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What it Means to Get a PhD

What it Means to Get a PhD. Marc Snir. Department of Computer Science. More. Never took sabbatical Co-director UPCRC Make parallel programming synonymous with programming Co-PI Blue Waters Largest academic supercomputer (in 2011). What Getting a PhD Does Not Mean.

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What it Means to Get a PhD

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  1. What it Means to Get a PhD Marc Snir Department of Computer Science

  2. More • Never took sabbatical • Co-director UPCRC • Make parallel programming synonymous with programming • Co-PI Blue Waters • Largest academic supercomputer (in 2011)

  3. What Getting a PhD Does Not Mean • Going to an academic career • Choosing a career • Choosing a lifetime research field • Not having a life

  4. What It Can Mean • Opportunity for five years of unimpeded creativity • "CREATIVITY is thinking up new things. INNOVATION is doing new things." -- Theodore Levitt • Opportunity for five years of unopposed perfectionism • "In art as in science these is no delight without the detail." – Nabokov • Unrivaled opportunity for soaking knowledge broad and deep • An opportunity to reach to your limits and learn what you can and can’t do

  5. But Disciplines, Departments and Advisors are not all Equal • Freedom to roam vs. “early binding” of advisor • More or less constrained academic program • Big projects vs. individual projects • Face time • Quality

  6. Bad Reasons not to Get a PhD • I am not really sure I can do research • I can do it later • I really do not like my School • I can never see my professors • I am frightened to death whenever I have to give a presentation

  7. Ways to Choose Research Fields • Are you a hedgehog or a fox? • "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing“ – Archilochus • Do you want to do, or do you want to know? • Do you want to change the world?

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