Nanoparticles in air pollution

Hearing the words “airborne nanoparticles” for the first time, one would probably ask: just how tiny are they, where do they come from, and do we need to worry about them? Read the full article here.

10 things a research presentation must have?

When given an opportunity to make a presentation of your work, it is imperative that you make the best use of given few 10's of minutes by not only covering the key contents of your work but also considering the interest of audience. After all, this is not only you who is spending time, there is also the audience who has come to listen you and deserve to take away few good points from your presentation. Tuning the presentation according to the audience is often necessary. This can also drive you to reconsider the ways of expressing the technical contents (in-depth or surfacial) but this should not influence the delivery of key findings or ideas behind the work.

For a research (or a technical) presentation, I feel that the following key elements must be included in an orderly manner:

1. 'Descriptive' title

Generally, the title should be self-explanatory and should provide a clear idea of: (i) what has been done, and (ii) why (or for what reason) this has been done. A simple example of this could be 'dispersion modelling of air pollution for determining their health and environmental impacts'. There could be instances when the title above is just one part of your whole activity and you want to serve the big picture of your work to the audience. In this case, more broad and open title can be formed in the similar manner. However, it is then worth mentioning during your introduction that the title represents your whole work but this talk will focus on one (or more) part of this problem. After the title, this first slide should also include the name of the authors involved in this work and their affliations, with a clear indication by underlining or putting an artistic sign on the name of presenting author.

2. 'Clear' outline

Second slide after the title should provide a clear outline of your presentation. The contents could well be bullet points similar to the headings 3 to 7 covered below. This is an important slide to give a quick tour of your slides to the audience and make them prepare in advance to the contents you are going to serve them.

3. 'Impressive' introduction

The introduction should be prepared in such a way that this clearly shows the research gaps, needs, importance, novelty and application of your work. In a nutshell, you should make best efforts to include (and address) the following questions: (i) what is the motivation for this research, (ii) what has been done till date, (iii) what are research gaps, and (iv) what are objectives, and novelty, of your research. Including such information in few sentences is a challenging task and require preparation. The last question in particular is often difficult to form but stating this clearly will help both you and the audience to clearly understand (and link) your research questions with the contents of the presentation.

4. 'Detailed' methodology

Under this part of the presentation, try to summarise the methodology adopted to acheive the research objectives. This is sometimes difficult to avoid complex equations, if the work is mathematical, but whatever you include deserves to be explained. Putting a number of equations and do not talk about them due to time constraints or for other reason is not advisable and does not impress the audience much. Sometimes, you can prepare extra slides and put them in the end as back up slides and can recall them if someone asks you the details in question-answer sessions.

5. 'Concrete' results

This is one of the main sections of a presentation. The key results should be presented with the help of graphs, tables and text. Including small video clips, if available, can sometime helps the audiance to digest complex contents in a easy manner. If you have too many results to present but think that the allocated time is not sufficient enough to explain them, you can include the most important results here and few extra slides as a back up, as explained in above section.

6. 'Concise' summary and conclusion

One or two slides should be included for this section. Firstly, all the work presented should be summarised very briefly and then the key conclusions should be included as few bullet points.

7. 'Visionary' future work

No matter how much work you have done, or time spend, on a particular topic, there will still be questions left to address. Identifying those questions requires thinking, updated knowledge of the literature on that topic, and a clear research vision. If you are in the middle of your research and making a presentation, you can state these as your next research step. One the other hand, if you have concluded your research, these questions can be left for others to address. Including such questions in your presentation in a separate slide is essential for convincing the audiance that you are up to date with the current literature on the topic, understand the ups and downs of the work and have a clear future insight.

8. 'Generous' acknowledgements

This slide should include the name of all those people, organisation or a funding body who have helped your research. These could also include the name of your colleagues, fellow researchers or the lab staff. Including such information does not hurt you but will be appreciated by others and you will have edge to go back to them and ask for the help again!

9. 'Creadatble' references

If you have referred someones work, the authors of those articles/reports deserve credit and these should be included, and cited within the presentation wherever applicable, in your reference list. One slide for this purpose could be included. You can also include few key references to suggest the audiance for further reading on your work.

10. 'Strict' time management

Time management is a key and is equally important as are the contents. If the presentation is too long and you had to rush in the end, you will loose the edge you earned during your presentation. One of the best ways to complete the presentation within the allocated time is to practice this many times and selecting the most important bits from each slide to describe.

Concluding remarks

A general thumb rule for preparing the number of slides to fit in allocated time is about one slide per minute. This is good to be relaxed and bring humour during your talk but not at the expense of making fun (or talking loose) about your own methodology adopted or instrumentation applied.

Happy reading!
Prashant

(PS: Please feel free to add whatever you think is left out by clickling on the 'comments' icon given below. Please record your reactions also just by clicking on one of the three buttons below.)

Evolving 'Scientists' into 'Science-twists'?

First of all, it is worth defining the First of all, it is worth defining the terms 'scientist' and science-twist' in the context of this article. The dictionary definition of the scientist is 'the person with an advance knowledge of one or more sciences'. Here, the term 'science-twist' is defined as 'the person with an advance knowledge of various science disciplines without (or with) an intention of compromising the quality of the results for achieving desired outcomes'.

The objectives of this article is to look at the current research practices in the light of both the above defined terms, and to discuss the topic 'whether today's scientists are turning into science-twists?'.

As discussed in the article below, pecuiliar combination of output oriented workload on the academics and contention for publishing large number of articles to prove their scientific productivty is a normal part of today's academic life. This also lead sometimes in research frauds by twisting the research data. This may not be completely true in cases when scientists working in research Institutes are only assigned research work though they may have their own concerns in terms of attracting funding for carrying out their research. However, this is nearly true in today's very competitive academic environment where a huge work load, in terms of administrative, management and teaching activities, are implicitly part of the job and large expectations for bringing in research projects and publishing in top ranked journals are generally kept from the academics. A recent article by Fanelli (2010) looked into this matter and concluded based on the the USA data that competitive academic environments increase not only scientists' productivity but also their bias; the same phenomenon might be observed in other countries where academic competition and pressures to publish are high.

A study by Bjork et al. (2006) reported that there were about 27,750 peer-reviewed scientific journals worldwide in 2006 that published over 1,35,000 articles. This figure has grown substantially over the last recent years. This is just an indication about the extent to which research is being published. The good aspect of this is an excellent dissimination of the research to the scientific community worldwide which is far bettter than the old days. However, the negative aspect is many of these articles may not even meet required basic standards and just be giving surfacial scientific information. Moreover, the new trend has emerged in publishing research articles, which is publishing research results into small pieces to increase the quantity of the articles published by an individual. However, one of the reasons for this is also the word limits imposed by the journal. Unlike most of today's research articles, old articles may be a bit longer with a detailed methodology which allows the users to reproduce the results or the data presented in them.

Another trend which have emerged in recent years is a unsatisfying hunger of research grants in academics. A general perception is that more the research fundings one have (no matter in what research area!), better he/she is having a chance for academic growth. A number of academics spend nearly most of their available time in writing grants and managing the already going on research projects. In another words, many of us are turning into 'research managers' rather than the 'research scientists' because of rarely doing research ourselves; this has given birth to a inverse-learning trend i.e. 'learing through sub-ordinate research staff rather than the other way around'. In fact, self-research is also not practically possible given the commitments to various activities (other than core research) that can probably end up in compromising the quality of research output.

There is a constant pressure on today's scientists to get positive publishable results and win research fundings. The current situation is not like it used to be years ago when scientists had ample of time and flexibility for publishing selective high quality research on their own will. To survive in highly competitive academic environment and to achieve given (or self set out) research targets, there is a less margin of error in today's academic environment for an individual to get negative unpublishible results which may also increase the chances of derialing from the original path and in turn affecting the quality of the research output.

There is no mantra to avoid this situtation. However, self periodic re-evaluation for maintaining a good balance between the quality and the quanitity of research, and choosing the best of the available options could help up to avoid the situations described above up to some extent.

Regards,
Prashant

Note: The thoughts presented in this article are solely of the author and do not represent any organisation, group or any other individual.

Measuring your scientific productivity and impact on science?

Academics, researchers or the scientists work hard for boosting their research and disseminate it through various channels such as conference presentations and articles, technical reports or journal publications. A question can always be raised that 'how to evaluate the individual's productivity and the impact on science or scientific community'. Whether this should relate with the number of articles he published or the quality of these articles? The one widely accepted measure, though opposed by many, is the hirch factor (h-factor). It is not perfect index but takes into account both the quality and the quantity of individual's publications.

What is h-factor?
The h-factor was first described by a physics Professor, J.E. Hirsch, in a PNAS article in 2005. He defined this as 'a scientist has index h if h of his or her Np papers have at least h citations each and the other (Np-h) papers have <=h citations each'. The aim of this article is not to describe the h-factor in detail but to present views on its application in real life. Detailed explanation of h-factor can be seen in the source article. The h-factor can be computed by using SCOPUS, ISI Web of Knowledge or any other tools such as scHolar index.

How does this relate your scientific productivity and impact?
The citation to your articles is the key for a better h-factor. For example, if you publish 250 articles and one of your article gets cited 250 times or more but among the remaining ones, for instance, only 10 other articles get cited 10 or less times; the h-factor in this case will be only 10. This example explains that if one has to increase his/her h-factor its crucial that the articles published by the individual gets continuous citation.

The citation can be directly related with the quality of the research presented in an article. However, there are contrasting thoughts about this. For example, in some cases you may find that despite having excellent science in an article it does not get citations. There could be several reasons for this, such as the novelty of research and its real-world application, dissemination media (i.e. the quality, popularity and the way of an journal to promote research), the name (and fame) of an individual scientists in a particular research area, selection of an appropriate journal for publication and the way of presenting the research in the article in a fresh, interesting and attracting manner, etc.

Is this fair to compare the scientists working in different disciplines using h-factor?
My answer to this question is 'no'. The reason is that articles in some areas are not very well cited as opposed to others; see a lost of journal impact factors here. For example, the most cited journal in Environmental Sciences and Engineering is having an impact factor of about 5. This is much lower if we consider a example of structural engineering in contrast to substantially higher impact factor journals in neuroscience (about 178). It also means that if one is working in an area of high impact factored journals and manage to publish frequently can have a high h-factor.

What 'numbers' are impressive in Engineering?
My personal view is that if you have a h-index less than 15, your impact could be considered 'average'. This could be 'good' when h-index is between 15 and 25, 'very good' between 25 and 35, excellent between 35 and 50, and outstanding over 50. However, I do not have any strong support to defend this classification except saying that I know few people in the area of Engineering that have h-factor just over 50; they are key people in their fields with outstanding individual contributions.

Concluding remarks
It is probably not the best way to measure individuals productivity and impact but we currently do not seem to have a better index. This number could be good to mention in short biographies or applications that are made for jobs or research grants. The h-factor can not grow over night, it requires time to get your articles cited and consistet efforts from your part to include better science in your articles. However, the important thing which I feel is doing the good science in your articles rather than aiming first for h-factor and then writing the articles.

I hope you will find this article interesting and useful. Please feel free to comment on it, if you have any!

Regards,
Prashant

Tips for writing technical reports (BEng/MEng/MSc/EngD/D.Phil/PhD)

It is crucial to present your work in a concise, effective and impressive way. Failing to do so also means that you are not doing justice to the work you actually did over a span of several months. This article gives an outline of the report structure and an idea about the possible contents within several subsections of a BEng, MEng, MSc or PhD reports.

A good report generally follows the following order:

Title page
It should include tile of the report, name of the department and University with logo, few words explaining its submission (i.e. this dissertation is submitted for (or the part of) the degree of B.Eng., MEng or PhD, etc.), followed by your name and supervisors name (in some case people do not write it here, so its better to check in earlier reports).

Dedication (optional)
It’s an optional page, but you want to dedicate your report to someone by writing his/her name (i.e. dedicate to….)

Declaration
It is an important page, and should include a couple of lines stating that the work presented in the report is your own work and contents taken form other places are duly acknowledged. Also, a line including the information on number of words, tables and figures can be included.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledging someone does not affect you, but leave a good impression on the person who helped you. Firstly, one should clearly acknowledge his/her supervisor and co–supervisor (if any) with their names. Then, it is worth acknowledging others (including funding body, colleagues, family and friends) if you feel that they have contributed directly or indirectly to your work.

Publications
Include a page on list of publications (if you published any) that came out as a part of work included in your report. It is a direct measure of the quality of your work, giving a clear idea to the examiner about the originality of your work , providing you a strong chance to defend your work. For PhDs, it is quite important to list journal and conference publications. It will look impressive and extraordinary if one can tick this box while doing other degrees.

Abstract
Abstract is the ‘face’ of your report. It should be as concise and short as possible. A standard is generally of 350 words or one page length. If one is not being able to fit this within this criteria, it reflects his confusion and inability to summarise the key results in a consolidated manner.

An abstract should address the following questions in a orderly manner. Couple of lines can be dedicated to each of the following:

• Motivation: why have you done this study or what are research gaps,
• Objective: what are aims of your work,
• Methodology adopted to address the define objectives,
• Key results and findings,
• Application of your findings to real–world problems or how this will fill the research gap.

Although, it is up to an individual that how much word he dedicate to each of the above questions.

Note that the pages before this (including abstract) are NOT numbered.

Table of Contents
This should include a detailed list of all the contents starting from this section to Appendices. Numbering should start from this page in roman letters (i.e. i, ii. iii, … etc.) and should end at List of nomenclature. From Chapter 1 (Introduction) real numbering of the report should start (i.e. 1, 2, 3….).

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Nomenclature

Chapter 1: Introduction
It should contain the following: (i) motivation, (ii) research objective, (iii) research approach, and (iv) report outline. It is always good to keep this chapter short (i.e. 3-5 pages), but length can vary depending on the type of report.

Chapter 2: Literature Review
It should contain the literature review of studies/materials which you are going to use in your upcoming chapters. For a BEng, MSc or MEng report, it can be between 10 and 20 pages but these numbers can be higher for PhD reports.

Chapter 3: Materials and Methods
This chapter should contain the description of methods which you are using for your main research work. In case of computational or theoritical study, it can contain the methods developed or applied. Number of pages may vary depending on the type of report and work.

Chapter 4: Results and Discussions
These can have more than one chapter depending on the nature of the report. These are the main and most important chapters on which you will be evaluated; these chapters reflect your original contribution to the selected topic. Thesrefore, it is important that these chapters are written concisely in a simple and clear language.

There are few points which can be considered while writing these chpaters: (i) one should not live in their own world while presenting the work but is always recommended to compare their results with already published someone else's work, (ii) these chapters should not just report the results but should include discussions on the results presented - sometime it is better to raise questions yourself to raise curocity in readers mind and then address them, (iiii) in some cases students have too much figures or material to include but it is dangerous to include all of them without their proper discussion - therefore the best way is to filter out the results (or try to merge figures together, if possible) and include the best figures/tables that fits well to the theme of the work, and (iv) it ihas often been observed that students get very impressed with someone else's work and bury their original contribution while discussing other's work - it is very important that you distinguish the difference between yours and others' work and present your work as main contents and use others' work to compliment or justify your results.

Number of pages (or word count) may differ depending on the type of the report. However, it is generally expected that this part contain bulk (~60% or more) of the total word count.

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions and Future Work
This chapter should summarise your whole work in 1-2 pages and make your conclusions using bullet points in further one page. One should not forget to include one or more paragraphs on future scope of work.

References
Besides related books that you can search from internet or library, you should look for research articles. Few of the search engines may be Science-direct or ISI Web of Knowledge or Scopus.

It is an important part of any report. You should provide a reference to any work which you refer (i.e. done by others). Moreover, the references in your report should be consistent in writing style. You can use EndNote or similar softwares for making the job easier.

Appendices
Include all of them in order at the end of the report (i.e. after references) but include only those contents that has been referred in the main body of the text.

One more point to remember:

Editing
Editing is crucial for a report. Without a proper editing a report is 'like a very expensive cloth stiched in a poorly manner'. Such reports do not leave good mark on the readers/ or examinors. This is not difficult to do proper editing. If you are using Latex, its automatically take care most of the things but you can also do good editing in word by defining style, headings, etc. One should always try to maintain consistency in writing, font type and size, spacings between (or after) paragraphs, figures and tables, and referencing styles, etc.

Happy reading!
Prashant

Summer Internships - once in a lifetime opportunity

Guest Article by: Saurabh Jain
I thank Saurabh for writing this article. Saurabh completed his Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2007, and is into Management Consulting since then, advising global firms on growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions, revenue enhancement, global expansion, etc. He has worked for Strategy & Operations division at Deloitte Consulting, and is currently working with consulting division at MN Dastur & Co. Pvt Ltd, Kolkata. He is also involved into a number of activities like writing, entrepreneurship and social works. He is an enthusiastic blogger and is involved with many social works like working against Dowry & Domestic Violence and is always ready to help anyone who needs advice on career and education related matters. He could be reached at saurabh.iit2003[at]gmail.com.

Doing a summer internship was a dream of mine. Many of my seniors had been to Internship during the summers after their 2nd or 3rd year, and almost all of my classmates had started talking about doing it – for many reasons – to see a totally new world, new people, new technologies, new environment, new kind of professors/professionals, new ways of doing things. In short, as they call it, an international exposure, that would help them in broadening the scope of their thinking, and in materialistic terms to get some quality stuff for their resume – after all, having an international experience does count on your resume (which I realised 2 years after graduating from IIT Delhi, that some companies clearly specify in their job listings – “candidates with international experience and atleast one foreign language preferred”). But for me, Europe was the only fascination – and I wanted to do it.

Application
I would not go into the details of how I went about applying. My initial method of applying was as haphazard as it is for any other starter. The best way to look for potential internship university or a company is to approach the people of your own discipline who have already been interns to the countries you want to go to – do a bit of networking and ask for their help if they can refer you to their previous university/professor/company. If you are unable to find any such seniors, the next best way is to open up your Orkut account, look for the Summer Internship communities, join them and go into the discussions. You’d find lots of people asking others about which university and which field of study are they going to do their internship in. Check out the websites of those universities, and start looking for professors’ profiles and if they belong to your field of interest and fire your email.

Approaching your own department professors won’t be a bad idea. Some professors have contacts with foreign universities, and they can contact them and help you get an internship.

Securing an internship needs luck and patience. Sometimes people make hundreds of applications before getting selected, and sometimes they get selected on the very first application. You’ve got to be at the right person at the right place at the right time.

Resume
Resume does matter – and always keep in mind that resume is not a one day job. A good resume takes editing a number of times. So the better way to go about making your resume is to first see atleast 10 resumes – take them from your seniors or download them from the internet. Do not copy paste anything from theirs. Just see their formats, and start building your own resume. And find out a senior who can be your mentor in resume preparation. Keep showing him the resume, and he’d give you the tips about what changes are required. Believe me, it takes atleast 20 iterations before you have a still imperfect resume in your hand. A resume is never perfect – it can always be better. Try and make a one-page resume (if achievements are too much and do not fit in one page even after shortening as much as possible, try and make a two page resume – but a strict ‘no’ to 1.5 page or 1.75 page resume). Once you feel the resume is at a decent level, start applying as mentioned in the previous section.

Funding
None of us wants to go for an internship by paying from our own pocket. And the good news is that scholarships are available for summer internships – but not always, and sometimes you’ve to be aware about the sources of scholarships. So, as soon as you get an internship offer from your professor, and you are told that you won’t be offered any funding for your stay and travel, visit that country’s embassy’s website. These websites list all the scholarships available for foreign students to study for short-term projects or bachelors or master’s degree in that country. Go to these links and find out the details about the application procedure, deadline for applications and apply immediately. Some organizations provide scholarships throughout the year while others provide them once annually or twice annually.

Secured more than one internship?
Some people get positive responses from more than one university/company. In this case, students have an option of selecting the best option in terms of country, subject, university or finances. The left out options could best be utilized by handing them over to your classmates who are also looking for internships. Talk to the professor or the company you’ve got an internship with, and tell them that since you cannot make it to the internships due to some personal reasons, you are recommending your friend for the position and they can consider him/her if they don’t mind. This helps everyone – your friends, the professor, and your own university gets a chance to represent itself at one more location on this earth.

While you are doing your internship
Once you have landed your dream destination, the responsibility lies on your shoulders on how you manage to make the most out of your internship. You’ve limited time of some 10 weeks and you must remember a few things that you must do.

i. Work should be your priority
Deliver your best. This will have many fold benefits. Firstly, you get a good recommendation from the place you are working in. This will help you get good grades for your summer internship projects when you are back home to your own university. A good work can also get you a recommendation if you are aiming at GRE/GMAT. Secondly, don’t forget that you are representing your university and your country. I’ve seen cases where university/country names are blacklisted for ever because of one intern’s behaviour. Thirdly, a good impression during your intern can help your juniors in getting the internships in future

ii. Networking
Grab as many opportunities of meeting and influencing people who will be helpful to you in your future.

iii. Tourism
This seems to be an obvious one in the “things to do” list, but some people just get involved with the above mentioned two things that they later regret not having realized the opportunity to see the beautiful world around. It’s your first tryst with your dreams – and first such experience as a student is always a memorable one.

I hope my experiences would be helpful in your internship pursuits. You can always contact me in for any other queries.

-Saurabh Jain
Summer Internship (ENPC-Paris, 2006)

What after a PhD?

What after a PhD - industry, academics, management or banking? This question generally confuse many of us because of several factors e.g. money, job satisfaction, work-life balance, job security and future growth, etc. Few of us have straight job priorities that is excellent. However, irrespective of any choice, it is important to start job hunting at the right time. Writing PhD can easily take up to six months. It is ideal time to start applying for jobs once first draft of your thesis is complete. Although, it is much better to start job hunting along with writing thesis considering the current market situation. Information below could be useful for job hunting:

1. Academics

There are three main stream in this category: post-doc or lecturer positions or fellowships.

1.1. Post-doc or lecturer positions
The first step could be to check web pages of various groups where you feel that your research interests could fit well. If you find something very relevant, but with no vacancies in that group, even then there is no harm in sending your CV to them. They may consider it in future if they found your profile promising and fitting into their requirements. This could be particularly useful for lecturer positions but make sure that your CV is going to the relevant person.

Other ways could be to sign up for job adverts. One excellent place for academic jobs is jobs.ac.uk while others could be academic jobs, European jobs, University jobs and Jobs for PhD, New Scientist Jobs etc. There could be several other such sites which could help you to keep updated with the current available positions.

If one is interested in academic position in Indian premier institutes such as Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IIScs) or Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), the straight approach is to visit their web pages where you will normally find advert for vacancies. Fill their forms or send your CV to them. If they are interested, they will contact you for arranging further steps.

1.2 Research fellowships
Another difficult but most impressive way is to secure post-doctoral fellowships for your further research. One route to secure them is to respond to fellowship adverts published through various job sites (described above in 1.1). The other route is to browse the websites of the UK research funding organisations such as The Royal Society, EPSRC, NERC, The Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research, The British Council, British Academy, Research Councils UK, Thee Nuffield Trust, etc., and write research proposals according to their guidelines and submit to them. Note that in most cases, there is an deadline for submitting such proposals so one should begin to look a year or so in advance as fellowships are very competitive. Even if your application is not successful, the advantage would be to gain experience to write research grants/proposals that you need to do anyway after few years if you want to stay in academia.

2. Industry, Management or Banking

Probably, I am not the right person to advice on the above. However, registering with various web sites such as jobsearch, prospects, career seeker, jobs1, jobsite, industrial jobs, etc., could be helpful. Apart from them, it is very useful to go to web pages on various companies and look for the jobs of your interest. If you are still in the University, another effective way could be to keep an eye on your 'University's career service' dairy.

2.1 Article invited on 'finding industrial jobs'
I feel that one way of returning help that we received from others is to help others! An article on 'tips for securing industrial jobs after a PhD' is warmly welcomed from any of my friends working in industries. I do not want to name them but am looking forward for their initiative to share their experiences that could benefit others.

3. Final words

This stage of life is a mix of pressure and joy: pressure to complete PhD, finding a job of ones interest and several uncertainties because of transition, and joy to start a new innings of lthe life. Everyone has to pass through this phase, so remain patient, calm, focused and plan the job thing carefully. I am sure things will fall at right place for you!

Good luck!
Prashant

Your personal webpage - Just few clicks away!

Note: Contents of this article are more relevant to University of Surrey FEPS Staff members.

You will be aware that University staff can set up their personal web pages for free on University’s hosted web server. This gives you an opportunity to publicise your research, academic, social or personal activities in your own style. Note that one should be conscious about putting the contents on your site as it is solely the responsibility of authors.

For example, I have set up my personal web page and here is its link: http://mypages.surrey.ac.uk/M01455

If you do not have your own web page and are interested to set up one, then follow the steps given below:

1. First go to this website: http://mypages.surrey.ac.uk/

2. Click on the following right hand side link: Request a MyPages web site which will take you to another page containing a small form.

3. Fill the form and submit it. Your first step is complete now.

4. Second step is to find online space to upload your web page. You should have personal file store directory to store your online files. You can check this by using these commands on your office computer: Start---Run----(type) H:/

5. These commands will take you to the new window containing your online Personal Filestore.

6. Now, the most important task is to locate a folder called ‘MyPages_HTML’ in your personal filestore. Open this folder by double clicking on it and just paste your web page (that you need to prepare) in H:/MyPages_HTML folder. Note that your web page should be in html format and name of your web page should be ‘index.htm’ or ‘index.html’.

7. Your second step is now completed and your web page is ready to host your contents. Your web page address will be http://mypages.surrey.ac.uk/xxxxx.

8. Final and third step is a back up step: You may not find ‘MyPages_HTML’ in your Personal Filestore as was the case with me. Either try to make this folder yourself or write to the IT Services to set up this folder for you in your personal file store directory.

Things may not go as per the above plan but do not panic and wait for the IT people’s response. You will definitely get this done after some time!

Instructions to make your web page can found by clicking these professional tools such as Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Front Page or Dreamweaver etc.

A short article is warmly welcomed on 'simple ways to create your personal web page' by any volunteer.

Good luck.
Prashant
(PS: If you find this article useful, please record your reactions and comment on it!)

Finishing PhD research effectively and efficiently - Contrasting thoughts!

One of my friend once said 'starting PhD is like entering in a pipeline where there is darkness all around but one day you will suddenly see the end of this pipeline with light' and that will be the proud moment to preserve for life. Well, how to achieve this proud moment by effectively and efficiently completing PhD research is the topic of discussion here.

As you will be aware that most funding agencies such as trusts, research grants etc., in the UK have provision for 3 year funding or 3.5 years in some cases. Going over this period may prove very costly as one has to cover fees, maintenance and living expensive etc. from his pocket which is not an ideal situation. In such case, it is quite important to complete PhD within a reasonable time (say 3.5 or 4 years).

One may not like to take just a PhD degree but would also like to carry over his several technical skills and research together with realising his presence to other researchers in that research area. In fact, it is also the opportunity to sharpen the existing skills and gaining several others that can be helpful for all round development. How can one make out the most of it? Generally, people decide their objectives depending on the career path (mainly industry, academics, management or banking) they want to choose after a PhD. However, irrespective of any chosen career path, PhD is for research so this task should be fulfilled sincerely without deviating too much from its path. After all, someone is going to spent ~£80K on your PhD with lot of efforts in background.

One important aspect that totally depends on individual is whether one just want a PhD or a PhD with maximum dissemination of research through conference presentations, writing articles for various scientific/research/social societies and publishing it in top international peer reviewed journals, etc. Here starts conflicting thoughts as many of us may not agree with the dissemination idea. Therefore, these two words 'efficiently' and 'effectively' are used in the title. Following cases can be formed to discuss this further:

1. PhD within reasonable time with minimal dissemination
It is a straight business approach. One is paid as part of a project/programme and he delivered the results. In fact, it is quite a comfortable situation for both parties! It is efficient as well since it was finished within reasonable time span. But, is this an effective PhD as well? Did one squeezed enough from the opportunities he got during this period? One can argue that it is an effective research since it fulfilled the required objectives (fair enough to say!). I used the word 'minimal' because the above case benefited a particular party. Others could have been benefited if it would have been disseminated to a wider community.

For the answer of later question, I think one can squeeze far more than this for his future betterment and for the betterment of society and science. One effective way is publishing his/her work in peer reviewed journals. However, one can argue that my project had confidential stuff and I am not allowed to do so. Fair enough to say, if he has put sincere efforts towards it but could not publish because of such practical constraints!

2. PhD within reasonable time with optimum dissemination
I see it as a best option as it satisfy both terms 'effective' and 'efficient'! PhD research is a small contribution towards a big heap of research. If it is disseminated properly, you have contributed towards that heap and others can benefit from it. However, it is quite challenging, but there is no gain without pain.

Some of us may argue that why should I bother to publish it as I do not want to go to academia. Well, is it really necessary that one should only publish if it fulfills his/her future interests? My argument against it is that no matter what we do after a PhD, during PhD we are researchers and it is our moral duty to sincerely fulfill the objectives of the job in hand.

Moreover, how many people do we think will come to know about our work by reading our thesis's - I think very few. But many will know, if it is published in journals as probability of it reaching to a wider community and to stay alive for a longer duration are quite high. In fact, I have asked my friends that how many times they have read their thesis's after PhD or have they suggested others to refer it - the answer is not very encouraging. But, the case of publishing may be quite different. So why should we not choose the option which helps us and others too.

My personal experience is in support of this option. Firstly, one can get invaluable technical feedback by reviewers on submitted manuscripts to further improve the quality of work. In fact, it is the first time when a third neutral person is assessing your work. Once an article gets accepted, confidence level rises enormously. Motivation and drive force to publish more increases tremendously. Secondly, once you have couple of good publications, you and your supervisor know precisely how much work have been done and how much more is needed for PhD submission. After this, writing thesis is not a huge task. It is just an integration of published paper. This strategic approach can be helpful in some cases if not in all.

3. Over run PhD with/without dissemination
This is not an ideal situation for a PhD candidate as he not only have to face pressure to finish it quickly but have to fight with his financial challenges. However, if it is the case, one should not conclude that candidate is incompetent or he is not working hard or he is not taking his work seriously as several other factors can drive the situation. These could be type of work involved in project, availability of resources, supervisors interest, support and guidance and of course candidate's driving force and time management to achieve it. This situation becomes even more uncomfortable if it is over run without dissemination as it can increase the level of complexities during defense. In this situation, I feel that working strategically and calmly together with the proper time management can be helpful. At the end of the day everyone gets PhD, so it is just a matter of time. Also, one can argue than some people are better in one thing while others can be better in doing other things. So, keep up the sportsmen spirit, it is not the end of the life!

4. Summary
There may be several points which have not been considered above. There may also be several other points above with whom many of us may not agree. But one most important thing with which we all may agree is to put our sincere efforts. It can give more satisfaction than doing several things or try to fit ourselves in one of the above criterion.

Happy reading!
Prashant
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First time travelling to the UK - What should I take with me?

When coming to the UK for a short or a long duration, the first question comes in mind is: what should I take with me to the UK? I asked this question from my friends and few of my friends asked the same question from me. The following tips could be helpful in this regard:

1. Documents
Make sure you have taken all your original certificates along with you. These may include offer, invitation and/or accommodation letters, etc. Always keep them in your hand luggage; never checked them with your main baggage. You will need them at immigration checks at both home and away countries.

2. Phone handset
Carrying a phone set with you can prove quite useful. We normally leave it at home by thinking that it will not work there. But it is always advisable to take it with you as most Indian (probably Asian) phones works perfectly fine in the UK with UK simcards. Bringing it with you will reduce your initial expenses along with the hassle to find phone shops in the beginning. Read next section for its instant utilisation.

3. Phone calls
Whenever we are away from home, first things come in mind is to call our nearers and dearers. If you do (or do not) have international roaming in your phone, calling from from your phone or a public booth can be bit expensive. Although there is no option in such situation unless you have any friend already living in the UK and allow you to use his/her phone. one option can be to buy a calling card and call through a landline phone or a public booth.

The first thing one should do is to buy a pay as you go simcard (cost <£20; generally comes with same amount of top up in most cases) from any phone shop as soon as you get opportunity to roam around. Few (mobile world, libara, etc.) of them provide quite cheap (~5 INR per minute) calls for India or other Asian countries. In that way, you can make short calls any time you want besides having your phone number that can be given to your friends or family back home. After some time, one can always go for a phone contract that generally provides free fency hand sets with plenty of free minutes and sms's.

Once settled in the UK and have access to internet, the best option is to use VOIP (voice over internet protocol) for making calls to any landline or mobile in back home. There are several such service providers (e.g. smart voip, 12voip, free call, nymgo, etc.); the use of such services will cost you less than one INR per minute. Note that you should keep an eye on new VOIPs also as competition among various service providers can benefit you in the form of reduced calling rates.

4. Money
Note that even if your scholarship/salary advance bank cheque is ready, it may easily take up to a month to cash it. Most of this time goes in opening a bank account. It is always good to have at least couple of hundred pounds with you for the expenses of first month. It is quite common to pay house rent and deposit money in advance which is one of the most expensive affair. It is better to clear it first with the landlord in advance. Generally, food expenses will fall within £200/month for a single person if cooks himself; however, it is just a rough idea which can vary from person to person. Also, it can be a good idea to exchange money in your home country through an agent rather than doing it on airport . This option can provide you a better exchange rates but do not forget to take exchange receipt in case you need to show it during immigration! Although it can be easily exchanged at the airport also in case you did not get enough time to do so in advance.

5. Clothes
While in home country, we generally think that UK weather remains cold throughout the year. But you will get chance to enjoy summers also between March and August (though it may not apply to some part of the UK!). As far as clothes are concerned, it is always good to pack some thermal and jackets. You may also pack some summer clothes which you will get chance to wear during summers. Although, your home jackets may not be effective in winters so you have to buy a pair of jackets from the UK itself. It is not a bad purchasing though as you will find the quality of jackets pretty good. The good place to buy these can be sports direct and Mark and Spenser's, etc. It is always advisable to bring an umbrella as predicting the UK weather is not easy!

6. Food items
We miss home cooked food after leaving home. Therefore, it is not a bad idea to pack some well-packed ready-to-eat food. It can be quite helpful in early days of your settling. However, you can find almost every kind of food material (raw or ready-to-eat) in the supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda) here.

7. Utensils
You can find every kind of utensil here except pressure cooker. In fact, there is no such utensil exist in the UK. It is strongly advisable to bring one if you cook yourself. Note that you should also be careful while using it in your kitchen as your neighbors get frighten from its whistle!

8. Final words
You can try to arrange the above but life will go on even if you do not have any of the above or you miss something. So no need to worry. One of my dearest friend Kaushal said to me when I was in such preparation ' just enjoy the last couple of days before you travel to the UK with your family and friends - bring yourself and your confidence - rest will be automatically fine'.

Hope you will find the above useful.

Good luck,

Prashant
(PS: Never boil eggs in the microwave or be ready for the blast!)

How to arrange funding for PhD / Masters research in abroad?

PhD Hunting - Beginner's Tip

It is always a tricky business to arrange funding for pursuing a PhD, MPhil or MS degree in a foreign university. It is quite frustrating some time despite having excellent academic background. There are few ways where one can try for:

1. Arrange funding through a research project
One has to browse through various Universities and/or academics web pages for applying to them. They may have any project to fund your research!

2. Apply to the University directly
In this case, applications can be randomly make to various universities. University may contact you if anyone from its faculty has interest in individuals CV or research proposal. Though one should not totally rely on it.

3. Self- Funding
It is a most definitive case to get PhD admission offer from an University, if got a decent academic profile. Although it is quite unlikely that anyone would like to spend a big some on his research degree. However, if this is the case, one can get admission in a good university even with a relatively weaker academic background.

4. Arranging a Scholarship / Fellowship
There are various independent bodies such as Commonwealth Trust, Gates Cambridge Trust, Cambridge Nehru Scholarship etc., that can fund your entire research programme. Although it is quite competitive but 'no pain - no gain'. Few of them are listed here.

5. University Scholarships
It is a good idea to browse through various Universities' web pages and apply for University scholarships, if are available. Click here and here for examples. Outstanding candidates have good chances to obtain one.

6. Web subscription
A good option can be to subscribe to this website for receiving regular emails; this site is particularly good if one is interested to pursue his/her research in the Europe. Other places to look at could be this and this.

It should be noted that many European Universities require a decent TOEFL and/or IELTS score while US Universities require GRE despite your first degree being taught in English. However, there are also exceptions for exemption; it is always better to check with the University before sending an application to them.

Good luck,
Prashant
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