The "Methodology" stage

Hello everyoneeeee!! Been super hectic this couple of weeks. just arrived from Kucing, shall blogged about it soon. Of course, after I'm done with my umrah post in Makkah, catching uppp catching upp.. haha.

Right now, I'm preparing for my talk on "How I finish my PhD in 3 years part time"; another invitation to fulfilled. So, I thought of sharing what I did during my Methodology stage :)

1. Focus

First key point of the day is.. focus. How easy does it sound, right? But really, you need to train yourself to focus during this stage. Because we tend to do our experiment in a lab. And my lab, is filled with fun girls and we always have something to talk about.. or something fun to do. What fun things to do in the lab, you asked?

I am very easy to please. Give me an Instagram and credit card and the girls to motivate me to buy, walla! There goes a day worth of research. And I'm so into blogging by the way.. and facebook.. gosh so many distractions ok!

So, what I do.. I imagine myself in a big bubble. The moment I start with my experiments, I shut the whole world away. Slowly but surely, the method works, so my friends began to ignore me the moment they saw me with my PhD toys.

2. Determination

How cliche, right? The above statement. But you know it's really true. Once, I'm stuck for months figuring something up. I did not know if I ever would get out of it. I even drafted a letter to quit my PhD. Aaanddd that's when I cashed in my "in case briefcase and somehow I keep going. Looking back.. really, I would forever regret if I did send out that letter.

3. Publish papers

Excerpt from my thesis

Publish as many papers as you can. That literature review, preliminary results, don't let it go to waste. You need those papers not only to impress your examiners, but also for you to gain more confidence.

Sometimes, we think the preliminary results are not worthy, but it's ok. Just try to get it published anyway. I started my PhD in 2010, and I sent out my preliminary result to an IEEE conference, and I got awarded with best paper award. Imagine if I have not sent it out because I thought it is just "preliminary results", I would have let my work goes to waste.

By the end of my 3 years of PhD; I have published 7 journals and 9 conference papers. Mostly from my preliminary results; so start writing and be confident in your results.


4. Exhibition

Try to participate in any exhibition. I led 2 projects for ITEX using my PhD, one in 2012 and the other in 2013, where I was awarded a gold and a silver respectively.

This is important for you to again, impress the examiner. Secondly to build your name.

When I went for ITEX, I would normally go around, mingle with those in the same field as mine, and distribute my name cards to almost everybody I met. The thing is you want to make people familiar with your name, in case they are one of your future examiners, they will be like, "Yeah.. I've heard her name before" kinda thing. To generate  good first impression to them.

5. Stop

Why is it even a key point? It is because, many times we are not confident enough to stop with our methodology and move on because we think that it is simply not good enough. Not worthy to get a PhD. My advice is, if your examiner said it is PhD material already, supported by a second opinion, in my case; my co-supervisor, stop and start thinking of your thesis.

My talk on "Finishing PhD on time - how I did it"

The story must be a little bit basi by this time around. Gosh I was sooo busy.. feel like I'm still doing my phd. Catching with the aftermaths of phd, the projects that I cleverly committed myself into, the professional engineeringship I was chasing and of course the gentle birth I'm preparing myself for.

Exhausted.

Yet the talk I gave for my uni on how I finish my phd on time was an excellent one. Omg I got so many positive vibes afterwards, overwhelming with people came from other uni as well to thank me and hugs me. Overflowed with emails and whatsapps.

I was so flattered and happy to have the opportunity to inspire people. I guess when you make people happy you're just thousand times happier.

Some of my lecturers during bachelor degree messaged me afterwards to congratulate on the success of the talk. But I must say this one brings tears to my eyes.. and boy was I glad I made him proud.

The uni is in progress of publishing the video online. Will share with you the link in shaa Allah. :) and will share more on the content of the talk. So busy I actualy typed this in the middle of my conference.

Currently busy with..

Wish me luck!! *nervous*

Literature Review

Hello dearest researchers!!

Today I'm in the mood to write steps on how to start your literature review. Here goes..

1. Define your scope

So, once you have a brief idea about what to do for your PhD and Master, you need to define your scope. This becomes your 'Scope of work'.

The importance of defining your scope are:
1) To tell the examiner that our work is only this much.
2) For ease of writing Chapter 2.

My favorite method in defining the scope is by using Prof Khazani's K-chart method. Since I am not entitled to teach K-chart here (I heard that it is copyrighted), I would strongly suggest you to join Prof Khazani's talk should he provide any. Nonetheless, I share with you my K-chart here. The ones I bold are the focus of my study and the ones I did not bold is to tell the examiner that this is out of my scope.

2. Plan

Planning is the most crucial part that has been neglected by many. I shall caps lock it, bold, highlight, enlarge, whatever to stress the importance of planning.

Many times I found researchers got up all panicked trying to do everything but ended up with almost nothing. Take your time to plan, set some time to study about it. Let's say if your study is about Honda City, give yourself a couple of weeks to study first about cars in general. Google for tutorial about cars. Strengthen your foundation. Then only you study the difference between continental cars and Japanese cars. Then, you refine your scope to the difference between Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi in terms of their technology.

You see, it doesn't matter if the planning take quite some times. It is worth it. You understand better rather than jumping here and there without understanding the big picture of your research. It's okay to go slow, rather than having to go back every now and then with little understanding in the end, trust me.

3. Read, read, read

I read the first time to get the overview and the theoretical background of a paper.

Twice until perhaps 15 to 16 times to understand the work. Then I extracted the advantages and disadvantages.

And again to know the software or hardware used and the parameters studied.

Again during thesis writing, to see how they write their results.

Unless you're a super genius, you can't understand a paper just by reading it once. What you might do is that you might misunderstand the whole paper due to assumption.

4. A proper documentation

Because you're gonna read it again and again and again, might as well have a proper documentation. This is my documentation from the first EPON DBA was published in 2001 until 2012, everything I can get my hands on (journals only).

5. Come out with a table

For ease of writing, because remember you're gonna write your critical review years after your read these papers. To help you refresh back my memory, I come up with this.. :)

What to do before you start your PhD/Master by Research

Hello everyoneeee!!

Currently I'm preparing some ideas on what to present for my talk in my Uni. A colleague of mine asked me to give a talk on "How I finish my PhD in 3 years part time".

Macam cocky kan the title. Haha!! I wasn't the one who came up with it. Nak catch attention je tuh.

But if people know me, they know my intention is just to share. And while preparing for my slides, I thought of just sharing what I think everyone (including me if I could turn back time and tell myself all these before I started my PhD) should do before they begin their PhD or Master by Research.

I shared this based on my experiences. I finished my PhD in 3 years and my Master by research in slightly over a year. Might work for you, might not, but just tawakkal and leave the rest to the Almighty, in shaa Allah every little effort counts :) 

What to do before you start your PhD/Master by Research

1. Literature Review

At least read a little bit about the background of the things you would like to do your research on. The general overview, not just read, make sure you understand. Familiarize yourself with the famous authors and experts in your field. Make sure you know the current trend. Then, make sure you fall in love with it. Sometimes you fall in love with something people think is hard. If you think you know yourself better than the rest of the world, follow your instinct. Passion makes everything easier, at least for me.

I was given two options when I did my Master, two different titles, one looks easier than the other. But I chose the other one out of passion and I am confident I've made the right choice. Alhamdulillah :)

2. Supervisor

Choose a supervisor whom is not only an expert in your field but also ones whom understand you. But to have a supervisor whom understand you, you must understand yourself first. If you're the type of person who works well when somebody pushes you, find a sv whom can push you persistently. Otherwise,  find someone who is more laid back

And I would also strongly encourage you to have a co-sv so that
1. You can get a 2nd opinion on things
2. You can have somebody to look at your research in a different angle.
If possible, find a sv that can complement your co.

My sv, Prof Shidah is a woman and my co sv, Dr. Mansoori is a man so I get the best of both worlds.

3. Seek for blessings; make them understand

Blessing is important, be it from your husband or your parents. You have to understand that PhD is demanding. It demands your time, your mental and also your physical. There are days, like it or not you have to come back home late especially if you do it part time. There are days, you sleep with the problem and waking up all stressed out and cried alone for no reason. There are times especially towards the end, you come home in need of time just an hour to practice for viva or to do your coding because an idea comes out of nowhere. The husband, the parents need to be there for you physically and mentally. I can't stress this enough, its importance. 

I'm blessed to have my parents live nearby and taking care of Khaira and being such super understanding I can't thank them enough. I'm blessed to have a husband whom I can depend on. Nonetheless, to make people understand is not easy, which comes to my next point..

4. Have a circle of friends whom understand you

And for me, there's nobody understand you better except those who have been through the same shit as you have been through. Those who did their PhD with you and cried with you and laughed with you.

They don't have to do the same technical things as you are, but please seek for them when you're stuck because if you shut yourselves from the world, it's hard to get out. You need people to talk to.

Needless to say.. my circle of friends, those in the lab with me, they cried with me, fell with me, may Allah SWT bless them. I love you girls.

 5. "In case briefcase"

My hubby called in the "in case briefcase". A reason why you do your PhD, a really strong one. Cash it in the day you need it. You will need it. 

Trust me, in your PhD there are days when you feel like quitting, but always remember your "in case briefcase". Mine came when I was writing my thesis, I even wrote a letter to quit. Then, my pillar of support (husband) came to remind me of my "in case briefcase", and I was quickly reminded of my passion and circle of friends. I managed to finish it eventually.

6. Have faith

Have faith in the Almighty that He will ease everything for you. If He brings you to it, He will surely bring you through it. "I am what you think I am," He said. Have faith and it makes you believe that He allows you to do anything and to achieve the impossible. :)