The growth and experience of Ph.D. lies in every bit of the whole process. After several years of long-term accumulation, the upgrading and transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change are formed. In this process, excitement, tension, happiness, busyness, confusion and even temporary loss are mixed. This article continues with the previous articles, recording my experience of studying as a doctor in a systematic and detailed way.

1. First paper

While I was slowly gnawing at a lot of literature, my tutor also recommended two introductory books in this field. I read them alternately, which can alleviate the boring feeling of reading. After reading it for about two or three months, my tutor began to discuss with me the framework of a review article that I plan to write, mainly about various micro scale experiments and measurement technologies. We simply divided these technologies into several categories, such as temperature, pressure, flow and geometry measurement. The tutor said that for each category, you should first try to write a few paragraphs of summary, based on the literature you are reading or have read, and then send it to him, and then we will discuss it.

I already have the notes when I read and organize the literature, so it's not very difficult to write them. About two or three months later, I have gone through all the literature, about five or six hundred, and have my own literature management database. At the same time, I successfully completed the summary of these measurement technologies, discussed with my tutor several times and revised them several times. The tutor said that there will be a meeting on a small island in France this summer. Let's organize the materials you wrote into an article and submit them to the meeting first.

In fact, the technical summary I wrote before is the main part of this article. The tutor added the introduction and conclusion, and the first article took shape. This is in the eighth and ninth month of my Ph.D., so the speed is relatively fast. But I didn't have the pressure to write an article at all from the beginning, because the tutor didn't let me complete a complete article from the beginning, but split an article into many small parts and let me finish it bit by bit. On the one hand, the difficulty is reduced a lot, on the other hand, every small part will have a small sense of achievement.

The purpose of sharing this experience is to show that it is not how good my basic skills are, but the tutor's step-by-step guidance and encouragement, which is crucial to the growth of the doctor. Furthermore, the introduction writing is the most difficult for a new Ph.D. because it needs to be far sighted and progressive, so there is a reason why my tutor didn't let me write this part, which also effectively avoids the frustration caused by the difficult task.

Not all doctors are as lucky as I am. They have specific guidance from their tutors when writing articles. Many years ago, I heard a lot of people share the pain and confusion when writing articles. Since then, I began to provide some explanations and training on thesis writing, and also helped some research groups to revise and polish their first drafts.

After attending the summer meeting, we received a lot of peer comments on this article, so we took advantage of the heat and spent more than a month to improve the article. This review is the first article in my doctoral stage, which is also the result of my first year as a doctor.

2. France post Expo

Back when I was alone in the laboratory reading literature, one day my tutor excitedly told me that the lonely life mode of the laboratory was coming to an end soon. It turned out that he recruited a postdoctoral and came from France one or two months later. I'm also very excited. Finally, someone can talk and chat. Sure enough, I met the postdoctoral very soon, and the office had already prepared his computer and desk for him, but his first day was not smooth. All this is caused by the keyboard of the computer. Originally, the layout of the French keyboard is very different from that of the English keyboard, while the Italian keyboard is the same as that of the English keyboard. As a result, he can't input with the keyboard or use the computer. The problem was quickly solved in the next few days.

This French postdoctoral is engaged in the design and processing of microcircuits at the doctoral stage, and has a strong connection with a national laboratory in France. This should be the main purpose of my tutor's recruitment, because our experiment needs to process micro scale sensors, even if he does not understand the field of heat transfer and fluid. This post Expo focuses on the French unique calm and gentlemanly demeanor. When we go out and come in together, we are always polite and bow to open the door for everyone first.

After he came to the laboratory, my academic life increased a lot of fun. We talked about various customs, traditions and cultures in the South China Sea and North China. I also learned a few simple French sentences. We often stay in the office for more than two hours, then go out for a breath, have a coffee, and change the environment to chat. A few months after his arrival, he arrived at the European Cup season, so he talked with me about football matches, and even watched them directly on his office computer. At that time, I was more restrained and felt that it was not very easy for my tutor to find out. Once he was excited when his tutor came in in a hurry. As a result, the tutor was excited when he watched together. No one in the whole office was in the mood for scientific research. From then on, I know the important position of the European Cup in everyone's heart. During the game, there are basically no people on the street outside. Everyone is either at home or in the bar to watch the game.

3. Time management

Mary Curie project has a specific and strict management of our scientific research time. Everyone has a timesheet to record their main research activities every day, accurate to hours. The scientific research time recorded every week must not exceed 40 hours, otherwise the audit will fail. Every month, I will write a monthly summary to report the progress of scientific research from several main perspectives; There is a similar quarterly report every quarter, and of course there is a more comprehensive and longer annual summary report every year. These reports need to be signed by themselves, then reviewed and signed by the tutor, and then sent to the general project management office.

Preparing these records and summaries for many times over a long period of time has made me gradually form the habit of reflecting on my scientific research progress and time utilization, and also let me know that the time that has passed is not without any trace. I will habitually look at whether I have spent too much time on a specific issue in the past week or month, which aspects are progressing smoothly, which aspects are slower, and why; These are very helpful for the next stage of the arrangement, but also exercise the ability of concise and clear summary and writing.

Now I manage several scientific research projects at the same time, and I deeply find that these records and summaries are very important for project management, which helps to count how much human time the researchers spend on each task of the project, so that we can more accurately calculate the human cost of the project. In addition, if there is a problem with the progress of the project, you can check these records in time to see what is wrong, so as to adjust and improve. And if there is a need to audit a project, these records are a first-hand source of information.