ACADEMIA AFTER THE PHD

João Paulo Barraca jpbarraca@ua.pt

!Universidade de Aveiro

Instituto de Telecomunicações

PhdComics go see it, great cartoon!

This talk is totally biased by my own experience and my own conclusions!

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Contents may be biased, slightly inaccurate, or totally wrong.

Photo: Flickr, kyphotofile

DUTIES

• Teach and Advise students • Research • Publish • Transfer knowledge • Participate in scientific events • Participate in university councils

Professor Researcher

TEACHING

• 12-13 hours/week of actual lecture time • 1 to 4 courses per semester • Plus tutoring and office hours • Plus marking and assessing work • Plus creating quizzes and laboratory guides

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• Senior academics have less lecture time

TEACHING• Then you start coordinating courses

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• Add: • Create contents (slides, homework's, projects,

exams, etc...) • Manage students and colleagues • Fulfil administrative tasks

• Reports, Pedagogical dossier

TEACHING• Example: Lab-I (~CS101), 2 semesters

• Created from scratch, 120 students enrolled • No TAs!

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• 16 assignments • 4 short exams • 2 projects • 20 laboratory guides: 419 pages • Theoretical slides: 725 slides

ADVISING

• Professors have 4-8 MSc students/year • Start in September. Defend in June/December • Must advise and guide

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• “A few” PhD students • Must advise and guide • Build research environment

RESEARCH

• Participate in joint projets • National or International scope

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• Participate in research teams !

• Start building a research team • Mostly PhD students

RESEARCH

• Constant search for funding! • Pay conference papers, grants, equipment, etc… • Pressure to get funding

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• Several grant calls • Approval ratio: FP7 EU ~10%, FCT ~13% • 1 Project/year requires ~10 proposals (avg)

RESEARCH

• Myth: You are free to research whatever you want !

• Reality: Freedom must be conquered/discovered • You are free to research what is promoted by

funding agencies • Grants are focused in specific objectives • Fit your objectives in the grant call

PUBLISH• Probably the single most important aspect

• For entering academia • For progressing in the career (obtain tenure) !

• There is no career without (lots of good) papers!

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• Not unusual to see 30 papers/year • After you have a research group

PUBLISH

• Must publish, consistently, frequently • Mostly in international events/journals !

• Aim for high impact factor : high quality journals !

• Aim for high citations: high quality work in good places

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

• Conferences and journals • Editor, Chair, TPC, Reviewer

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• Standardisation bodies • IETF, IRTF, 3GPP, ETSI, etc…

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• Committees, Think Tanks, Networks Of Excellence,…

MANAGEMENT COUNCILS• University has several management councils

• Mostly composed by professors !

• Scientific Council • Pedagogical Council • General Council • Course, promotion & dissemination councils • etc..

NETWORKING!• Most areas are now multi-disciplinary

• Especially when applying science to the real world !

• Need to collaborate in projects and publications • be able to form/join a project consortium/publication

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• Assure presence in events/scientific groups • Chair sessions, Organize events

WORK IN ACADEMIA• You get to travel frequently

• Varies with projects, events, papers and funds !

• You will feel rewarded by teaching interesting topics !

• You will explore a few novel topics • Its application to solve problems • May choose where to invest your interest

WORK IN ACADEMIA

• You really must collaborate • papers, projects, research

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• but your colleagues are your competitors !

• and the academia is similar to a feudal system • must stay aware of the politics

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WORK IN ACADEMIA• 12h/week + coordinating a course takes effort!

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• Must also write papers, proposals, deliverables • Must also travel to meetings and events • Must advise students

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• You will work a lot in the first years! • expect 50 to 70 hours just to keep it going

HOW TO JOIN?

1. Research topic and experience !

3. Publication Record !

5. Teaching Experience !

7. Networking capability

HOW TO JOIN? (2012 DATA - PORTUGAL)

• PhD students: 19.213, of which 1.859 defended

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• Professors: 21.951 (Univ), 13.531 (Pol) !

• New Openings: 57 (Univ), 21 (Pol) ~4.19%

Source: Pordata and SNESUP

Thanks

Photo: Flickr, jenosaur