JULY/AUGUST 2008 210278-6648/08/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE

The success of graduate programs (M.S. and Ph.D.) in anyuniversity is measured by the success of their graduatestudents working in industry and competing with peers

from other universities. The lessons taught by the facultyenable engineering graduates to acquire expertise in their dis-cipline in work, which results from poise, vigor, and hardwork. Graduates should be able to maintain the same poise,vigor and hard work as they continue lifetime learning.

Education should be well rounded with good knowledgeacquisition through all courses, the physical upkeep of the bodyand mind through extracurricular activities, and the develop-ment of the philanthropic mind through community and charita-ble services. In addition, the student must develop good presen-tation and overall communications skills. In total, these aspectscontribute to the well-rounded education of a student.

Advise and consent

Each graduate stu-dent must make a judi-

cious decision on theselection of a faculty advi-

sor. The advisor will assistthe student in the selection

of courses and also the the-sis/dissertation area of interest.

The advisor will be a team mem-ber with the graduate student to

ensure successful completion ofthe thesis/dissertation. Incoming

students often find themselves askingenrolled students about the advisors.

In any environment, there are mythsand there are realities. One must under-

stand each and make the proper decisionwhen selecting an advisor.

The myths:❏ Select an advisor who can provide research assistant-

ship (RA).❏ Select an advisor who is very easy on students.❏ Select an advisor who does not make the student work hard.Realities:❏ Select an advisor who is working in an area in which the

student is interested in pursuing research.❏ Select an advisor who is significantly knowledgeable in

the research area of interest.❏ Select an advisor who can properly assess whether the

student is progressing in research. It does not mean that somefaculty members may not know how to assess the progress.On the contrary, there are faculty members who may not bevery active in pursuing research and therefore, they may notbe in a position to provide appropriate assessment of the stu-dent’s progress. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2008.925528

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A game plan for grad school success

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22 IEEE POTENTIALS

Choose your research wisely

Understanding the research interestof an incoming graduate student is notan easy task. As long as the studentidentifies the core area of interest, thestudent will be able to pursue researchin that area. Also, it is important for thestudent to have an understanding thatthe area of research must be reasonablein providing a shot at an employmentopportunity. Universities offer an envi-ronment for discussion and provide anopportunity to exploit this environmentthrough talks with faculty and their ownresearch to see how one should choosea research area of interest.

Selecting a research area depends onmany factors ranging from ease ofunderstanding the subject matter, back-ground knowledge derived from thecoursework, passion for the subjectmatter, opportunities upon graduation,and how well one can maintain lifetimelearning abilities. Finding a researcharea is not a trivial matter, and studentscan make a good decision throughopen communication with otherresearchers and faculty members.

Usually, when a student selects aresearch area, the faculty advisor isalso identified. Once the associationwith the faculty member as an advisormaterializes, the faculty member andstudent form a team to developresearch through thesis/dissertation.Thesis/dissertation can be accom-plished either theoretically or throughapplied research working in a labora-tory or a center. Working in the centeror a laboratory will provide solid expe-rience in solving real-world problems,as the work can be supported fromexternal grants from government agen-cies and industry. The faculty memberis very likely to provide RA funding forthe student to work in the laboratoryand/or research effort. When fundingis provided, there is an obligation onthe part of the student to support thefaculty member and there is an obliga-tion for the faculty to provide results tohis/her client (or funding agency).

It is important to understand therelationship of the student with facultywhen financial support is provided.Based on the United States universitysystem, the following guidelines aretypically applied when financial supportis provided through external funding:

❏ RA support requires each studentto work 20 hours/week on the support-ed project.

❏ Thesis/dissertation efforts are tobe done outside these 20 hours.

❏ Students can use the results of theprojects for their thesis/dissertation.

❏ Professors will not provide RA sim-ply to work in the laboratory/center; theyexpect that the student will complete theirthesis/dissertation when providing RA.

❏ Professors expect that the studentswho do well in an M.S. program willcontinue in the Ph.D. program.Although this is not a requirement, thechances of getting an RA are high if thegraduate student demonstrates an inter-est in pursuing doctoral studies.

❏ Value proposition needs to bedefined to benefit the student, the pro-fessor, and the funding agency. It is animportant aspect of the student-facultyteam. The benefit of having an RAenhances the knowledge base by work-ing on state-of-the-art research; devel-oping the ability to work in a stressfulenvironment with longer hours; theability to solve difficult and criticalproblems; increased discipline in work-ing hard to complete tasks on time; thefostering of teamwork by working withothers in the group to produce qualityresults; and maintaining loyalty to theorganization. These benefits will helpstudents in their work environment fol-lowing graduation.

The faculty benefit comes from thepleasure of developing a student tomaturity in education and research;assisting the university in increasing thenumber of students; and bringing upthe academic standing of the programs.Also, on an individual basis, the facultyis able to present research results innumerous journals and conferences,which enhances his/her status in theengineering community at large.

The department (or institution) ben-efits from the enhanced position withthe opportunity to become a premierresource due to the expertise inresearch areas, which also directly ben-efits future student recruitment andincreased monetary support of researchof all faculty members. The ultimategoal, however, is to develop excellentgraduate programs with state-of-the-artresearch capabilities in the department.This will enhance the graduate studentsworking in industry and improvedindustry/university traction for hiringnewly graduating students.

Since it is a team, professors play avaluable role in the growth of students,even after the completion of their edu-cation. Difficulties faced by former stu-

dents can find a sympathetic ear fromthe professor. A professor can becomea very good friend.

Thesis says what?There are three factors that assist the

selection of a thesis/dissertation topic:❏ background research❏ research topics supported in fund-

ed research❏ deliverables of funded research.The background research, when

properly conducted to understand whatpeer researchers are doing, will assist inidentifying the advantages and short-comings of research. It can then beused to develop a research problemand allow the student to solve the prob-lem that addresses different shortcom-ings. The funded research usually has adefined scope and objective that specif-ically targets the research for the fund-ing agency. When working as RA, thestudent will be able to work on this anduse the research results as part of the-sis/dissertation.

The del iverables of fundedresearch may not be usable for thethesis/dissertation, but the outcomesmay provide secondary research top-ics that can be exploited as part ofthe thesis/dissertation. The student-faculty team can explore these topicsto identify the research area for thethesis/dissertation.

Once the research area is selected,it is important to define the scope andobjectives of the thesis/dissertation. Itis very important to develop a focusedscope for the research in order toensure timely completion of the the-sis/dissertation. The objectives of theresearch must be specific, with precisestatements, so that each objective isaddressed properly and solutions aredeveloped.

Based on the scope and objectives,one should define a compelling prob-lem statement. The student can developa solid problem statement by workingwith the faculty in background researchincluding reading published papers injournals and conferences, through theselection of proper course work in theprogram, and attending seminars bysenior researchers who are facultymembers and engineers.

With this, the student has achieveddefining the scope of thesis/disserta-tion, defined a compelling problemstatement, and generated backgroundresearch material with a good set of ref-erences for the thesis/dissertation.

JULY/AUGUST 2008 23

Time for a strategyBefore looking at the research strate-

gies, it is important to distinguishbetween a master’s thesis and a doctoraldissertation. A master’s thesis needs tobe original in solving a research problemin the area of concentration. However,the research problem may not necessari-ly have to be original. The doctoral dis-sertation, on the other hand, needs to bean original problem not solved previous-ly in the area of concentration.

In a master’s thesis, the student tendsto solve a problem that has been derivedfrom the broader research topics that arebeing addressed. As long as the problemis solved in a unique way in terms ofimprovements, efficient methods, orgood mathematical modeling and simu-lation, it is acceptable for the thesis. Thecompletion of the thesis usually requiresapproximately nine months of effort bythe student. While publication is highlyencouraged, a master’s thesis can becompleted without publication.

The doctoral dissertation explicitlyrequires solving an original problemthat has not yet been addressed. Thesolution to the problem must bedemonstrated in terms of an enhance-ment of the knowledge base in scienceand engineering. A compelling argu-ment is made by the student based onthe background research conducted.

Typically, universities in the UnitedStates require the publication of at leasttwo refereed journal papers (one pub-lished and one submitted) for the suc-cessful completion of a doctoraldegree. The completion of a doctoraldissertation (and the required coursework) requires a minimum of three-and-a-half years of strong efforts by thestudent. It is very important to com-plete your doctoral studies in 3.5–4years to maintain the state-of-the-artresearch so it may be useful to theresearch community at large.

As a student works at research, it isimportant to know when the thesis or thedissertation is going to be completed. Asstated previously, the research must havea value to the advisor and the fundingagency. Working very closely with thefaculty advisor helps the student to gainthe knowledge of when he/she is goingto complete his/her thesis/dissertation.

For timely completion of thethesis/dissertation, it is important foreach student to develop both writingand presentation skills. Any subjectmatter must be presented to an audi-ence at their level of understanding of

the subject matter. This skill set comesover a time with effort by each student.

Presentation skill (also synonymouswith communications skill) will allowother peer members to focus on what isbeing discussed. A well-rounded personwill have a knowledge base, writingskills, and presentation skills. Advisorsoften assist in the development of theseskill sets by allowing students to presentperiodical seminars of work in progress.Universities also have courses to developthe writing and presentation skills of thestudents. Students should make everyeffort to make use of the resources avail-able for developing these skills. If a stu-dent has difficulty in these skill sets, thenhe/she will find it difficult to completethe thesis/dissertation in a timely manner.

For both master’s and doctoral pro-grams, it is important to understandhow the credit system works regardingresearch. Many students may not beaware of the credit system used in theUnited States. Each university offers dif-ferent sets of credits to the master’s the-sis and doctoral dissertations.

Understanding the number of hoursof effort needed to complete the the-sis/dissertation using the credit-basedapproach is important. If a master’s the-sis is six credits (submitting a writtenthesis and defending the thesis throughoral presentation), it often requires thatthe student put in 24 hours per week ofwork effort for the research. This is inaddition to the 20 hours per week that astudent works for the RA as well ashours for other course work in the pro-gram. If a student registers for ninecredits of course work in a semester andhas an RA support, he/she shouldexpect to work a total of 15 hours plus20 hours for RA. This comes to a total of35 hours per week of work. Usually, thestudents who take the master’s thesisneed to spend an additional 15 hourstoward developing background researchand identifying the thesis problem, evenwhen they have not yet registered forthe thesis credits. Therefore, the studentwho is pursuing a master’s degree endsup with a weekly load of 50 hours.Often it tends to be more in the rangeof 60 hours or more due to lack ofknowledge in additional skill sets.

While the hours may be long, they areflexible, and therefore, the student learnshow to manage working hours during thecourse of the study. Later, this skill set inmanaging the time will be useful in thejob environment. A master’s thesis is notalways mandatory but is highly recom-

mended. The broad knowledge enhance-ment due to completing a thesis is veryhigh. The student develops skills in writ-ing, presentation, critical problem solving,how to validate the results, and how towork as a member of a team. Workingon a thesis requires a passion in problemsolving and an interest in exploring newareas of research.

For doctoral studies, the student typi-cally registers for nine research creditsevery semester, with a maximum of 36credits for research. This means the stu-dent will complete his/her essentialresearch in two years. For nine researchcredits, the doctoral student should expectapproximately 45 hours of work perweek. This is in addition to the 20 hoursper week that a student dedicates towardan RA and other course work within theprogram. It essentially adds up to 60–80hours of work per week for the total pro-gram. Since the total number of creditsrequired to complete doctoral educationexceeds 50 credits, it takes about 3.5–4years to complete the degree program.The number of hours is only a guidelineto indicate the seriousness of the effortsrequired and is not a rigid figure.

Once the choice is made to worktoward an M.S. or Ph.D., the student-professor team must succeed for mutu-al benefit. Disciplined efforts from thestudent will become the hallmark ofcareer development, while the depart-ment and university enhance their sta-tus—it bodes well for appealing tofuture students. It is important to notethat without the commitment to com-plete a master’s thesis, the studentshould not pursue thesis work. If thecommitment is lost in working on thedoctoral dissertation, the student pre-sents enormous problems to the facultyand the funding agency that supportedthe RA in the first place. It is extremelyimportant that once the student starts aPh.D. dissertation, he/she must doeverything necessary to fulfill the oblig-ation of completing that dissertation.

Whether it is a master’s thesis or adoctoral dissertation, the researchmethodology is similar. It includes:

❏ conducting background research❏ defining “the research problem”

within the scope of research ❏ conducting the research successfully.The student must be able to see that

once the problem is defined and solved,and there must be an understanding ofwhat future research problems may arise.

Conducting background researchinvolves reading published papers in the

24 IEEE POTENTIALS

concentration and identifying what prob-lems have been solved as well as theshortcomings in the published research.It will help to define the problem state-ment for the thesis or dissertation. Theresearch methodology requires the stu-dent to work with the professor weeklyor bimonthly. The student must seek outthe professor for discussion. These dis-cussions should assist the student indefining the problem. When studentshave difficulty, the professor can behelpful with ironing out the difficulties.Professors can identify situations whenthe student is having difficulty and whenhe/she is not putting forth an adequateeffort. The students can get good inputfrom professors and they must takeadvantage of these discussions.

The professor can evaluate whetherthe student has completed all the nec-essary research tasks and is ready towrite the thesis/dissertation. The profes-sor is valuable to the students in devel-oping writing and presentation skills.On funded research, the professorrequires students to provide results in atimely manner. Without these results,the professor cannot provide sufficientdata to the funding agencies to fulfillthe obligations of the research funding.

Once the research is complete, pro-fessors can assist students with employ-ment opportunities. Professors and theiruniversities like to see that their gradu-ates are gainfully employed andexcelling in their fields based on theknowledge gained and lifetime learningfrom graduate school.

Publications are important in measur-ing the value of research results. As dis-cussed earlier, it is important to developresults that can be published, leading torefereed conference and journal papers.Doctoral studies often require at leastone paper to be published in a refereedjournal and one additional paper is sub-mitted in order to complete the disserta-tion, while master’s studies typically hasno mandatory requirement for publica-tions, but it is highly encouraged.

Research is a serious business inlearning. Each student must demon-strate efforts in problem solving by cre-ative thinking. By the time the studentcompletes his/her graduate studies,experience is gained in defining andsolving a problem as well as the abilityto multitask. In the industrial environ-ment multitasking is a norm, and gradu-ate school experience will provide aresource for the student to work well inan industrial environment.

Pump up the knowledge base

Students who want to be researchersand pursue theses/dissertations mustdevelop an increase of the knowledgebase through innovative efforts.Validation of the research can beachieved by publishing the results in ref-ereed journals and conference papers.The presentation of research results mustdemonstrate accuracy, and it should nothave any ambiguities. To achieve this,every effort must be made to make clearand plausible assumptions. The state-ments on the scope, objectives, and theresearch methodology must be crisp.The research and research results mustbe properly deduced to provide oppor-tunities for others to critique. For exam-ple, it is not good enough to produceresults using simulation tools, one mustvalidate and verify the results. Resultsshould be truthful and explainable. Onlythen can the research contribute to theincrease of knowledge base in scienceand engineering.

Another aspect that assists in theenhancement of the knowledge base isthe ability of students and faculty to dis-cuss results at various forums. Studentsmust make an effort to become mem-bers of professional societies (e.g. theIEEE) as student members. They shouldparticipate in meetings, network withindustry members, and mingle freelywith others to discuss their research andlisten to other opinions of their research.

Attendance at conferences to presentpapers is important in getting the wordout about your research. Many profes-sors and universities provide funds fortravel. Students can also gain experienceby organizing seminars and inviting wellknown researchers to their university.

Great expectationsIt is important to remember that

employers will not continue to pay thesalaries of those who do not contribute toprojects. Before a company presents anoffer, it wants answers to many questions.An employer will request references andset up interviews during the hiringprocess. You should expect to answer thefollowing questions:

❏ Why are you the right person forthe job?

❏ What do you offer that cannot beachieved by other applicants?

❏ Are you a team player?❏ Do you complete assignments on

time? (This is not a 40 hours/weekwork environment.)

❏ Do you thrive with independentwork efforts?

❏ Can you work independentlywithout constant supervision? (Similareffort is done as a research student.)

❏ Is the candidate really capable ofworking hard? (Many professors areasked this question about their studentswhen contacted by employers.)

❏ Where would you like to be in5–10 years and beyond?

❏ Do you have a passion for theprojects required by this position?

Once the employer decides to hirethe candidate, they usually expect thefollowing from the employee:

❏ Be prepared to work long hours.❏ Meet deadlines.❏ Work as a team player.❏ An ability to learn from projects

that may not fall into your area ofexpertise.

❏ Self-learning (books, reports) maybe required since in many organizationsit is difficult to get assistance in learning.

Life can be tough if one lacks theknowledge to work on projects, butlearning how to work hard as a gradu-ate student in a stressful environmentwhile doing research is excellent experi-ence. Professors can only guide studentsinto productive and rewarding careers.

Universities and their departmentsand professors work with students as ateam to attempt to present a well round-ed graduate to the job market. Whenthe graduate student gainfully movesinto an industry, he/she represents theprofessor, the department, and the uni-versity and it is the responsibility of thecandidate to maintain the spirit of disci-pline and become a role model forfuture students.

AcknowledgmentsThe author wishes to acknowledge

Dr. John Attia, head of the Departmentof Electrical and Computer Engineering,Prairie View A&M University, and Dr.Shaik Jeelani, vice president ofresearch, Tuskegee University, for pro-viding an opportunity to make a pre-sentation to the graduate students andfaculty. This article brings together thematerials from these presentations.

About the authorDhadesugoor R. Vaman is a Texas

Instruments endowed chair professorand founding director of ARO Centerfor Battlefield Communications(CeBCom) Research, ECE Department,Prairie View A&M University.