Information for Students Interested in pursuing a Ph.D. with Professor Clifton
If you are not yet a Purdue student, see also my page for
students desiring admission to Purdue.
When you are granted a Ph.D. by Purdue, the outside world
expects two very different things:
- You are capable of, and prepared to, lead an independent research
program, and
- You are prepared to teach
college-level computer science.
The purpose of a Doctoral program is to get you to that point.
When admitted, the faculty believe you have the potential to
do the above.
Turning the potential into reality demands effort from both you
and the faculty.
To that end, I give below some things that I expect of my Ph.D. students,
and what you can expect of me.
What I Will Provide
- An environment supportive of research. To the best of my ability
to obtain resources, this will include office/desk space reasonably
close to other students working in similar areas, a desktop computer
appropriate to the work you are doing, and server resources (disk space,
OS type, software where costs are reasonable) needed for your research.
- Opportunity to develop your ability to communicate knowledge.
This will likely include serving as a teaching assistant for at
least one year.
- Opportunity to become known to other researchers.
If funds are available, I will provide travel support to a local
or inexpensive conference at least once during your tenure as a Ph.D. student.
In addition, if we co-author a paper, you will be given the opportunity
to present it (e.g., if I only have travel funds to support one person
attending, you will have the option of going before I do.)
- If you find your interests diverge from mine, I will work
with you to try to identify a new advisor or other path to
working in your area of interest.
Rest to be written...
What I Expect of You
- You will keep me informed of your progress and interests.
- Willingness to take on responsibilities that may be outside
your area of interest (such as a teaching assistantship or research
assistantship with specific tasks) up to 20 hours per week.
- Leadership role during your final years. This can involve
organizing reading groups, arranging seminars, etc.
Rest to be written...
Suggestions for preparing a Preliminary Exam document if you
want me on your committee
When I see a preliminary document, I am looking for several things:
- That you have studied your research area sufficiently, and established
that you know the history and current state of that area,
- That you have the intellectual ability and inclination to produce
original and exciting results in the area,
- That you have the ideas necessary to produce a solid, high-quality
dissertation on your chosen topic, and
- That you have a plan that will result in your being prepared
for and capable of landing a tenure-track position at a research
university, a post-doctoral position with the leaders in your
area, or a position at a top research laboratory.
Most preliminary documents do a good job of the first two points:
demonstrate knowledge of related work, and through presenting
already completed work show that you are capable of producing
good results in your chosen area. The third point is often weaker -
does your document really demonstrate what you plan to do to
complete your dissertation? The fourth point is rarely covered
well.
My suggestion is to write your preliminary document as your
dissertation outline (possibly even using the dissertation format), to
at least the Chapter/section level. Several parts should already be
complete, a related work/background section and one or two chapters
drawn from work that you have already completed and submitted or
had published. The remaining parts should have a brief description
of the work to be completed, possible risks/pitfalls and what you
will do if you run into problems, and a timeline for completion -
at least at the Chapter level, if not at the section level.
To establish point four, I recommend that you tie the timeline
to submission target dates, e.g., The material in Chapter four
Sections 4.1-4.3 will be completed in October 20??, serving as the
basis a submission to
SIGMOD.
The remainder of the chapter will be complete in July 20??, and the
combined material will be submitted as a Journal article at that time.
Recommended Classes
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