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CSA PhD/MSc Workshop

Research (Ph.D./M.Sc.) in Computer Science: A Perspective. SEPTEMBER 17, 2011 Computer Science and Automation Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. 1. CSA PhD/MSc Workshop. OUR OBJECTIVE. To present to you what we think are some

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CSA PhD/MSc Workshop

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  1. Research (Ph.D./M.Sc.) in Computer Science: A Perspective SEPTEMBER 17, 2011 Computer Science and Automation Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 1 CSA PhD/MSc Workshop

  2. OUR OBJECTIVE To present to you what we think are some best practices in planning and execution of the research process involved in Ph.D. and M.Sc.(Engg.) To convey to you that we have high expectations from talented students like you CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  3. Outline of the Session Part II Externals (JH) REAL WORLD RESEARCHCOMMUNITY INSTITUTION ADVISOR Part I Internals(YN) THESIS

  4. Outline of Part 1: Internals What is Research? What is PhD? M.Sc(Engg)? Our Expectations A Benchmark: ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award Key Ingredients of a Good PhD Program Preparation of Ph.D. Thesis CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  5. Inspiration: Richard Hamming • Pioneering contributions in coding, information theory, • Automatic Programming • Talk entitled “You and Your Research” on March 7, 1986: • Bell Communications Research Colloquium Series • Question: Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run? ACM TURING AWARD 1968 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  6. Hamming’s View of Research Carving statues out of stones in a creative way Systematic investigation to establish facts or discover new facts Scientific investigation intended to extend the limits of human knowledge 6 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  7. Hamming’s View (contd.) Luck favours a prepared mind Knowing/asking right questions is the first step in knowing the answers If you believe too much, you will not notice the flaws If you doubt too much, you won’t get started - You need a lovely balance Courage to continue working is important 7 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  8. Basic vs Applied Research Source: Google Images CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  9. What is Ph.D.? Rigorous investigation into an important, non-trivial problem, leading to a new methodology, novel algorithms, or a significant tool 9 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  10. Ph.D. in Computer Science CS has a wide appeal cutting across disciplines; Offers wide scope for inter-disciplinary research Exciting new areas: machine learning, computational biology, computational economics, cyber-physical systems, multi-core computing, etc. There is equal scope for basic research, applied research, enduse-inspired basic research 10 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  11. PhD/MSc Milestones in CSA/IISc Research Training Program Selection of Advisor Perspectives Seminar General Test/ Comprehensive Exam Divisional Colloquium Thesis Colloquium Synopsis Submission Thesis Submission Reviews/Revision Thesis Defence Award of Degree CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  12. M.Sc. (Engg.) to Ph.D. After completing RTP and before General Test After General Test and before submitting Thesis After submitting Thesis (Here you would get M.Sc. Degree also) We urge all MSc(Engg) students to exercise one of the above options CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  13. Our Expectations from You: High World-class work in a contemporary area; Depth as well as Breadth in the subject area Excellent papers in high quality publication fora (including best paper awards; best student paper awards; best poster awards) Transformation into an independent researcher capable of formulating your own problems and solving them independently Superb writing, articulation, inter-personal skills We expect you to enable India’s excellence in the world of computer science 13 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  14. Benchmark: ACM Dissertation Award • Presented annually to the author(s) of the best doctoral dissertation(s) in computer science and engineering. • The Doctoral Dissertation Award is accompanied by a prize of $20,000, and the Honorable Mention Award is accompanied by a prize of $10,000. • Winning dissertations are published by ACM in the ACM Digital Library • awards.acm.org/doctoral_dissertation/ CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  15. ACM Dissertation Award: 2010 • Dissertation Award: Bryan Parno (CMU). Trust extension as a mechanism for for secure code on commodity computers. • Honorable Mention: Benjamin Snyder (MIT). Unsupervised multilingual learning. CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  16. ACM Dissertation Award: 2009 • Dissertation Award: Craig Gentry (Stanford). A fully homomorphic encryption scheme. • Honorable Mention: Haryadi S. Gunavi (Wisconsin-Madison). Towards reliable storage systems. • Honorable Mention: Andre Platzer (Univ Oldenburg, Germany). Automated Theorem Proving for Hybrid Systems. • Honorable Mention: Keith Nova Snavely (Univ of Washinton, Seattle). Scene Reconstruction and Visualization from Internet Photo Collection CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  17. ACM Dissertation Award: 2008 • Dissertation Award: ConstantinosDaskalakis (MIT). The complexity of Nash equilibria. • Honorable Mention: Derek Hoiem (CMU). Seeing the world behind the image: Spatial layout for 3D scene understanding. • Honorable Mention: Sachin Katti (MIT). Network coded wireless architecture. CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  18. Doctoral Thesis of Constantinos Daskalakis • Showed that the problem of computing the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium of an n-person strategic form game is PPAD-complete • PPAD (Polynomial Parity Arguments on Directed graphs) is a complexity class introduced by Christos Papadimitriou • Considered the most significant result in the 10-year old area of algorithmic game theory CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  19. Characteristics of a Good Ph.D./MSc Problem Should be an important, relevant, contemporary problem Should address a significant research gap Should be non-trivial, non-incremental, deep, intellectually challenging Should be a feasible and tractable problem: should take polynomial time 19 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  20. Ingredients of a Good PhD Program: Research Training Program Strong Background is an essential ingredient of the PhD process RTP involves picking up this background in a rigorous way 6 to 8 courses would be ideal. Mathematical and analytical courses are especially important Good textbooks are ideal companions 20 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  21. Ingredients of a Good PhD Program: Reviewing the State-of-the-Art Involves reading relevant papers very carefully; This leads to identifying research gaps and identifying a good research problem This will help identify important, currently active, currently relevant problems Internet and the web play an important role in this 21 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  22. Ingredients of a Good PhD Program: Awareness of the Current Art and the Positioning for your Work Awareness of the Journals and Conferences in the area Awareness of leading research groups, research papers, researchers, key results in the area Awareness of research gaps and open problems Clarity of how the proposed work can be positioned with respect to the current art 22 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  23. Ingredients of a Good PhD Program: Abstraction, Analytical Modeling Mathematical abstractions lead to precision and rigour in research Top quality Ph.D. theses are invariably founded on solid mathematical abstractions and concepts 23 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  24. Ingredients of a Good PhD Program: Sound Experimentation Design of experiments is very important Each graph that is drawn must have a specific purpose and plan Insights from the experimental results must be brought out very clearly Simulation based studies must be accompanied by confidence interval estimation, etc. 24 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  25. Duration of Research Program (All durations in years) PROGRAM IdealReasonable Unacceptable Ph.D. (post-ME) 3-4 4-5 >5 Ph.D. (post-BE) 4-5 5-6 >6 MSc (Engg) 2-2.52.5-3.0>3 25 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  26. An Example of a PhD Problem Social Network Analysis: A Game Theoretic Approach Social Network Analysis is an important current problem with numerous applications and desperately in need of efficient algorithms Idea: Use game theory to model social networks Challenge: Social networks could be massive in size Problem 1: Influence Maximization in Social Networks (Cooperative Game Theory – Shapley Value) Problem 2: Discovering Communities in Social Networks (Non-cooperative game theory – Nash equilibrium) Problem 3: Predicting Topologies of Social Networks (Uses both cooperative and non-cooperative game theories) 26 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  27. Typical Organization of a Ph.D. Thesis Chapter 1: Background, Motivating Problems, Research Gap, Importance and Relevance, Contributions, and Thesis Outline Chapter 2 typically should contain all preliminaries Chapters 3, 4, 5, etc. are the contributory chapters Results, Conclusions, Summary, Future Work Bibliography Writing and publishing papers at regular intervals is extremely critical 27 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  28. Example of a Ph.D. Thesis Social Network Analysis: A Game Theoretic Approach Chapter 1: Social Network Analysis, Motivating Examples, High Level Review, Case for Game Theoretic Approach, Contributions, outline Chapter 2: Social Networks, Social Network Analysis, Relevant Game Theory Chapter 3: Influence Maximization in Social Networks Chapter 4: Discovering Communities in Social Networks Chapter 5: Predicting Topologies of Social Networks Chapter 6: Summary and Future Work Chapter 7: Bibliography 28 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  29. Key Success Factors for a PhD Program Work on important problems Try to find connections between seemingly unrelated problems Commitment, deep involvement, good planning Work hard, continuously, and persevere Don’t depend on luck; be creative Breadth and depth are both important 29 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  30. Challenges Wading through and keeping track of the ocean of literature Identifying a good problem; rising above mediocrity; going beyond a safety zone Striking a lovely balance: between depth and breadth; between basic and applied Doing justice to other responsibilities; time management Planning, Passion, Perseverance, Patience, Perfection, are the key 30 CSA Ph.D./Msc Workshop

  31. Resources: CSA Wiki FAQ on Ph.D. and M.Sc. (Engg) Programs FAQ on Comprehensive Exam/General Test Tips on various seminars/colloquia you are required to present Different Avenues for Travel Support Need to do Paperwork promptly 31 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  32. Resources: Informative Articles Richard Hammimg. What is Research? Ronald T. Azuma. So long, and thanks for the PhD. Marie des Jardins. How to be a good graduate student? H.T. Kung. How to write a good PhD Thesis? John H. Cochrane. Writing Tips for PhD Students. 32 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  33. Questions and Answers … Thank You … 33 CSA PhD/MSc Workshop

  34. BACKUP SLIDES CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  35. Qualities of a Good Researcher Motivation, Aptitude, Passion Creativity and Originality Rigour, Grasp, Perseverance, Eye for detail, Breadth as well as Depth Strong Background Curiosity and Spirit of Enquiry 35 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  36. PhD Problems: Example 1 Design of optimal auctions for heterogeneous objects Motivating Problems Sponsored Search Auctions, Procurement Auctions, Spectrum Auctions Intellectual Challenge Optimal auction available only for single unit of single object – difficult to generalize 36 CSA PhD/MSc Workshop

  37. Motivating Problem: Sponsored Search Auction Advertisers CPC 37 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  38. EXTENSION OF MYERSON’S AUCTION Myerson Auction 1 Seller, Multiple Buyers, Single Indivisible Item Revenue Maximization subject to BIC and IIR Extension 1: Sponsored Search Auctions 1 seller, multiple buyers, multiple items (positions) Extension 2: Multi-unit Procurement Auctions 1 buyer, multiple sellers, multiple units, discounts Extension 3: Optimal Combinatorial Auctions Spectrum auctions 38 CSA PhD/MSc Workshop

  39. WBB SBB AE EPE dAGVA BIC IR CBOPT DSIC GROVES SSAOPT VDOPT MYERSON MECHANISM DESIGN SPACE 39 CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

  40. Ph.D. to M.Sc. (Engg) After the comprehensive exam Decided by the Committee and not by you CSA Ph.D./MSc Workshop

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