not jump to implementation suddenly. Take baby steps. Writing improves your thinking and improvise your ideas a lot. That is the only thing that is required for your thesis and paper.

Suggestions to existing research students at IIIT H

What do you suggest for newly joined research students with regard to choosing lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?What should students consider while choosing a lab and enrolling under a Prof. ?
                         Do not follow blindly your BTech. interests. Explore new areas with new courses. Do not run after the name of professor. Because famous professors do not have much time for their students.
Give priority to your interests. Your passion towards your work is more than enough.
Yes I know your guide's name is important. What comes to rescue is the combination of two professors as your guide.

Does regular writing of your ideas and your understanding of a concept (or a research paper) in own words help? If yes how?
Yes. That is the only key. I have mentioned it before also. I know writing may seem to be boring. Use boards and pens to explain your ideas to others.

What practices would you suggest for young research students at IIIT H?
Read a lot. Do not fix your research area just meeting a few people. Your passion for your research area is the most essential element to proceed with your research. You will reach a time when your mind and your heart both wanna pick that area. Wait till that time.. :)
HAVE PATIENCE!

How to resolve dilemma of either going for Ph.d or job? When a MS by research or dual degree is about finish his programme?

That is what I am trying to solve now. :D Still not clear.. :O :(

But yes one thing, before going for PhD think different other aspects of your life: your family, your financial stability. My guide says, "PhD is a life time commitment. You should have someone with whom you can share even your bugs." Meaning you can not walk alone in that long journey.
If you even have a small doubt about your stability with PhD, hold on, think twice!
aahaaa.. I get to know what I wanna do now! :D

View about research at IIITH

What should be improved with regard to research culture at IIIT H ?Do suggest any change in structure of MS or Ph.d program?Why?
Anything which you felt lacking in research culture at IIITH while you were pursuing your research !!!!

In your opinion, how does environment at IIIT H helps an individual in pursuing research? Anything like freedom do it your own way, weather, green campus, …

Yes freedom, green campus, open environment are really helpful. You need open air to think, to talk to yourself, to write and to have good times with your friends.

How does research program at IIIT H helped in your overall growth as a responsible person(or citizen) of society(or India)?
I feel very lucky to come here. I learnt one main and essential lesson after coming here, i.e., Patience.

Centre

How was your overall experience w.r.t work culture of your centre?
                I found it somewhat depressing. There were sharp peaks in my mood: satisfied and depressed. In our college, people are not able to divide their time to research and personal life. We try to work 24*7, thinking that this will help in completing our work very soon.
We need regular breaks. Saturdays and Sundays are meant for taking breaks. Please rest yourself.
We do not have discussion groups in our labs where only students participate to help each other, may it be improvising your idea, or writing, or paper, or anything else. A good interaction with your fellow mates is MUST, even more than your guide.

Does discussions with fellow researchers in same centre helps? How does it help?
Importance of discussions with fellow researchers !!
                  Yes surely. Your ideas are restricted to your thinking. Sometimes you can not recognize even a small fault in your idea. Even to improvise your ideas, you need others minds to work on your problem.

Final Comments

Please quote us your favourite tagline which let you 'get going'?
-"There is still so much to know."
- "Yes I can do it."
- "You did a great job. Wonderful!"

Please add anything like comments,suggestions or anything you like to share,which did not get included in the questionnaire !!!

One funny thing I wanna quote. As you read more, you realize that you are ignorant and stupid. But that is a step towards wisdom. Your knowledge is increasing. By the time you write your thesis, you will feel you did NOTHING and your thesis is not worth of anything. Do not worry, that is normal.. :)

PS: Treat yourself for even small success, after all you did a great job.