My dark days have ended - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: blueskull
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 09:16:04 pm
content: When I started my PhD career back in late 2015, someone on this forum warned me that going through PhD education will be like living like a ghost, and I really felt the heat recently preparing my defense.I'm glad that I got an unconditional pass today, and the pressure has suddenly gone. If anything I had learned from this experience, that is not to push too hard. I suffered from extraordinary mental stress to push things through, and at the end of the day, I only got 20% time reduction (most people spend 5~7 years for MS+PhD, while I spent 4 years, despite I wasted one semester, so effectively 3.5 years in school).After going through all of them, if I had a second chance, I would just take one more year and have fun and have a life, just like everyone else. I will definitely ease back for my coming 3 years of postdoc career.Regardless, now since I have some free time on hand, I can restart some of my hobby projects I wanted to do, including a HiFi DAC project and a high density power module project.

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 09:19:11 pm
content: Congrats.

author: BNElecEng
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 09:20:43 pm
content: Congratulations! I'm coming to the end of my PhD as well. I personally cannot wait to get my free time back.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 09:28:03 pm
content: Congratulations blueskull!Without caving to excessive complacency and procrastination, having a life is well worth delaying a degree.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 09:36:33 pm
content: That is the reason why i stopped at a masters degree. I had enough of the educational crap so i was happy to get the piece of paper and see ya.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 09:43:27 pm
content: You'll now have to change your profile:PhD Power ElectronicsCandidate

author: GerryBags
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 10:27:30 pm
content: Even better, you can now change your name to Dr. Blueskull! Congratulations, here's hoping it opens many doors for you.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 10:44:57 pm
content: Congratulations! That's great news.But your thread title... sounds a bit like tempting Fate. Your experience may vary, but I find Life is pretty good at concocting new and unexpected kinds of Dark Days. Hopefully this is just me, and you never encounter this effect.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 10:46:13 pm
content: Well done Dr.

author: Dave
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 11:59:25 pm
content: Hard work and perseverance paid off. Congratulations, mate!

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 12:15:49 am
content: Congrats!

author: hermit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 12:29:41 am
content: Where's the party?Congrats.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 01:06:39 am
content: Well done Bluskull....Dr. BS.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 01:17:42 am
content: Congratulations!I personally never have had the right temperament to attempt or complete a PhD.

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 01:19:04 am
content: Congratulations. I'm also glad you learned to take more time and not be in too much of a hurry. I did not get my degree because of a personal conflict with my supervisor who withdrew my support after being made to serve several years as slave to a MicroVAX II. I had been warned by friends my first year that I would not get my degree under this man and should find another supervisor. I ignored the advice. Having incurred around $100K in lost income, I was not willing to start over so I went back to work. My sole regret is that I didn't go out to Stanford after my first year at Austin. But when all is said and done, what matters is what you learned. The BS you learn how to learn, the MS you learn something, the PhD you learn how to teach yourself anything. I acquired that skill though not the piece of paper. But as you know well, it is a marvelous skill. People acquire it without going through a formal program. Jim Williams is probably the greatest exemplar, but few of us are Jim Williams material so we do benefit.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 01:35:33 am
content: Congratulations on the successful completion of your studies and attain your PhD. It is certainly an achievement.Life's encounters will continue to educate you, but you have learned a powerful one already - always be able to stop and smell the roses once in a while ... and then engineer the crap out of something.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 01:57:09 am
content: Many congratulations, Doctor!

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 02:53:15 am
content: You got it backwards buddy, your dark days have just started.

author: DIPLover
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 03:58:46 am
content: Congratulations Dr. blueskull!

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 04:16:33 am
content: Congratulation Bo !

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 04:46:08 am
content: Congrats Doctor.From a Departmental Technician at a Major College. From the quality of your posts here I never had the slightest doubt you'd pass. Live Long and Prosper.Steve

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 04:58:46 am
content: GratsNow are you going to teach in the US or go to China and build railroads? Or Tesla?Just curious - if you go back to China would you be allowed to post anything on this forum or would there be censorship?Cheers

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 06:31:57 am
content: Cheers!Tim

author: Kalvin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 05:20:31 pm
content: Congratulation, blueskull! Well done!

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 06:02:21 pm
content: Congrats and well done!And now officially welcome among us hopelessly overqualified for most jobs on the market.(unless you are planning on staying in academia - then a PhD is only the necessary pre-requirement but far from sufficient for obtaining and keeping a job ...)

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 09:27:50 pm
content: Congratulations on your dr !I'm contemplating looking for a PhD position after my MSc as well. But the expense in free time, certain life events and income difference (vs working in industry, initially) makes it a bit of a uncertainty. However I'm tempted by academia, and I feel like a good fit for it.How did you find the journey of start to writing decent papers? I hear some PhDs really struggle in that respect, either because their field is incredibly competitive (finding novelty and being first), or when inventions are so abstract that you need an IQ of like 150+ just to wrap your mind around new a whole set of new insights & concepts at once.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 09:46:33 pm
content: If you go back to China, you may want to teach some of the engineers Ohms Law. Some seem to have trouble with it.Also: congrats!

author: Andy Watson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2018, 10:44:26 pm
content: Hey congratulations Dr. Blue.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 08:33:51 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on May 05, 2018, 11:45:12 pmI suppose you meant to say something like "easy" on the [..].Yes good note on the difference between more scientific (physics, math) fields vs engineering. I have a fellow student that argues one writes their best work in the field of math or theoretical physics before they're 30. After that the natural decline of IQ and mental endurance means you're 2 steps behind on the rest.I don't really have the arguments to disagree. Academia seems like a competitive place where most prof's I speak to reply on my emails after 10 o'clock at night. Working hard is part of the game.I feel like the papers I'm reading in engineering, some indeed are very mathematical, yet most of them are a thorough investigation of a new problem that you can't GTFY. Sounds fun to me.I don't think that outside of academia personal titles are really that relevant, so gained `status` is nearly zero. But something one can proud of nonetheless.

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 11:40:12 am
content: I think the PhDs and common practicing engineer relation can be described how Mr. Feynman describes the relations between Physicist and Mathematicians.https://youtu.be/obCjODeoLVw?t=3m34s

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 11:59:54 am
content: Quote from: Vtile on May 06, 2018, 11:40:12 amI think you have meant it with some sarcasm but he is certainly right.In my day job field (software, virtual/augmented reality and training simulators) my job description is not writing stuff like user interfaces or dealing with what is fashionably called "user experience", for example. That's the practicing engineer's job. On the other hand, preparing the necessary bricks that require doing research (even if it is "only" finding and reading a lot of research papers), implementing the results and packaging all that into a form that that practicing engineer can use without having to deal with all that (sometimes) tricky stuff is very much my task. I.e. I am arming them with tools to solve the real world problems even if I am not solving them myself.I certainly can build user interfaces and design databases - but I am neither great at it nor would it be cost effective. The engineer could certainly learn the math and the specialized domain knowledge - but it would take them a long time, especially if doing it alone and without any research background. So both have their places and they need each other. Well, unless the company is only buying off-the-shelf bricks and gluing them together - but then they will probably not survive for long because anyone can do that and the competition will be fierce. There is no innovation in that.Of course, there are also the proverbial academics who are good only at churning out papers but can't get anything practical done - but that's another issue.

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 01:18:11 pm
content: Actually no I didn't meant it to be sarcastic (not much at least), since same as you I also do find it sharp analysis of real world structure.

author: 2N3055
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 01:41:49 pm
content: Congrats !!

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 01:54:38 pm
content: Quote from: Vtile on May 06, 2018, 01:18:11 pmMy apologies then, I have read too much into your reply.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 07:26:02 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on May 05, 2018, 11:46:58 pm*cries*

author: mcinque
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 06, 2018, 08:39:22 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on May 04, 2018, 02:53:15 amExactlySeriously, congrats. But Bud is right

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 12:18:49 am
content: Congrats!Your parents must be very proud of you!

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 07:30:50 am
content: Congratulation, blueskull! Well done!

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 01:06:43 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on May 05, 2018, 11:45:12 pmI think blueskull's assessment is pretty accurate. However, in industry very few PhDs do original research outside of trying to solve a technical problem. The paper game is the academic world.I think the degradation of the BA in liberal arts (well rounded mix of mathematics, science, literature and history) into "Special Studies in XXXXX" is partly responsible for the loss of status for the PhD. But the important skill the PhD conveys is the ability to persevere in the face of difficult problems for which you do not have any prior training or experience and as a first step, must acquire that.But the skills associated with getting the PhD are very valuable. The additional schooling gives you a chance to go into some depth in areas that only get a few days mention at the undergraduate level. We did Fourier and LaPlace transforms in my Calculus class. But I really learned the territory in the two semesters of Integral Transforms I took at Austin. We used Churchill's "Operational Mathematics" as the text. The title is a nod to Heaviside who pioneered the methods. Fourier was a military engineer. It took the mathematicians quite a while to catch up."What do you call a scientist who took remedial classes?" "An engineer."Engineering covers in fine detail things that science treats at an abstract level with the expectation that you will solve a particular problem from first principle. In engineering you're expected to know what and how it's been done previously. But I think science and engineering converge at the PhD level.There have always been people who were dumb as a post but got a PhD. I had some geology instructors who fit that description. I got no credit on a homework problem because I used trigonometry and a calculator to solve a problem the instructor solved graphically and my answer did not agree with his ruler and pencil solution.FWIW Most geologists are notoriously bad at mathematics. Geophysicsts are good at math, but tend to be really inept at geology.I did not get my formal degree, but I acquired the skills. I recently taught myself sparse L1 pursuits aka Compressive Sensing over the course of about 3 years despite having no math background in wavelet theory, regular polytopes in N dimensional space, etc. But I learned to do what Alice suggested, "Start at the beginning and go through to the end." Jerri Ellsworth is a great exemplar in the tradition of Jim Williams. There are plenty of people in this forum who have that ability whether they have a degree or not.

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 06:51:01 pm
content: Quote from: rhb on May 07, 2018, 01:06:43 pmDon't think so. The PhDs are certainly not replacing people with BA in liberal arts (or whatever) - if for nothing else then simply because they are quite a bit more expensive for the employer!Also keep in mind that the bachelor degrees, especially in continental Europe, are an artificial invention that has little tradition in most places. It has been forced on the traditional university systems by the Bologna accords in order to unify the degree systems across Europe to permit transfer of students between universities and to simplify recognition of the education. So while many universities are granting these degrees now, most students continue directly onwards to master level because the engineering programs have always been 5 years and not 3 and are still set up in that way. The only difference is that now they get an extra diploma (BA) after finishing the 3rd year.Bachelor often isn't seen as something worth pursuing, neither by the students ("Nobody will hire me with it") nor by the employers ("Why to hire a half-educated engineer when I can hire a fully educated one?").PhDs are different and almost completely orthogonal to both BA and master, because they are research oriented. If something is degrading the value of a PhD, it is two things - junk universities/programs granting a PhD e.g. in 6 months (there have been quite a few scandals in recent years) and that universities together with some companies require a PhD/master even for jobs that don't need it at all.Especially universities are terrible in this regard - it is generally impossible to hire anyone to a university research lab in Europe unless they are going to be able to do research - which requires a PhD (requires in the paperwork sense, nothing to do with an actual ability). Even though the real job of that person is going to be running around with a screwdriver maintaining lab equipment, i.e. something a technician could do. But you aren't allowed to hire a technician or engineer, the only budget is for the research staff (= PhDs). The consequence is that labs are maintained by post-docs with degrees in biology or history slaving away on a temporary 3 year contract for a pittance.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 07:37:20 pm
content: In Netherlands universities each research group has a technician(s) that maintain the labs, servers and inventory. Most of them are BSc with an occasional MSc degree. Some also design some (adapter) PCBs that are required in some research projects.Each research group also has a secretary, ofcourse.Strictly speaking, having a student or prof doing "busy work" is a waste of their time that could be spent on research or education. Despite this structure, most profs I speak to rarely have much time on their hands.These openings are extremely rare. Research groups aren't reshuffled frequently. Most technicians seem to be happy with their job, because most of them have stayed since their graduation at the same group. I think the collective labour agreement isn't also not too bad in NL.Quote from: rhb on May 07, 2018, 01:06:43 pmMost universities measure performance by the amount and quality of your papers you put out. If you're good then you could be put in a tenure track for a more permanent position at a university. I think the benefit of working in academia is the degree of freedom and depth.Small companies tend not to be interested in performing research, but rather want to get products out and survive.Large companies can often swallow the overhead associated with higher level of abstractions, but perhaps an individual does not feel it can have an impact in such an environment.QuoteThe definition of an engineer is an individual that forgot more about math than most people ever know. /sScience and engineering have lots of overlap, but don't converge to each other. You can walk into a physics lab and mistake it for an electronics lab. Yet they only focus on physics experiments.Likewise, a good engineer should understand the physics or mechanisms at play in the systems they design. The key is to understand which parameters are essential in the design space and where abstractions are needed and/or break down. Despite the amazing technology we got, we cannot refine our models indefinitely because tools break down. Simulators drag down to a halt if we simulate a CPU at the transistor level. Software algorithms often suffer state space explosion for every bit of state extra that is present. Many algorithms use pruning to reduce the time to search for an "optimal" solution. (think about synthesis tools for FPGAs that need to solve problems expressed in graph theory, there are often many solutions, but many trees don't converge to anything useful).Engineering is all about heuristics. Science I think much less so; they want to describe their laws and models using proper mathematical statements that can be proven correct. But in many cases the mathematical approach can only define a bound (e.g. Nyquist), but does not say how we can design a system that approaches that bound with good energy, spatial and temporal requirements. Engineers task is to find a heuristic algorithm that performs "well" in finite requirements set, but may not provide the exact optimal result (or even sub optimal in certain regions).QuoteI think that anyone who does not want to be helpless in engineering should be autodidact. The question is to what level perhaps. For example, on some Dutch EE/CS forums I often read threads from people that want to learn programming, but are looking for information only in Dutch because of their English skills. This puts a heavy handicap on their learning options. Then their "begin" is perhaps learning English.

author: Gribo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 08:11:55 pm
content: Congrats!

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2018, 09:13:50 am
content: Congrats, doctor!

author: HighVoltage
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2018, 10:31:32 am
content: Congratulation,Dr. BlueskullThis is a great achievement and I am really happy for you.

author: s8548a
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2018, 11:47:55 am
content: Congrats and well done...

author: JohnnyMalaria
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2018, 12:24:10 pm
content: Dr blueskull - AWESOME!I see an NC plate for your avatar and your profile says RDU metropolitan. So which school? (I live in Hillsborough.)

author: apis
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2018, 12:28:11 pm
content: Congratulations Dr. Blueskull!

author: JohnnyMalaria
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2018, 02:03:26 am
content: should be your anthem