Doing a PhD at Don Sannella Informatics Graduate School

Do you want to do a PhD? Advancing the frontiers of knowledge Personal satisfaction Passion for the subject Improved job prospects  3+ years of hard and possibly lonely work  Success not guaranteed

What is PhD study like?  Challenging work ... with the help of an experienced supervisory team: principal supervisor + assistant supervisor  Research apprenticeship

What is PhD study like?  First year: fill in gaps in background, learn about current research directions, pick a topic, develop a research plan, start the research  Second year: follow plan and achieve goals 1, 2, 3, discover that goal 4 is unachievable, change to plan B, achieve goal 4B  Third year: write thesis outline, achieve more goals from plan, write thesis, look for jobs, submit thesis  Fourth year: oral thesis examination

What else will I do?  Practice presenting your research –Talks, papers, workshops, conferences  Learn more –Seminars, MSc courses, summer schools  Learn to teach –Tutorials, other teaching assistance  Transferrable skills training –Presentation skills, management skills, entrepreneurship skills,...

Funding  There are around 50 scholarships for 2011/2012 entry  Wide range of sources; some require action from you  If you have a degree from UoE: 1 st class degree: Difficulty ranges from fairly easy (UK) to very difficult (non-EU). 2.1 degree: harder 2.2 degree: unlikely

What do I do now?  Visit  Find out about our research  Decide what you want to do  Write a research proposal  Find two referees  Submit an application  Wait for the result