Mysterious grad school I

First semester of my grad school life

My first semester in grad school just ended. Although I think I did OK, I still feel like I need to take a vacation before I start to deal with so many things that I need get to. This is why I am working on this first blog in Bedlam Coffee house in Seattle. Up till now, grad school still seems to be a mystery to myself. Thus, I plan to approach it like Philip Guo's PhD Grind -- I want to write a short or long blog reflecting my experience every semester or every year. This is where the title comes from.

My first semester actually is filled with astonishing things. I assumed that I would start to work on my research right away but later I found out I need to spend more time on courses just because they are constraints that I must finish. I ended up taking two courses that neither of them I am very familiar with -- I took one theory class (Advanced Algorithms) and one security class (Network Security). Quite interestingly, they are also the opposite of each other. Advanced Algorithms requires a lot of time to understand the concepts and reason things like a theorist, while Network Security is more about practice, we are always practising the things we just learned. Although I suffered (sort of) while getting things done, I am pleased to report that things ended up sweetness and light -- I did OK and I have learned and gained what I expected. I tried pretty hard is only because I think they will be helpful for my research in the future, which is actually what grad school is all about.

As you might know, the goal of any PhD student is to work on his/her research and try to publish in top venues. Due to the heavy course workload I wasn't able to achieve a lot in the first semester, but only to identify some research directions and generate one research idea. It wasn't what I expected but at least I am progressing. I view that this is the part where I tried to use all the spare time I have (which is really not a lot) to pivot my research.

Lessons learned and future plans

At the beginning I wasn't happy about the heavy course workload -- I have earned my M.S. in CS before. However I have worked on research previously and I knew better that anything can be required in my research. To better prepare myself, I should take any chance I have to learn, this absolutely includes things that are not in the scope my research area. And it turned out I was right -- Advanced Algorithms and Network Security should be helpful in the future.

In terms of my future plans, I guess my only goal would be progressing on my own research, and being able to finish the course I have to take.