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<title>Enabling Supervision</title>
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<section id="sec-title-slide"><h1 class="title">Enabling Supervision</h1><p class="subtitle">A two way process</p>
<h2 class="author">James Brusey</h2><h2 class="date">5 March 2024</h2>
</section>
<section id="sec-table-of-contents"><div id="table-of-contents" role="doc-toc">
<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<div id="text-table-of-contents" role="doc-toc">
<ul>
<li><a href="#/slide-orgfefeb36">Set ground rules at the start</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-org40fd0ed">Meetings</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-org856e812">Project management</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-org61f4a58">Match your approach to the student</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-org5942c05">Engender self-respect and ownership</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-orgddaf349">Viva preparation</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-org46262ec">Final words</a></li>
<li><a href="#/slide-orgbebf684">Further reading</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-orgfefeb36">
<h2 id="orgfefeb36">Set ground rules at the start</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgfefeb36">
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgebe3b6e">
<h3 id="orgebe3b6e">Ground rules for you</h3>
<ul>
<li>Meet regularly</li>
<li>Public praise, private criticism</li>
<li>Rapid turnaround for drafts</li>
<li>Be part of the team, not just the boss</li>
<li>Allow recording</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-orge2d7ceb">
<h3 id="orge2d7ceb">Ground rules for the student</h3>
<ul>
<li>Organise, run meetings, write minutes</li>
<li>Criticise supervisor privately first</li>
<li>Rapid turnaround for drafts</li>
<li>Show up (like a normal job)</li>
<li>Take ownership of the PhD</li>
<li>Understand and obey the Vancouver protocol</li>
<li>Understand and avoid plagiarism</li>
<li>Learn the tools</li>
<li>Backup your work</li>
<li>Yes&#x2014;you can buy stuff</li>
<li>Be part of the team</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgd946af8">
<h3 id="orgd946af8">Here is the ground rules document that I use</h3>
<p>
<a href="https://tinyurl.com/phdgroundrules">https://tinyurl.com/phdgroundrules</a>
</p>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-org40fd0ed">
<h2 id="org40fd0ed">Meetings</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org40fd0ed">
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-org867f7e7">
<h3 id="org867f7e7">How to run a meeting (advice for student)</h3>
<ul>
<li>Send documents in advance</li>
<li>Don't expect technical feedback on something just presented in the meeting</li>
<li>If you get feedback, act, and show that you acted</li>
<li>If there is nothing to discuss, don't take an hour</li>
<li>Write minutes on the same day</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgffc7af0">
<h3 id="orgffc7af0">Possible agenda</h3>
<ul>
<li>Review previous minutes, including plan</li>
<li>What you actually did</li>
<li>Issues, problems</li>
<li>Plan for next period</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgcd885c1">
<h3 id="orgcd885c1">Why the supervisor needs an agenda</h3>
<div id="orgd35f333" class="figure">
<p><img src="https://phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd080905s.gif" alt="phd080905s.gif" />
</p>
</div>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-org856e812">
<h2 id="org856e812">Project management</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org856e812">
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-org8aca7be">
<h3 id="org8aca7be">Use a gantt chart, right?</h3>
<div id="org326a203" class="figure">
<p><img src="example_gantt_chart.png" alt="example_gantt_chart.png" />
</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-org3f1f4c1">
<h3 id="org3f1f4c1">Wrong!</h3>
<ul>
<li>To produce a nice looking gantt chart, you'll need hours with project management software (or a spreadsheet)</li>
<li>Everyone uses different software anyway</li>
<li>Either too high-level or too low-level</li>
<li>Too hard to update (so it won't be updated!)</li>
<li>It doesn't necessarily keep your project on track</li>
<li>Research is lumpy
<ul>
<li>hard to estimate how long something will take</li>
<li>new tasks appear frequently</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org7d0ed6d">
<h3 id="org7d0ed6d">Alternative &#x2013; use Scrum</h3>
<ul>
<li>Scrum is designed about a <i>product backlog</i> or list of features</li>
<li>A backlog is not about doing things <i>on time</i> but more about <i>rate of progress</i></li>
<li>Supervisor and student agree on a <i>priority order</i> for the backlog</li>
<li>Group features into a sprint (these 3 items will be done by the next meeting)</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgb130dec">
<h3 id="orgb130dec">Example backlog</h3>
<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col" class="org-left">Feature</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lit review on thermal comfort</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Clean data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Try linear regression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Try Neural network</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">&#x2026;</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgf14485b">
<h3 id="orgf14485b">Can also add a difficulty estimate (story points)</h3>
<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
<colgroup>
<col class="org-left" />
<col class="org-right" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col" class="org-left">Feature</th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right">Points</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Lit review on thermal comfort</td>
<td class="org-right">100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Clean data</td>
<td class="org-right">50</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Try linear regression</td>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Try Neural network</td>
<td class="org-right">20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">&#x2026;</td>
<td class="org-right">&#xa0;</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgd1c294f">
<h3 id="orgd1c294f">Burn chart</h3>
<div id="org4a3ec75" class="figure">
<p><img src="burn.png" alt="burn.png" />
</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgabbc39a">
<h3 id="orgabbc39a">Also consider word count trackers</h3>
<ul>
<li>e.g., <a href="https://wordgoal.app">https://wordgoal.app</a> <a href="https://www.pacemaker.press">https://www.pacemaker.press</a></li>
<li>For an overview <a href="https://writersatelier.com/where-else-to-track-chart-your-daily-word-count-free-spreadsheet/">https://writersatelier.com/where-else-to-track-chart-your-daily-word-count-free-spreadsheet/</a></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-org61f4a58">
<h2 id="org61f4a58">Match your approach to the student</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org61f4a58">
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-org3469d8f">
<h3 id="org3469d8f">Give flexibility to stronger students</h3>
<ul>
<li>They get to choose the topic more</li>
<li>Meet when they have a result</li>
<li>Meeting agenda flexes to what they think is most important</li>
<li>Attendance not as important as progress</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org8e65a15">
<h3 id="org8e65a15">Give discipline to weaker ones</h3>
<ul>
<li>10am latest starting time</li>
<li>Always review with them the previous minutes to pick up what they are avoiding</li>
<li>Bring them back to the agenda when they go off on a tangent</li>
<li>Give them a topic that you know will work and produce a viable thesis</li>
<li>Keep in mind:
<ul>
<li>you are not punishing for poor performance&#x2014;just adjusting your style to their needs</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-org5942c05">
<h2 id="org5942c05">Engender self-respect and ownership</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org5942c05">
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-orgcaacd7b">
<h3 id="orgcaacd7b">Good students care about every aspect of the quality of their work</h3>
<ul>
<li>Software should have unit-tests</li>
<li>Experiments should be reproducible</li>
<li>Outputs, graphs, tables well-proportioned, graceful, aesthetically pleasing, informative</li>
<li>Written work should be readable by a lay audience</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org4003873">
<h3 id="org4003873">How do we get there?</h3>
<ul>
<li>Have high standards and diligently point out issues</li>
<li>Make sure it is not just about the supervisor&#x2014;enable other feedback too
<ul>
<li>journal / conference reviewers</li>
<li>wider community (e.g., stackoverflow, open source developers)</li>
<li>personal reward systems (e.g., chocolate 😋)</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Show them great examples</li>
<li>Also see <i>Writing for Computer Science</i> (Zobel)</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-orgddaf349">
<h2 id="orgddaf349">Viva preparation</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgddaf349">
</div>
</section>
<section id="slide-org8929e55">
<h3 id="org8929e55">Student must own the material</h3>
<ul>
<li>It's better for the student to own the material early on</li>
<li>"My supervisor told me to do it" 🫣</li>
<li>Ownership can mean less control&#x2014;but that's ok!</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org37f08b7">
<h3 id="org37f08b7">Prepare a presentation that is the right length</h3>
<ul>
<li>The material needs to fit in about 10 minutes</li>
<li>It should be clear, crisp, and correct</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org49ff3d4">
<h3 id="org49ff3d4">Usually 2 mocks</h3>
<ul>
<li>Allows a chance for revision if the presentation has errors</li>
<li>Well prepared students seem to do better in the viva</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org84ca89d">
<h3 id="org84ca89d">Sample questions</h3>
<ul>
<li>There are plenty of samples on the Internet</li>
<li>Consider these key ones:
<ul>
<li>Can you explain the graph in Figure X?</li>
<li>What is the most important chapter and why?</li>
<li>Where is the answer to research question X and is the question comprehensively answered?</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org3d20cf0">
<h3 id="org3d20cf0">Examiner selection</h3>
<ul>
<li>I always encourage the student to propose possible examiners
<ul>
<li>But I don't allow them to take control of the process</li>
</ul></li>
<li>When examiners are selected, the student should make sure their work is covered</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="slide-org345be9b">
<h3 id="org345be9b">During the examination</h3>
<ul>
<li>I always take copious notes during the examination (hand written)</li>
<li>I reassure the student that I will do this too</li>
<li>They need to have a copy of their thesis to hand&#x2014;must be the same version as the examiners.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-org46262ec">
<h2 id="org46262ec">Final words</h2>
<ul>
<li class="fragment appear">It's not about the supervisor &#x2026;
<ul>
<li>&#x2026; it's about the student</li>
</ul></li>
<li class="fragment appear">If you are asking "what do I get out of it?", you are doing it wrong</li>
<li class="fragment appear">Best success measure: how did they grow in your care?</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-orgbebf684">
<h2 id="orgbebf684">Further reading</h2>
<ul>
<li>Zobel <i>Writing for Computer Science</i></li>
<li><a href="https://thesiswhisperer.com/">The Thesis Whisperer</a></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
</div>
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