Category Archives: Graduate school

I3T Lab Hiring PhD Students and Postdocs

Duke University I^3T Lab has multiple openings for PhD students and postdocs. We work in the area of pervasive mobile and sensing systems broadly, and pervasive mobile Augmented Reality (AR) and next-generation intelligence for the Internet of Things in particular. … Continue reading

Posted in Augmented reality, Duke University, Edge computing, Graduate school, Hiring, Internet of Things, Mobile computing, Research, Students | Comments Off on I3T Lab Hiring PhD Students and Postdocs

I Wish I Could Dance: Science Magazine Dance Your PhD Contest

Science Magazine announced its 9th annual Dance Your PhD Contest — a competition for best explaining your PhD research in an interpretive dance.

Posted in Academia, Achievement, Communication skills, Creativity, Funding, Graduate school, Humor, Ph.D., Sports | Comments Off on I Wish I Could Dance: Science Magazine Dance Your PhD Contest

Post-Ph.D. Job Market: Timelines

I recently gave a talk at a WimNet group meeting regarding my post-Ph.D. job market experiences and lessons learned. A version of the slides that is not Columbia-specific and applicable to many EECS students is available below: Slides from the … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Career, Data science, Graduate school, Industry, Ph.D., Tips and tricks | Comments Off on Post-Ph.D. Job Market: Timelines

Convocation and Commencement

Our Columbia graduation ceremonies took a substantial part of this week and were amazing. I love graduating from Columbia. Growing up in the direst poverty and deprivation in the 1990s Russia, I could not dare to dream of getting to … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Achievement, Career, Exciting! News and updates, Graduate school, Ph.D. | Comments Off on Convocation and Commencement

Proud Academic Heritage

Thanks to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, my labmates and I have recently compiled a chart of our academic ancestors, which traces Ph.D. advisor-advisee relationships back to the 1600s. We compiled the chart and got it framed for our advisor’sĀ Gil Zussman‘s … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Data visualization, Graduate school, Ph.D. | Comments Off on Proud Academic Heritage

WimNet’s Columbia University Electrical Engineering Department Awards

My research group (that is, professor Gil Zussman‘s WimNet lab) has had a very good day today, at the Columbia University Electrical Engineering Department BBQ where this year’s graduate student awards were announced. Saleh Soltan received the Armstrong Memorial Award, … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Achievement, Exciting! News and updates, Graduate school, Ph.D. | Comments Off on WimNet’s Columbia University Electrical Engineering Department Awards

Mentoring Students

While much is written about various approaches and activities grad students can use to keep engaged and motivated and to succeed (such as wonderful advice provided here, here, here, here, and in many other articles and posts), one particular useful … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Career, Graduate school, Management, Ph.D., Skills, Tips and tricks | Comments Off on Mentoring Students

Why are we Doing This? (1) Learning, (2) Growth.

Rob Margolies, a Ph.D. student in my research group, has recently written a great blog post about why Ph.D. students push themselves so hard. In short, it is because we really feel that we are learning and growing, in many … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Career, Good reads, Graduate school, Humor, Ph.D., Skills | Comments Off on Why are we Doing This? (1) Learning, (2) Growth.

Microsoft Research Presentation Video

A video of a talk I recently gave at Microsoft Research Seattle is now available online. In this talk I introduced the Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags Project and talked about my contributions to the project and to the overall … Continue reading

Posted in Achievement, Energy harvesting, Exciting! News and updates, Graduate school, Ph.D. | Comments Off on Microsoft Research Presentation Video

Top 10 Reasons Students Fail A Ph.D.

I found a lovely summary of the typical reasons Ph.D. students struggle and fail. Well worth reading over for inspiration and reflection. My favorite part: “A Ph.D. is not the final undertaking. It’s the start of a scientific career. A … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Career, Good reads, Graduate school, Ph.D., Tips and tricks | Comments Off on Top 10 Reasons Students Fail A Ph.D.