academia after the phd
DESCRIPTION
What to expect after finishing the PhD and aiming for the academia? Somewhat focused in the Portuguese case, and highly biased by my own experience.TRANSCRIPT
ACADEMIA AFTER THE PHD
João Paulo Barraca [email protected]
!Universidade de Aveiro
Instituto de Telecomunicações
PhdComics go see it, great cartoon!
This talk is totally biased by my own experience and my own conclusions!
!
Contents may be biased, slightly inaccurate, or totally wrong.
Photo: Flickr, kyphotofile
DUTIES
• Teach and Advise students • Research • Publish • Transfer knowledge • Participate in scientific events • Participate in university councils
Professor Researcher
TEACHING
• 12-13 hours/week of actual lecture time • 1 to 4 courses per semester • Plus tutoring and office hours • Plus marking and assessing work • Plus creating quizzes and laboratory guides
!
• Senior academics have less lecture time
TEACHING• Then you start coordinating courses
!
• Add: • Create contents (slides, homework's, projects,
exams, etc...) • Manage students and colleagues • Fulfil administrative tasks
• Reports, Pedagogical dossier
TEACHING• Example: Lab-I (~CS101), 2 semesters
• Created from scratch, 120 students enrolled • No TAs!
!
• 16 assignments • 4 short exams • 2 projects • 20 laboratory guides: 419 pages • Theoretical slides: 725 slides
ADVISING
• Professors have 4-8 MSc students/year • Start in September. Defend in June/December • Must advise and guide
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• “A few” PhD students • Must advise and guide • Build research environment
RESEARCH
• Participate in joint projets • National or International scope
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• Participate in research teams !
• Start building a research team • Mostly PhD students
RESEARCH
• Constant search for funding! • Pay conference papers, grants, equipment, etc… • Pressure to get funding
!
• Several grant calls • Approval ratio: FP7 EU ~10%, FCT ~13% • 1 Project/year requires ~10 proposals (avg)
RESEARCH
• Myth: You are free to research whatever you want !
• Reality: Freedom must be conquered/discovered • You are free to research what is promoted by
funding agencies • Grants are focused in specific objectives • Fit your objectives in the grant call
PUBLISH• Probably the single most important aspect
• For entering academia • For progressing in the career (obtain tenure) !
• There is no career without (lots of good) papers!
!
• Not unusual to see 30 papers/year • After you have a research group
PUBLISH
• Must publish, consistently, frequently • Mostly in international events/journals !
• Aim for high impact factor : high quality journals !
• Aim for high citations: high quality work in good places
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
• Conferences and journals • Editor, Chair, TPC, Reviewer
!
• Standardisation bodies • IETF, IRTF, 3GPP, ETSI, etc…
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• Committees, Think Tanks, Networks Of Excellence,…
MANAGEMENT COUNCILS• University has several management councils
• Mostly composed by professors !
• Scientific Council • Pedagogical Council • General Council • Course, promotion & dissemination councils • etc..
NETWORKING!• Most areas are now multi-disciplinary
• Especially when applying science to the real world !
• Need to collaborate in projects and publications • be able to form/join a project consortium/publication
!
• Assure presence in events/scientific groups • Chair sessions, Organize events
WORK IN ACADEMIA• You get to travel frequently
• Varies with projects, events, papers and funds !
• You will feel rewarded by teaching interesting topics !
• You will explore a few novel topics • Its application to solve problems • May choose where to invest your interest
WORK IN ACADEMIA
• You really must collaborate • papers, projects, research
!
• but your colleagues are your competitors !
• and the academia is similar to a feudal system • must stay aware of the politics
2
WORK IN ACADEMIA• 12h/week + coordinating a course takes effort!
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• Must also write papers, proposals, deliverables • Must also travel to meetings and events • Must advise students
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• You will work a lot in the first years! • expect 50 to 70 hours just to keep it going
HOW TO JOIN?
1. Research topic and experience !
3. Publication Record !
5. Teaching Experience !
7. Networking capability
HOW TO JOIN? (2012 DATA - PORTUGAL)
• PhD students: 19.213, of which 1.859 defended
!
• Professors: 21.951 (Univ), 13.531 (Pol) !
• New Openings: 57 (Univ), 21 (Pol) ~4.19%
Source: Pordata and SNESUP
Thanks
Photo: Flickr, jenosaur