The Way to A Successful Career:
Graduate Degree Programs
CK Cheng
EECS Department
National Taiwan University
CSE Department
UC San Diego
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The way to a successful career
What is the most important ingredient to
succeed in our career?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Motivation
Knowledge
Innovation
Personal relation
Please note that most of the questions in this
talk are open. There is no perfect answer.
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Graduate Degree Programs
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Why I am here
Who wants to go to graduate school
What to expect from the graduate program
How to be successful in the program
Summary
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Why I am here
•
•
•
•
•
•
1976 BS, EE NTU
1978 MS, EE NTU
1980 Military Service
1984 Ph.D., EECS UC Berkeley
1986 Engineer, AMD
1986+, Prof., CSE Dept., UC San Diego
– 38 Ph.D. graduates, 31 visiting scholars
– Chair of admission, MS program
• Collaborator/Consultant: Altera, Ansys, Bellcore,
Cadence, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, Mentor, NEC,
Qualcomm, Sun, Synopsys, Xilinx
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Why I am here: Ph.D. experience
• Preliminary Exam: Oral exam with 1/2 rate
– I read Circuit Theory by E.S. Kuh n times, n≥ 3.
• Advisor: E.S. Kuh
– Integrity and capacity
– Lifelong relationship
• Creativity and practicality
– Placement using circuit analogy: Strength of
UC Berkeley, Math experts, Bottlenecks
– Internship
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Who wants to go to graduate school
• Love to study
– Voracious appetite for knowledge
• Wonder about the world with curiosity
– Motivation for innovation
– Can we do better
– Why not
• A. Einstein: The important thing is not to stop
questioning.
• Strive for breakthroughs
– No need to invent another wheel
– Willing to take risks
• Jack Welch “Tipping points (are) learning
experiences from complete failures.”
From How Blowing up a
Factory Changed Jack Welch
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What do we learn from Jack Welch?
Which of the following is the most relevant to
a successful career?
A. To risk with adventures;
B. To get failure experiences;
C. To be able to accept the failure; or
D. To be able to recover from the failure.
Which one is your choice?
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What to expect from graduate program
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What to expect from graduate programs
• Broaden career path
– Academia, research institute, industrial research
center, industry
• Find mentors for career
– Adviser(s), committee members, lab mates
• Conversation skills
– Presentations of conferences, seminars, defense
– Sale your problems and solutions
• Learn the knacks of problem solving
– Survey, implementation, testing, set backs, innovation
– Dedication
• Make a dent in the technology
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What to expect from graduate programs
What is the most valuable experience in
your graduate program?
A. To take the graduate classes
B. To create something new
C. To present in public
D. To learn from the adviser
E. To collaborate with lab mates
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How to be successful (Advising)
• Find and keep an advisor
– Lifelong relationship
– Chemistry of personality
– Start as master and apprentice
• Understand the mechanism of advising
– Mutual needs and commitments
• Both share time, energy and ideas
• Advisor: Intellectual guidance, professional advocacy
• Student: Research engine, source of novel ideas
• What turns on a professor
– Excellent researchers vs bookworms
– Research projects vs building another wheel
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How to be successful (Personality)
• Aim high and start low (motivation)
– Be willing to take risks
– Work with a senior student
• Leverage the strength of the team (be humble
and confident)
– Step on the strength of the group
– Find your talents
• Keep research alive (self discipline)
–
–
–
–
Collaboration with advisor, mentors, colleagues
Take advantage of the program as your prime time
Keep reading, exploring, testing and writing
Observe the publication calendar
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Summary
• Personality
– Motivation: strong enough to try and try
and try …
• Creativity
– Find your niche: understand and use
your talents
• Graduate Program
– Get a personal trainer to succeed in
your career
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Thank You!
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Reference
• http://www.tsmc.com/english/aboutTSMC/
values.htm
• How to get started on research in graduate
school, L. Saul, UCSD, 2014
• How to have a good career in computer
science, S. Savage, UCSD, 2014
• Books by D. Liu
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