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Words of Wisdom
It is a LIVE tradition that at the victory supper celebrating a successful defense of one's Ph. D. thesis, the Ph.D. candidate must impart words of wisdom.
Marios Pattichis
  1. Work as hard as you can to finish your dissertation as fast as you can.
  2. If you are passionate about your work, then put some passion against your work. It is better to be your own worst critic than to have your committee look for your faults. They will be happier, and you will be happier.
  3. If you think that your dissertation will change the world, don't fool yourself. Leave all the Nobel prize winning work for later [Athanasios Papoulis, personal communication].
Dong Wei
  1. Work hard
  2. Work smart
  3. Enjoy life
Thomas Kite
  1. The quality of interaction with your advisers is proportional to your willingness to interact with them.
  2. Be confident that your work is good and that other people want to read it.
  3. Talk to the guys [and girl] in the lab. They may have useful things to say--or they may just brighten up your day.
Sanghoon Lee
  1. Be enthusiastic in your study.
  2. Listen to advice.
  3. Collaborate with your advisor.
Barry Barnett
  1. Take care of your family and relationships. They are the most important things. Don't sacrifice them.
Jian Ling
  1. Studying while working full time is tough but rewarding
    The tough part is that you give up your evenings and weekends.
    The rewarding part is that you really feel worthwhile by directly linking your studies with your career.
  2. Getting your Ph.D. is not the end of study in your life. It only gives you the license to start learning by yourself.
Zhou Wang
  1. The best way to learn is to ask people to criticize your work. Excellence is not perfection. Don't be afraid to show your weakness.
  2. Don't DO research. Enjoy it.
  3. Simplicity is the beauty of science.
Shizhong Liu
  1. Think intuitively. Write mathematically.
  2. Think the problem hard until it comes in your dream.
  3. I have been proud to be a part of UT. I now hope that I will be able to make UT proud of me.
Hamid Rahim Sheikh
  1. Realize, acknowledge, appreciate, be thankful for, and reciprocate the help that you receive from others.
  2. Success is a product of a number of abilities: intelligence, focus, foresight, ability to work hard even if it is not enjoyable, patience, forbearance, and even rote memory. Drive any to zero, and the product would go zero too!
  3. There is no such thing as individual success. Achievement comes at a physical, emotional, and spiritual cost that you, and those who love you, need to pay. Don't burden anyone beyond his/her capacity.
  4. Think about your "words on wisdom" at the start of your PhD and try sticking to them.
Umesh Rajashekar
  1. Always be enthusiastic about what you do and put in your best effort each time. Even if you do not succeed in your task, you should feel happy that you tried your best.
  2. Don't let your mind and personality stagnate. Upgrade yourself by learning new skills regularly.
  3. Try to make a positive impact on the people around you.
  4. Live life, don't just exist.
Muhammad Farooq Sabir
  1. There will be times when things won’t be working out as you want them to. Don’t give up and always keep trying hard. Remember, hard work never goes wasted and you will eventually get what you want.
  2. Your success is not just your doing. If you look around you will find many people who contributed towards it. Always be grateful to them and remember their contribution in your life.
  3. Always keep an open mind. Remember, your ego can be your worst enemy. Never pretend that you know everything; no one does. Never be ashamed to ask questions if you don’t know something.
  4. Try to make this world a better place. Help people. By getting this education you will most likely be in a position to have an impact on many lives. Make sure that it is a positive one.
  5. Never ask Hamid for advice.
Hyohoon Choi
  1. If you want to do good research, don't get married. If you are married, don't get discouraged, just don't have a baby. If you have a baby, don't get discouraged, just don't have another one! Believe and you can always succeed. I graduated with three babies :)
  2. Be passionate and open minded. Always respect others.
  3. Always ask questions.
James Monaco
  1. Nothing ever works on the first attempt - success lies in the ability to determine whether the failure is due to a bad idea or simply poor execution.
  2. Use your peers - they won't be able to provide you with solutions that are valuable, but they will be able to identify your solutions that are not.
  3. It's never as good or bad as it seems.
Raghu Raj
  1. Work Hard, Be Confident.
Abtine Tavassoli
  1. Read lots of journal papers, opening your mind to others’ ideas.

    Individual creativity will be a crucial factor to your success, however reading a vast amount of publications makes you more knowledgeable, well rounded and stimulates new ideas. Never limit yourself to only your particular area of study, but instead branch out to other areas of engineering, mathematics, physiology, and so on that may be relevant to your work.

  2. Be skeptical of your results especially if they are too good to be true.

    Regardless of the outcome of your research, always question your findings thoroughly, rather than declare a haste victory if, for instance, you obtained exactly what you expected. Always approach the problem from different angles and continue to run tests with different inputs to analyze exactly how your method or algorithm is responding to different sets of stimuli.

  3. Take on leadership positions in student organizations, on your down time.

    Reduce the time you spend surfing the web, chatting, browsing Facebook, watching videos on Youtube and so on, and instead take leadership positions in student organizations to contribute to the engineering community and the university. Such positions will be very enriching for building your social skills, strengthening your confidence, and expanding your social and professional network.

Sumohana Channappayya
  1. Write down everything that you think of, immaterial of how trivial it is. It turns out that there are solutions resting in those notes.
  2. Be your toughest critic and remember to always talk to people.
  3. Remember : There is ALWAYS light at the end of the tunnel.
Rajiv Soundararajan
  1. Be consistent and systematic and don't put yourself under pressure.Do your daily bit of work systematically without worrying about results. There will be failures along the way but ultimately everything will work out just fine.
  2. Dont get bogged down in just your own research. Be aware of what others in your allied areas are working on. More often than not, there are ideas in other domains that are applicable to your problem and vice versa. Attend lots of talks and interact with other research students. This forms an important part of your research experience as a PhD student.
Anush Krishna Moorthy
  1. Personal:You have a great advisor, make the most of it. You will get back what you put in. Remember, he is your advisor, not your dissertation writer. This is YOUR dissertation, NOT his; go to him for advice, not for solutions.
  2. Practical: Get your machines to work for you as you sleep. Nothing like waking up to a correlation of 0.95 in the morning! A PhD is not the be all and end all of life -- do what you have always wanted to do outside of academics. This time is NOW! READ!!
  3. Philosophical: The fun is in the journey, not in the result. Smell the roses once in a while.
Ajay Gopinath
  1. Self confidence and loads of patience will take you past almost all hurdles.
  2. Keep an open mind and don't be afraid to take risks. Putting yourself in uncomfortable and challenging positions can lead to more satisfying results in the long term.
  3. Indulge in activities that takes your mind off research, especially when things seem to be in a rut. Grad school is the ideal place to broaden your perspective so make the most of it.
Xiangxu (Jerry) Yu
  1. Listen to what Professor Bovik has to say.
  2. Listen to what the Assistant Director has to say.
  3. Listen to what the sponsors have to say.
Zhenqiang Ying
  1. Live in the moment.
  2. Learn fast and do what matters. If you don't know what matters, just follow what Dr Bovik says.
  3. If you don't really want to do what matters, just do it! Act first, motivation follows.
Somdyuti Paul
  1. It is probably not as daunting as it seems during the darkest hours, so please persevere.
  2. Appreciate opportunities but do not take them for granted.
  3. Step out of your comfort zone and explore as much stuff as possible, whether it is in the form of research ideas, internship opportunities, or simply immersing yourself in the splendor of the diverse natural landscapes this country has to offer.
Pavan Chennagiri
  1. Research is a marathon, not a sprint. Consider it as a long trip where it is more about enjoying the journey than the destination. Your advisor and labmates are there to help make your journey much more enjoyable, so make good use of them!
  2. PhD is not just about sharpening your research skills, it also provides freedom to develop one's personality outside research. Use this time to invest in new hobbies/skills so that in future when you look back to your PhD days it should not be about just sitting in front of your computer and waiting for magical numbers, which in the grand scheme of things can constitute a miniscule component. As said by Linkin Park - I tried so hard and got so far, in the end it doesn't even matter.
Joshua Ebenezer
  1. A PhD is a journey of perseverance, creativity, and systematic execution.
  2. Take ownership of your research and don’t wait for your advisor or collaborators to tell you what to do. Be pragmatic, get data and results first and then ask them for advice on how to improve what you’ve done.
  3. Sometimes an idea is simple but gives extraordinary boosts in results, so do not be afraid to stand on the shoulders of giants. But sometimes all the giants are looking the wrong way, so don’t be afraid to explore new ways of doing things.


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