PhD proposal. You should have some solid first
results already, and a good idea about what your dissertation might
look like. The proposal should present work
that, (1) when completed, would be a significant advance, and (2) you
can complete within a reasonable time (e.g. 1-3 years).
The proposal document is about 1/3 background, motivation, and related
work, 1/3 about what you've done already, and 1/3 about what you will
do to complete it. Take a look at the suggested
proposal outline, well as the
Heilmeier questions, and general
suggestions on scientific writing. It is
also a good idea to read some of the earlier proposal documents by
people in the group; they are all linked from the nn calendar.
As usual, we will start with the outline, and make progress in chunks,
i.e. you finish writing a few sections that go together and I'll read
and make suggestions. After a few such iterations, you will
distributed the proposal to your committee (2 weeks before the
proposal talk at least).
Selecting a committee
In addition to your advisor, you need 1-2 people from UTCS and 1-2
people outside of UTCS, and at least four altogether.
In selecting committee members, you need to balance two
things: having people who can and are willing to help you in your
work, i.e. have expertise that complements your area. On the other
hand, they will probably write you letters when you graduate, so they
should also be well known in your area. It is a very good idea to have
some well-known person from another university to be on your committee
-- someone whose work you have built on, or someone who knows your
work well and has interest in it. This latter point is important;
his/her recommendation letter will only be useful if s/he really knows
what you are doing and likes it, and is willing to say so in his/her
letter. A superficial letter from a well-known person does not help
you much.
Proposal talk
Proposal talks at UT are announced UTCS-wide and it may be a good idea
to go to one of them to see what the process is like. It is sometimes
difficult to find time for the entire committee to participate, but it
has become easier now that some of them can participate remotely. The
remote participation rules keep changing, but at the moment at least
the candidate and the advisor need to be there in person--others can
be remote.
The proposal talk should be about 40 minutes long; it is perhaps more
similar to a JobTalk than to a
conference
presentation in that you have a wider audience, and you have to
spend more time on motivation and significance and (especially) future
work. You should also prepare some extra slides, anticipating
questions from your audience and committee, and organize them so that
you'll find them easily when you are nervous. We will usually
schedule a practice presentation at the
NN meeting a few days/weeks before the talk; it is usually very
useful way to find out which parts of the talk are working well and
which need more work.
Last modified: Sun Sep 25 11:37:49 PDT 2022