Memo for my students

This page contains my expectations for my students.

Self-Motivation

I really need you to be self-motivated. If you don't really like research and are forced into doing it, life can be really difficult (I have been there once myself, so trust me on this).

  • I expect you to take good care of yourself, both mentally and physically! This is very important. Don't trade your health for a PhD degree or something like that.
  • I hope you are passionate about research and/or research relevant things, e.g., writing, publishing, traveling, and/or conferencing.
  • I can give you short-term projects initially, but I expect you to find research topics and projects you like.
  • You may not like it, but I hope you understand the lifestyle as a student researcher, e.g., low paying but long working time; and fight paper deadlines. These can be difficult.
  • We want to find a positive feedback loop that helps you maintain your energy and passion, e.g., being able to publish and travel may be very rewarding; networking and making new friends may be rewarding; take a vacation once a year may be necessary. I hope you like these rewards, and we can together find a good way that keeps you motivated and energized.
  • I expect you to be proactive about potential problems. Try to identify problems in research, study, or life as early as possible, and ask for help. You will have much better support this way and won't panic.
  • I expect you to fully understand the degree requirements, and fulfill the necessary degree requirements in a timely manner. I will surely help you with the process.

Communication

I expect constant communication and it is very important.

  • You can (and you should) call me Jian.
  • Treat me as your advisor. You may come to me if you run into difficulties or problems. I may not be able to solve all problems, but I can point you to the right person and/or ask others for you.
  • We can communicate through emails, meetings, and slack messages.
  • I expect to hear from you at least once per week. Weekly meetings should be arranged. I like in-person meetings, but we can do remote meetings if needed.
  • My Calendar is available online. Feel free to come to my research office hours to check in, have a quick chat, or ask questions

Research Progress

We should have a clear roadmap towards the end goal, and regularly generate fruitful results along the way. Making progress in research may be difficult sometimes, and that is totally fine.

  • I expect you to always think about and work on your long term research agenda or roadmap. What is the big picture? What do you expect to achieve in 5 years? What do you expect to achieve in 10 years? You don't need to have a clear picture to begin with, but I expect you to think about it all the time.
  • Have short term goals and fight for them. I don't expect you to make huge progress in any short term periods. But we should have a short-term goal, e.g., every month and every semester, and regularly evaluate our short-term results.
  • Don't be too upset about setbacks. It's totally OK to have turnovers or setbacks, that is an essential part of being human. Rejections are very common, not only in doing research, but also in many things. We should learn from the mistakes / rejections / turnovers, rather than dwelling on them.
  • Publications are useful stimulus. I usually don't push you for many publications. I hope publications come out naturally. However, I believe it's worthwhile to show what you have done and get others' feedback, for your own benefits. You can often get very useful feedback, both on research and life, by giving research talks and going to conferences. Being able to publish also gives you strong confidence about yourself. So I believe it's important to create a roadmap for your research that includes periodical publications along the way.
  • Reading and writing skills are very important, no matter what career paths you choose. So practice your writing skills all the time. e.g., set up a regular writing session, 15-30 minutes every day and 3 sessions per week. Just write anything you can think of.

Research Activities

I expect you to attend relevant research activities and enjoy them. Check my calendar: it may contain many activities that you can attend.

  • Attending relevant students' paper reading group, e.g., Cybersecurity reading group. Here are some tips on picking up papers for reading groups:
    • Start with papers from top-tie conferences for security, e.g., Oakland, CCS, Usenix securitym; conferences for PL, e.g., POPL, PLDI, and CAV; and conferences for our particular field, e.g., CSF and HSCC.
    • It's easier for the readers if the picked paper has online materials, e.g., videos and slides.
    • Choose a paper you really like, and explain the reasons.
    • Choose a paper that may affect many application domains.
    • Find questions that worth discussion for the reading group, and raise questions for the audiences.
  • Attending relevant research talks and seminars, e.g., CyberDNA seminar.
  • Consider attending local research events, e.g., UNCC security symposium every year.
  • Consider to be student volunteers in research events, e,g, in conferences. You get a good opportunity to networking.
  • Give regular public presentations and speeches in seminars at UNCC and/or universities closeby. The presentations should be well-organized. You will get useful feedback.

Writing

I value writing ability very much. As a non-native English speaker, I try to improve my writing ability as much as possible. I often book regular time slots every week purely for writing purposes. You are expected to attend at least one of my writing sessions per week. And I encourage you to put regular writing time yourself.