Speaker: Zhiding Yu

Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringCarnegie Mellon University

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Valse 2015 如何做研究之读博经验纵横谈

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PhD Timeline (CMU ECE Dept)

AdmissionQualifying

ExamThesis

ProposalThesis

Defense

Take coursesSummer Intern

Semester 1 Semester 4-6 Semester 7-9 Semester 8-10

PhD ResearchPublish PapersSummer Intern

PhD ResearchPublish PapersSummer Intern

Other Requirements:

Take at least 4 (w. MS) / 8 (w.o. MS) ECE related courses.

Courses cover at least 3 areas (eg. AI, Signal Proc, Algorithm/Complexity…)

Finish at least 2 TAs

No specific paper requirements!

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Choosing PhD Advisor & Topic

Some personal suggestions:

If you are relatively new to research, young prof (AP/Asso) are generally better.

Always find someone active in this field (look into his pub).

Advisor is generally more important than university ranking.

Read papers from top confs/journals from this field (Don’t waste time on garbage

papers).

Start with a single / a few canonical papers to deeply understand & implement.

Be a thinker

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Qualifying Exam: Overview

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Taking Courses: Abundant Choices

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Taking Courses: Experience

Intuition! Intuition! Intuition!

Can be very, very research oriented. Conf paper style reports + oral / posters

Heavy emphasis on course projects, homework and practical coding ability.

Very up-to-date course materials. Closely follows industry / academic trends.

Wide use of new teaching techs (Piazza, AutoLab…)

Video recordings and comprehensive documentations (slides, scribes, HW…)

A lot of tutorials (especially coding)

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Good Research Environment

VASC Seminar Robotics Seminar LTI Seminar Machine Learning Lunch Theory Lunch MISC Paper Reading Group Machine Learning Journal Club Pre-CVPR/ICCV/ECCV Paper Review …….

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What Touches Me Most?

The Proud of Research

“You are the best computer scientists on this planet. For the love of God, go out and save the world.” ----Andrew W. Moore, 2015 CMU SCS Grad Ceremony

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Thank You!