Continuing my ramblings about being a PhD. This post will include thoughts on courses I have to take, the stress levels, and why the hell I am doing this.

So first of status, I have submitted my first paper for a conference and I have start working on base demonstration for the project I am working on. Though I still cannot go into details about the project. I have also hosted my first teaching session. At the moment I am attending to courses and acting as teaching assistant for certain parts in another.

SO! Courses, I am following the two courses; Science Teaching and Research Integrity, the first being mandatory at the faculty for Science and Technology. The first course aims to teach new PhD Students how to activate students to become better students, how to provide feedback both to students and courses holders, and how to assess students. I like the course as does provide information about teaching which I had no previous knowledge of and it has helped me develop a lab exercises for the course I am teaching assistant in, called Distributed Storage. However, as I am a former undergraduate and graduate student, a lot of the course is also self explanatory. One thing I do like a lot is that the courses holders utilise the tools and techniques we are taught in the course, to teach us and thereby, provide a practical illustration of how to use a given tool or technique. For the course Research Integrity, the purpose is to teach PhD’s to conduct ethical and good research whilst maintaining a high standard for how the research is conducted and how you avoid bad research, it covers the rules and code of conduct which helps you have research with a high level of integrity. Do recent scandals of bad research ethics in Europe, Japan, and the USA I see this course as highly relevant and it provides a good guideline for how to act and conduct your research. It also outlines the grey areas and how those should be navigated. All in all I am very satisfied with both courses.

Next, I will talk a bit about being a teacher assistant. As I have been employed by Steinwurf ApS, the guys who make the software library Kodo, my supervisor thought it a good idea that I gave a small introduction lecture and hosted an exercise session on kodo-python. Now, I hate teaching, but the entire process from planing the lecture and exercise session, what content I wanted to cover, formulating the exercises, and presenting the lecture, was very interesting and I found that I didn’t mind teaching in a small class room based setting, with few students, though most of my colleagues came to watch. It was also very good for me see that students also listen, though some could have been better, but couldn’t they always :p However, one thing I had/have a giant problem with, was getting the software library to build on the students different operating systems, which was a pain in both the students and my buttocks. Therefore, I have decided that the next time I do this course/lecture the I will provide the students with a virtual machine containing all the data and tools they need.

STRESS!!! So, I have tried to handle stress as a student for almost a decade now and the it has not become easier as a PhD student, it has however become different. As a normal student you fear not reaching a deadline in 6 months or failing an exam. As a PhD student, I have had weekly deadlines, which if I did not meet them, I would have been in trouble with the department. This puts a hold new level of stress on me and my colleagues, which I luckily expect as I had talk to former PhD students. But, for some reason I do not feel as stressed as I did as a student. The ability to almost 100% control my own time helps a lot and does defuse the issue a bit. So stress levels are high, but much more manageable.

One of the questions I get the most and actually continuously get is; You where offered real money, a real job(s), why take a PhD? Simple, I liked the project, that is the reason I pursue a PhD. I have no intent of academic career, but I would like to work in R&D later in life.

That is it for now

./Lars