Research Policies and Expectations

This page provides important research policies and expectations based on recommendations from our School's policies and our group's research culture. It is important for all postgraduate students to be familiar with these before conducting their research. For any feedback, please email the PI (Dr Nhat (Nick) Pham) at phamn@cardiff.ac.uk.

PhD Timeline:

• The university’s typical time limits for a full-time PhD are 3 Years (+1 writing-up year) and 5 years (+2 writing-up years) for part-time

• For URKI-funded students, it is important to note that URKI expects that the thesis will be submitted within the funding period (3.5 years for EPSRC DTP/DLA). Full URKI Ts and Cs can be found below.

How to do well in your PhD?

• I would refer you to an excellent guide, "Good PhD student, bad PhD student", from Abhishek Gupta (Associate Professor at the Ohio State University). 

• "Being a good PhD student is hard. Most struggles are not caused by lack of intelligence — they are caused by habits, mindset, and expectations that were never articulated clearly." 

Publications:

• For PhD thesis - a very general expectation: At least three publishable papers from the thesis content.

• Aim for at least A-ranked conferences or high-impact journals. It is important to note that the School only consider travel funding for A-ranked conferences.

• Some example venues (but not limited to) include: MobiCom, MobiSys, SenSys, UbiComp, PerCom, INFOCOM, NeurIPS, ICML, etc. or IEEE/ACM Transactions.

Supervision meetings:

• Expected to meet at least once every two weeks. Ideally weekly.

• You should agree and regularly review a working pattern, including a standard schedule of meetings

• At least one meeting per month must take place on campus.

• Keep a record of weekly meetings and maintain a professional approach: meet deadlines and prepare for meetings!

• Write and agree post-meeting summaries with action points for you and your supervisors.

• A presentation template and an example for our weekly meetings can be found below. 

• A good weekly report should include: (1) What are the research questions? (2) Literature review. (3) Your analysis/hypothesis? (4) Experimental results. (5) an overall plan for your next submission, and (6) action items for the next week.

Our research culture:

• Our typical work hours are 9-5 or 10-6. During our work hours, it is expected that you will be available via email, in-person or online meetings, and our lab's Discord channels.

• Due to the nature of our experimental work, it is expected that you will be on-site during typical work hours. Working from home can be considered for work that doesn't require lab experiments. However, you will find it is more efficient to be on-site due to the availability of equipment and discussion with your labmates. 

• Don't work alone! Research is more efficient and fun when you have a team!

Policies for extenuating circumstances (EC)/extension:

• It is important not to consider the extension in your PhD planning, and try to finish in time. It is the last resort rather than a typical training period! Many students might end up taking up part-time work, which significantly distracts from their research. Being late in your PhD also negatively affects your career prospects after graduation. But if you need it, here we are...

• A maximum EC of 12 months from the typical submission period (as aforementioned) can be considered due to unforeseeable circumstances. This is subject to approval from the PhD supervisor and review panel.

• Similarly, Interruption of Studies (IoS) is also a maximum of 12 months. However, for students who are under a Student Visa, it is only limited to 59 days.

• Please refer to the EC/IoS policies below.

Useful links:

• Meeting presentation template.

• Weekly report example.

• PGR handbook.

• PGR induction.

• UKRI Ts and Cs.

• EC policies.

• IoS policies.