How to salvage your work after a fiasco.

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I find a recurring theme across universities:

The number of students enrolling for a PhD is not the number of students graduating with one. Not all of them seem to graduate in five years.  All else being equal, why is it that some students are not graduating with a PhD and how do they justify the years spent in research ?!

I have several solutions for this burning question.

Observed:

I interviewed some students and found out that one physics student actually graduated with a PhD in engineering from a different school. He  told me that his dad’s friends were at that university.

Not everyone has a support system like that.

Another student applied for a very small job and then removed himself from his area of research. He had his sons to think about. He was wronged. My heart bleeds for him.

A girl I knew had to stop halfway because her thesis topic was scooped, as I had mentioned earlier!

I know something about these students that they themselves do not know: They will never stop thinking or dreaming.

Five to ten years is a very long time. They could have set up a company.

I am writing this for my fave student who got a very raw deal.

I suggest the following remedies:

Contact  your colleagues dealing with NBCs.

Present your mathematical  modeling project.

Copyright your work on the performance of NBCs

Patent your AI work when it begins to  consistently  outperform other engines.

MENTOR  some students in building an NBC

Re-asses in a semester’s time.

DONT  reach out to your committee: I will teach you to get them to reach out to you.

My work:

One colleague claimed he came up with the NBC i coded for. FIASCO, FALSE ACCUSATIONS!! All that hard work gone with one comment? Nope! I invited him to a conference and then we were at our poster. We had many many visitors. The story I told about SVMs and NBC was enough evidence to see who had done the work, and that I had many more ideas on NBCs. One scientist walked by and said that the debate had been going on for ever and asked me how my work was novel. I said: I thought about it. I can email or text you about what I found. My esteemed colleague will take over now. My colleague had no answer. My text had four “words”. Four words that represented a billion dollar industry. The scientist smiled slowly and said that I was right. I already knew that.

By this time my colleague was on shaky ground , saw how much of the work was solely my idea.

22 thoughts on “How to salvage your work after a fiasco.”

  1. Great tips and way to go for taking action and being assertive about your work! Seems like some of the PhDs act as though they are part of the elite and make it extremely difficult for others to achieve that same title. Honestly, I do not think it should be extremely hard to get in a program that you are paying for (for the most part) and also they should not place so many unnecessary obstacles to finish the program. If the people are pursuing such a high education, it is obvious that they are working their butts off and truly want to be there.

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    • “Seems like some of the PhDs act as though they are part of the elite and make it extremely difficult for others to achieve that same title.” Nice comment this Nena!

      Whaaaa seems like you have a PhD of your own shaping up Nena! well said. You are articulate, so not surprise there! 🙂

      Yes we pay a hefty fees. In that time I could have a design studio and a roaring biz. Poor students!
      Thank you for commenting.

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      • Haha! My original plan when I graduated from high school was a PhD, but now I don’t think I will reach for that. More because it is a lot of time and dedication and I feel like I spent enough time “in the books” and I would like to do more things, like travel and explore! Which you learn a lot from those experiences as well;)

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      • You writing reflects taht you are able to form a hypothesis and then work to support it! Which do you prefer a Phd or creating something like the next “Facebook”. Google was created by two people who stopped their research. Does JK Rowling need a PhD? So anything you do, I am sure you will do well! Keep writing. No Starbucks for be though :/

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      • You are so incredibly supportive; thank you so much for that!
        In regards to accomplishing a dream and being a creator, I could not have said (written) it better myself!
        Once you do get your Starbucks, try the Toasted Graham Latte for sure 😉 I really do not go there often. I can count the times I go to Starbucks in the whole year in one hand. But that just means that when I do go, it’s a treat!

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      • I ARE TOO SUPPORTIVE AND NICE AND & 7 feet TALL! 🙂 I ARRRE! TYVM 🙂 as are you! Actually last year, I fell and twisted my ankle, in the Starbucks parking lot. #blackice. I haven’t bought Starbucks with my money: My students, Starbucks, colleagues buy it.. but I don’t trust the coffee chain so much LOL 🙂 🙂

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  3. Excellent, of course, although I’d clarify about the father being “wronged” to make sure we don’t mean “wronged” somehow by his children. Being “daddy” myself, believe me “sacrifice” is a word that hardly comes to mind even though it’s definitely there. (For so many of us, it’s just part of the ‘natural life and world’ 🙂 ) Anyway, in your technical field, I can certainly see the absolute necessity in protecting one’s work, and I notice many blog writers/photographers doing the same, of course. I’ve done this before ~ copywriting my material ~ and then one day made the very simple decision to forgo such “protection.” This is not something I’d recommend to friends and colleagues, but I just came to the conclusion that, hey, if someone is going to copy and paste some of my work as their own, it won’t be long before the truth is out, which may seem very naïve. However, in my venue, I know that, whatever the level of quality, my work is uniquely my own. After all, in creative writing and especially in, say, mytho-poetic narrative, how many other “me’s” are there out there? LOL It’s true IN THIS PARTICULAR VENUE… Will the copycat actually be able to continue on in exactly the same poetic vein of creativity? Not likely. I myself have, of course, been greatly inspired by other writers, poets, photographers (though I am not a photographer), mythologists, etc. BUT can I replicate their unique tone and style of creativity? Absolutely not. And what if so-and-so ends up making a mint off my work? Fool’s gold, as they say; fool’s gold. It will neither last nor ultimately satisfy. Again, naïve? Possibly, but this perspective has saved me an awful lot of energy spent in worry. BUT as I said, your venue (profession, work) is far different in concerning very specific, contemporary, “cutting-edge” technology, i.e. scientific-engineering and/or inventional work. So, yes, you’d definitely want/need to heartily, sensibly, carefully protect your work as YOUR WORK. Bravo again, then, on such an wonderfully clear and intelligent article! All the best to you, my friend! 🙂

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