WEBVTT

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[Morse code beeps]
[Whoosh]

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[Helicopter rotor]

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Hello, everyone.

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My name is Nick Rober.

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I'm a fellow with the AeroAstro Comm Lab,
and today we're going to be talking about

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PhD thesis proposals.

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So, to get started,
let's do an opening activity,

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which, is just checking
your department's requirements.

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This is important because each department
is pretty different on

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what they might require for a PhD thesis
proposal, and it's important to know

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what you might be having to do
going into this lesson today.

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[Alien

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spaceship beeps]

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So the lesson goals

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for today are to first identify
what is the purpose,

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the goal,
and the audience of a PhD thesis proposal.

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We'll learn how to plan and structure
your thesis proposal

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to make it as strong as possible.

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And then we'll also leave with a concrete
roadmap, for your own proposal,

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that you can use to plan
the rest of your your PhD thesis research.

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So what is a PhD thesis proposal?

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A PhD thesis proposal is just a checkpoint
in the process towards

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your dissertation, that often consists
of both a written and oral component,

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and is usually presented to your PhD
thesis committee.

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The purpose of the PhD thesis proposal
is to propose a clear plan for your future

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and also demonstrate that you are ready
for independent research.

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Depending on your program,
the thesis proposal

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may come at different points
throughout your your grad school career.

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Sometimes it's it's towards the beginning
and sometimes it's towards the end.

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Earlier proposals usually communicate

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a reasonable plan
to graduate to your department/committee.

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And then later proposals

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are effectively a check,
to make sure that you're ready to defend.

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We'll primarily focus on the earlier
thesis proposals through this lesson

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because it includes
more of a planning component.

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So to go about actually making your
thesis

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proposal, the first step is actually
planning the thesis proposal.

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So this has a lot of overlap
with our other lesson

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on formulating a research topic,
but we'll go through some,

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some elements of that that are specific
to the thesis proposal itself.

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So the thesis proposal,
you should keep in mind,

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this is something that will actually
be very helpful for you as you go

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through the PhD.

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It's useful to organize your thoughts

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and what you first want to identify is
what are the gaps

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in your field of interest
that you need to address?

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And then the answer to that
is maybe a more difficult piece.

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But what are you going to do
to, actually address those gaps?

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Both of these should be elements,
in your thesis proposal.

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You need to be very mindful of the scope.

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So plans
should be extensive enough for the PhD,

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but not so much that you can't
accomplish them in around five years time.

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So tips to kind of gauge
the scope of this.

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You can look at other PhD theses
throughout your or from your department

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or your lab And you also you want to
you want to be very specific,

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when kind of describing what the gap is
and what your contributions will be.

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You also want to be specific
when you're discussing your contributions.

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The more specific you are, the easier

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it will be to gauge kind of how long
each of those things will take.

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You should also discuss a lot
with your advisor and your committee.

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These are,
you know, resources that can help you.

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Your advisor is a good resource
to help judge the merit of your proposal.

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And if you have the opportunity to meet
with your committee before your proposal,

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you can kind of do a mock proposal
that tells them the ideas

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that you want to discuss,
and then they can give you feedback.

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Another

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part of building
your proposal is designing a roadmap.

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So a roadmap is simply a kind of timeline
of your next

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contributions,
where you'll submit those contributions.

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And it helps convince your committee
that you have

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a plan and a path towards
graduating on time.

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It can also be used as a guide to help
keep you on pace.

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So as you go through,
you know, your future semesters,

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you can check and see like where are you
with respect to your your original plan.

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Things to include in the roadmap
are when you will accomplish

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each of your milestones,
as well as kind of where you plan

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to submit each of your milestones
in terms of publications.

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An example is shown here.

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This is just something that you know,
you can kind of based off of,

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but basically
you have each of your contributions

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where you're submitting them and
when you're going to be working on them.

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So next we launch into an activity.

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So go and find the “Build a Roadmap” file
and work on that

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for the next five or so minutes
and we'll jump back into the lesson.

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[Alien spaceship beeps]

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So once you've gone through
and planned out

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most of your thesis proposal,
it's time to actually start writing.

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The written proposal
is the actual document that you submit,

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typically to your committee,
as well as maybe the department,

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that outlines
the plan for your dissertation.

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So the audience for
this is usually fairly small.

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Often it's just your committee.

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Maybe there's a department rep that
you're submitting this to as well, but,

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you're primarily writing this document
just to be read by,

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you know, 3 or 4 people.

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So you can really kind of tailor
the writing specifically

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for their background and make sure that
the motivation and everything is,

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is, scoped to
what each of them are familiar with.

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The purpose of the written proposal
is actually just to propose

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a clear research problem.

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So this is something you've already
kind of

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thought
about through the planning process.

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You also want to demonstrate
a strong understanding of your field.

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So you show that you have knowledge
of the literature and all the different

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components of the problem
that you're trying to address.

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You also want to define the scope
of your research and support that scope

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with how feasible it will be based on
the amount of work that you need to do.

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And then finally,
you need to set a plan, going forward,

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that gives you a timeline towards towards
graduating on time.

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Written proposal components.

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So typically there's an introduction.

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This is what will give you the motivation

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and identify the research gap
that you're going to be addressing.

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Related work and background
show your committee that you have,

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knowledge of the field

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and have mastered the material
and it also contextualizes your work.

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The problem statement
is where you actually identify

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specific problems for your research
that you're going to be addressing.

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You may have sub-problems as well.

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So smaller bits that you need to solve
to solve the bigger problem.

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And then you'll talk about your proposed
methods and approach.

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And this can be tricky because, you know,
you don't necessarily have these done,

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but they should give you
they should give some sort of idea of

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what you plan to do
and how you might approach the problems.

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And then depending on where you are
in your, your research,

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you may have some results already,
which you can include.

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Otherwise, you should give
kind of the expected results.

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What do you expect to see from your,
from your contributions?

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And how will those address
the research gap?

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And then finally, you can give,
the timeline and the roadmap

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that we've just developed to give a plan
towards your final defense.

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So regarding tips for actually writing
your proposal,

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the first thing to do is double check
your department requirements,

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make sure that you know exactly what it is
you need to have done and when.

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This includes length expectations.

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So what, how much material
are you required to submit?

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And then also what material specifically
are you, required to submit?

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And also,
when writing, you want to be specific.

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So specifically, what problem statements
are you trying to solve?

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The more specific the better.

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And then specific proposed
methods will help your audience

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so your committee evaluate the methods,
and then also provide ideas

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that might kind of give you different
directions to, to pursue.

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Another thing to keep in mind is that
some amount of uncertainty is is expected.

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These are hard problems to solve,
which is why they're worth doing as a PhD.

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So your committee will understand that
and it's important to keep that in mind

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and not shy away from, you know,
not knowing the answer to everything.

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Ultimately, they'll be able to help you
with finding some solutions

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and giving you ideas, so this is
an opportunity to get their feedback.

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So once you're done writing, it's
time for the actual proposal defense.

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And the proposal defense
is just an extended meeting

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where you will present your thesis,

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and then your committee
will typically ask you questions,

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and there may be some time
for deliberation afterwards.

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Again, in this case,
the audience is, your committee members,

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but it may also include
some department representatives

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and even an independent evaluator.

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But again, you're
you're kind of mainly presenting

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to your committee
and trying to get their approval.

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The purpose of the defense
is to demonstrate that

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you're comfortable with the material
and give you an opportunity

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for more interaction with your committee
and kind of get ideas

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from them as well.

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So the specific layout of your proposal
defense is something

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that's very dependent on your department,
so make sure you're

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you're familiar with your department's
requirements before beginning.

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But often
there are a few different components.

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So first
obviously there's the presentation.

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But before and after that there may be
some sort of evaluation period

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where your committee
will discuss in private, the merits

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of your written component.

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There will also be a Q&A session,
which is very important

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because your committee
will have questions about your ideas.

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But this is also,
it's important to keep in mind

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that this is a good opportunity to get
feedback from your committee and hear what

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their ideas might be, with respect
to your specific research gap.

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And then finally, there's typically
some sort of private deliberation period

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after the entire defense is over

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where your committee will decide
whether or not you pass your defense.

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So with that, let's jump into

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the final activity, which is responding
to committee's questions.

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So go and find the “Committee Questions”
file and work on that

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for the next five or so minutes.

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[Alien spaceship beeps]

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With that, you should now be able

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to identify the purpose, goals
and audience of your PhD thesis proposal.

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You should be able to plan and structure
your proposal

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to make an effective argument
for your readiness as a PhD student

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and you should be able to create a roadmap
for your research

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leading up to your dissertation.
Thank you.

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[Morse code beeps]