a tentative humoristic set of advice to Ph.D. students (and their supervisors)

1. how to supervise your supervisor?
Don’t even dream about quoting me on this one and, of course, it does not apply to me  Fabien GANDON

2. do I really want to do this?
• why did it have to be me?
• do I really want to do that?
• am I so far from research now?
• how many enemies can I make in less than 1 hour?
• can I survive this presentation?
“State of the spark”,
“Brainstorm” by Michael Zhang

3. Largely based on…
• “Managing your Supervisor” by Toby Walsh
and…
• Things I wish I knew when I started my PhD
http://betweenarock.co.uk/phd-musings/things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-my-phd/
• How can PhD students establish good relationships with their advisors
https://www.quora.com/How-can-PhD-students-establish-good-relationships-with-their-advisors
• 10 truths a PhD supervisor will never tell you
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/10-truths-a-phd-supervisor-will-never-tell-you/2005513.article
• Ten types of PhD supervisor relationships – which is yours?
http://theconversation.com/ten-types-of-phd-supervisor-relationships-which-is-yours-52967
• Researcher’s Bible, Alan Bundy et al.
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/bundy/how-tos/resbible.html
• PhD problems
https://www.findaphd.com/advice/doing/phd-problems.aspx
• Effective PhD supervision
http://rozenbergquarterly.com/effective-phd-supervision-chapter-5-the-relationship-between-phd-candidate-and-supervisor/
• http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2014/dec/29/phd-supervisor-university-research-tips-relationship-work
• http://www.otago.ac.nz/study/phd/handbook/otago001978.html

4. Spirit of the presentation
Not too serious
“it goes without saying,
but it goes better when you say it”
- an old math prof. of mine.
Take it with a grain of salt or, better, a grain of sugar.

5. the Ph.D. – or the chronicles of
a scientific divorce foretold
• a project by and for research
• normally a project with at least two heads
• with a switch in the middle
• implies getting the autonomy

6. decide who is your main supervisor at the beginning

7. clarify the roles
• Supervisor: integration, valorizing,
motivating, introducing,
controlling, strategy, scientific
culture, method, jury, ethics,
feedback, suggest, quality
evaluation, time keeper, judge of
progress, encouragement,
constructive environment, etc.
• Supervisee: try, report, organize,
structure, experiment, go into
depth, write, search, learn, study,
check, prove, etc.

8. gain autonomy and gradually take over…

9. a supervisor does not want to do a second PhD

10. Understanding your supervisor

11. get to know your supervisor because
you will spend 3 years together…

12. many students, many profs, many supervisions
• no unique recipe
• not always compatible
Advising and Supervising Doctoral Students: Lessons I Have Learned, Gordon B. Davis, Honeywell
Professor of Management Information Systems, Carlson School of Management, University of
Minnesota, Revised May 24, 2004

14. skills• did a PhD and reviewed others
• identified an initial problem
• judge the SoA and originality
• have the big picture
• assess difficulty
• show the direction
• identify common pitfalls
• keep an eye on the clock
• decide when to stop
• guide writing and structure
• prepare viva and questions

15. common pitfalls : solving the world, cold start, ivory tower, no
longer see difficulty, addict to complexity, lost in abstraction,
ambitious paralysis, self confidence, fear of exposure

16. • not the money
• give back do
academia
• not the money
• create legacy
• not the money
• augment output
• not the money
• build a network,
trend, etc.
• make a change
• not the money

17. Hates
• students who quit or finish late
• waste time, resources, grants, etc.
• spend time to correct spelling mistakes
• have the feeling to preach in the
wilderness
• to have his ego hurt
(he already gets many opportunities)
• <add_yours_here/>

18. no real training for supervision
let us take a minute as a
gesture of respect for my
first two students…

19. practical ontology:
• only humans
• makes mistakes
• overbooked
• makes mistakes
• info overloaded
• makes mistakes
• forgets
• makes mistakes
• switch task every 10 min
• makes mistakes
being
human inhuman
perfect beingacademic
PhD student PhD Supervisor

20. shocking fact:
99.99999999%
of supervisors
do not read minds

21. Corollary
• You have a scientific problem, a technical problem…
• You have a health problem, a car problem, an accommodation problem…
• You have a visa problem, a family problem,…
• You broke up with your girlfriend, boyfriend, goldfish…
• You have a problem…
…say it.

22. Social skills
“There's something curious about professors in my experience -- not all
of them, but typically, they live in their heads. They live up there, and
slightly to one side. They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal
way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads.
Don't they? It's a way of getting their head to meetings.” Ken
Robinson, Do schools kill creativity? TED Talk

23. Academics can have the empathy
and social skills of “autistic zombies”
•we leave in our abstractions
•communication is vital.

24. you need to make it obvious
I am
stressed

25. asymmetry of communication
by definition a supervisor may deal with many
interlocutors.

26. don’t be scared
despite everything supervisors
want you to succeed

27. Incentives and manipulating your supervisor
(please note I prefer black chocolate 72%)
Chocolate is heavily used by members of Wimmics and SPARKS to manipulate me

28. Work hard : an impressive result will motivate an impressive reaction
and investment ; motivation has virtuous circles and vicious circles.

29. play a role in the social
network (ambassador of
supervisor, team, ideas, etc.)

30. make yourself invaluable
(reviews, conference volunteer, lab/team life)
and doing so prepare yourself for the job.

31. be positive • try to find solutions, not
only problems
• come with propositions,
suggestions
• e.g. of the +1/-1 rule

32. your best friend for your
career: it’s good for
him too.
• say what you want to do next
(industry, academia,
goat-cheese,…)
• experience other labs
(and report back)
• link with teammates,
visiting prof, PhD juries…
• organizing events gives
visibility
• learn about all possible
jobs (e.g. patents)

33. “Online or invisible”
help us help you: make it easy to
point to you, introduce you, talks
about you, reference you, etc.
1. Have a decent Web page
2. Maintain the f*** HAL

34. organize, because (s)he won’t

35. sorry but you have to
know that you are in a
« to do list »

36. give deadlines to your supervisor
• avoid the
“I attached the paper for MOGUAII 2016. Cheers,”
• rather say
“I need your review on this paper for MOGUAII before 15/10/2015 23:59 Hawaiian Time”

37. MOGUAII 2016
Mining, Ontologies and Graphs for Ubiquitous Artificial Intelligences
and Interactions
The first 37th conference on Mining, Ontologies and Graphs for a Web of Artificial Intelligences happened
the 30th of February 2016 at the UCA JEDI skyscraper of the Multiplex of Sophia Antipolis. About 23654.7
persons attended the events with 27 parallel track and 2K papers presented as lightning talks of 138
seconds. The proceedings are available on F*** HAL but we could not set the date properly. The gala
dinner took place around the swimming pool of Inria after a 4-hour ceasefire was signed between I3S
and the institute. The keynote speakers were: Alan Turing, now emeritus at the U2NM (Unified University
of Nice Marseilles) on “Today I’d fail my own test”; Ada Lovelace, consultant at AI Musician Corp on
“Generating HaRd Rock with R”; Vanevar Bush on “Why after 70 years I still don’t have a usable
Memex!”; and Warren McCulloch on “If you mine too much you Pierce the kernel.”.
Call for papers (that have nothing to do with ‘paper’ anymore)
Topics that can be of interest or not include:

38. organize meetings and make them happen!

39. a glimpse at my agenda (down to 30 min slots now)

40. at the meeting remind your supervisor of the previous episodes

41. • literature reviews, active reading, biblio
• notes, minutes, meeting summary
(keep a trace & clarify)
• research reports
• workshop, conference, journal papers.

42. Writing tips.
• Don’t use the supervisor as a spellchecker:
it will save you iterations.
• Always have a (shared) working document
from the first day.
• Write your thesis as you go.

43. the communication funnel

44. That’ all folks.