Thanks to Mark d’Inverno who authored some of this material.
What is a PhD?
- Being able to critique existing work
- Contribution to knowledge . This can be modest!
What does a PhD demonstrate?
- Demonstrates you are able to later take on independent, long-term research commitments
- A transformation to a professional researcher
- A pathway to employment within, and outside, academia
Why do you want a PhD?
Important to keep reflecting on this to self-motivate. There are many answers (e.g.) Profession development, Personal development, Artistic development ,Developing self-confidence, Career development. What are your reasons? Write them down.
The Kinds of PhDs
- Opens up new area
- Provides unifying framework
- Resolves long-‐standing question
- Critique existing theory and practice
- Understands and provides methodologies for new artistic practices
- Thoroughly explores an area
- Builds a new methodology for producing a system
- Provides new software
- Contradicts existing knowledge
- Experimentally validates a theory
- Derives superior algorithms
- Develops a new tool for doing X
And there are others too. Where does yours fit?