Welcome Speech to New Students

Welcome to the research group. In normal cases, you will feel very energetic and fully motivated during your first one or two months. After that, you start to feel the stress and realize how difficult it is to do research. Congratulations, you are stepping into the “transformation phase.” Yet, not everyone can survive this phase.

• Capture your Long-Lost Curiosity: It's the golden moment that you try to regain your long-lost curiosity. The cage has opened but do you know how to fly now? Curiosity should be your major driving force. You may have been doing things only for a reward — e.g., studying hard for good marks; if a subject does not have exam, nobody will give it a damn. Nobody will give marks to PhD students anymore!
• Why do you want to do PhD? If your goal is just to quickly graduate and get a PhD label and then live happily forever, you will be totally wrong. A PhD label without substance is like nothing. If you call yourself a PhD but can't communicate efficiently, show sharp analytical mind, or have the capacity to get things done, why do you deserve more than others?
• Why do you want to work hard? You won't be able to pick up these skills overnight. Are you doing a lousy job for things that are not publishable? Are you doing a poor job communicating with people? Do you give a damn to seminars by other researchers? These are all reflections of your “goal-oriented” ways of studying. You only do a PhD once in your lifetime. It's a waste of your time, my time, and the opportunity to study if you are still following your old “reward-oriented” way of learning.

Take a look at Steve Job's Speech.
Paper Writing Guideline: click here.

Three Stages During Your PhD Study

1) Learning Phase (Year 1 – ??): You find every paper you read equally good. When asked to review, you cannot point out any useful comment. During group meeting discussions, you cannot really participate. → Your basic knowledge is insufficient. Self-study and take relevant courses (e.g. pure math) to patch gaps in fundamental knowledge.

2) Transformation Phase (Year 2/3 – ??): You start to think “critically.” You can differentiate good papers from average papers. You may become a “mean person” — everything people did, you find meaningless. Deep inside, you want to do something great but you can only spot the weakness of others' works.

3) Ready Phase (Year ???): You start to realize the importance of “constructive thinking.” You have the ability to spot the weakness of existing works but also have the wisdom to be constructive — to overcome hurdles and accomplish a complete work of your own.