>> 16.10.05

Update
I know, I know. All I'm going to say is that my studies are nearly officially over — I started a job way back in June but my viva is on Tuesday. The plan is to finish off this diary retrospectively so that by Christmas it is a complete record of my time as a postgraduate student. To that effect, please accept my apologies for the prolonged silence — and keep 'em peeled for updates in the next week or two.... {>>}

>> 18.03.05

TeX on OS X
Around six months before starting my postgraduate studies, I bought an iBook, the idea behind it being that I could do some of my work on it, especially writing-up papers and the thesis using LaTeX. At least, that's why I told myself I needed an iBook. The reality had been very different to the theory: all of my computer work is done in the "office" and I use my iBook, exclusively, for everything other than maths. The main reason for this was the seeming impossibility of getting LaTeX to work... {>>}

>> 01.08.04

Academic speed
I have just finished reading Gordon Brown's biography, in which it is stated that the current Chancellor took some ten years to complete his PhD on the Labour socialist movement in Scotland. That's right: ten years to write his thesis and thus be awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy. The length of a PhD has always been a subject that has fascinated me for it reveals something very curious about the academic world and the individuals contained within it. Specifically, I think that the academic world shapes those within... {>>}

>> 31.05.04

Flexible bank holidays
The steady (as in stationary) flow of cars outside my house and by my side for almost half of my walk onto campus this morning looked very similar to the sort of traffic I would normally associate with the crowds beating a path to the town centre on a Saturday. Which is just as well, because today is a bank holiday. Being a research postgraduate student, however, means that I don't have to join the desperate hoards of worker bees trying to make the most of their weekday off -... {>>}

>> 28.05.04

Student seminar series
The second of the big changes within the maths department being considered at the moment is the remit of the informal seminar series on a Wednesday. Currently, the department has two seminars - one on Friday that acts a formal arena for staff at UniS and external mathematicians to discuss their work - and the informal series on a Wednesday. Although it is recommended that we attend, from a postgraduate perspective both seminar series prove to be more perplexing than rewarding and with this in mind, the department have suggested... {>>}

>> 26.05.04

MPhil(qual) is the new MPhil
Neophiles beware: the PhD system in the maths department at the University of Surrey is undergoing a small, but important change to its PhD research degree structure. Currently, at around the 12-18 month mark, students are required to prepare a transfer report such that their default registration on the MPhil course is 'automatically' upgraded to the PhD course. Bearing in mind the conclusions of the International Review of Mathematics, it was felt that such a system structure does not necessarily produce work of a sufficient standard and - what is... {>>}

>> 21.05.04

Asbestos cleaning
Just as the sun goes in, we all get shoved out of the "office" so that some folks from the university can come in and remove some asbestos that has been hanging around in amongst the pipework of the hitherto 'humming' cupboard that soothes us all as we work. Another relocation later and here I am in the library starting to write up the excellent progress of the last 10 days in the wonderful and in no way whatsoever frustrating LaTeX.... {>>}

>> 06.05.04

All change?
Two interesting articles in the Guardian education today, both of which are loosely associated with postgradute study. The first article suggests that the current degree classification system could be axed altogether since it does not differentiate between attainment well enough. It looks like someone has a point: according to the article: "28,300 undergraduates were awarded firsts last year [2003] — an increase of 2,200 since 2002 and 7,600 since 1999." What is more, some 55% of students graduating in 2003 earned themselves a first or upper second-class degree. The knock-on... {>>}

>> 27.04.04

Free learned member membership
After a couple of weeks away from my desk, I have settled down well into a motivated, consistent work schedule and am starting to get some good results from this increased effort. A good motivational talk from my supervisor on the back of the conference last week will certainly see me get my head down for the next few months, leading up to my transfer report. As an aside to all this, my supervisor let me know of a scheme ran by the EPSRC providing free membership to the most... {>>}

>> 16.04.04

Disjointed holidays
Easter has been a disjointed affair, what with the holiday in Spain, two days back in the "office" sorting out some boring stuff (research skills assignments, figuring out how many hours of marking I've done, marking leftovers etc.), the Easter weekend spent visiting the parents and three more days in the "office" (which brings us to today). The fun doesn't stop there since next week sees me in Norwich at the British Applied Maths Colloquium. I sorted out train tickets this morning (only £19.80, which — despite the fact that... {>>}

>> 06.04.04

Six-month report
All postgraduate research students have to complete six-monthly reviews as a condition of their higher degree registration. It is basically a means of ensuring some progress has been made and to provide some goals for the following six months. According to the progress report guideline: "Together with the annual review it provides formal reporting of the progress of the student's research and an opportunity to report and perceived problems or training needs." Which is all reasonable enough. The form is broken down into two main sections, one of which is... {>>}

>> 25.03.04

Maths news
The mathematical world moves slower than the real one. I don't think there is any mystery as to why this is the case — it is simply a natural product of the discipline that maths requires and, as a subject, actually is. Come to think of it, keeping a diary of my studies in this format could actually be construed as an impossibility (as the lack of frequent entries over the last few weeks has proved). That aside, there are two main sources of mathematical know-how and news that I... {>>}

>> 17.03.04

Relocation, relocation, relocation
...and I'm not talking about the Channel 4 afternoon television programme, either. Since starting my PhD in October, I have been working - along with six others - in an "office" that resembles some sort of 1970s-esque homage to the dull as dishwater shades of green of the late 1950s. "Pea green" wouldn't quite do it justice, neither would that peculiar shade of green that Marks & Spencer seems to be able to achieve with their socks for middle- to old-aged men. Imagine the colour of the cushions on your... {>>}

>> 14.03.04

Interviews
There seems to be very little information from university to university about the process (or not) of interviewing prospective students to determine their suitability to study at a postgraduate (research) level. Having discussed this with various other students and lecturers in the department, however, this doesn't seem to be as much of an oversight as it first appears, because the formal interview is not necessarily a fundamental part of the applications process. Once again, I will have to concentrate on research postgraduate courses because that is all I know about;... {>>}

>> 03.02.04

Mental health
I was prompted by yesterday's diary entry to try and find the statistics to which I was referring, namely that "mental illness is found more often in male postgraduate students between the ages of 25-35 or so than any other social group." So far, I have not been able to find anything to corroborate this, although in the mean time have found a series of links on mental health and illness that pay particular attention to students: Oxford Student Mental Health Network >> founded in 2000 in the Oxford area,... {>>}

>> 02.02.04

Mathematicians with Asperger's
Over the course of the weekend, I found myself reading an interesting interview with Mark Haddon, writer of multi-award winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. A book that I read during my summer holiday last year (I'm so ahead of the fashion, me), it was enjoyable and told the story of a young boy suffering from Asperger's disease (the details of which can be found at aspergers.com). Despite the obvious mathematical thread within the book, I didn't consider the correlation between it and the condition of... {>>}

>> 29.01.04

PhD student support
Having written before about the possibility of failing a PhD, two articles reminded me of a very important aspect of postgraduate life: student support. Before I move on to that, a brief look at the two articles in question is necessary. The first article, written by John Wakeford, concerns the failure of a PhD at the point of the viva, which is to say the oral examination at the end of the three years: "The questioning was off the topic and aggressive. One examiner tried to do his best to... {>>}

>> 27.01.04

Excitement in AA
Universities do give silly names to their buildings, presumably with the intention of making it difficult for new students to find their way to lectures and thus establish some sort of subconscious understanding of one's place within the overall scheme of things. The logic on behalf of the student presumably being: "If I can't figure out how they number the rooms and buildings, how on earth am I going to get through my degree?" It's understable, I suppose. The numbering of rooms and buildings at the University of Surrey is... {>>}

>> 26.01.04

Students around campus
It's the second week back after the Christmas holidays and I've just noticed the difference: the undergraduate students are back. As a postgraduate, you sit in your little office every day, working away at some sums or other without the slightest idea of what is going on in the world around you except that which you can gleam from the BBC news website. On occasions, you hear someone walk past your door or overhear a conversation further down the corridor, but in general, that's it for social communication. Until some... {>>}

>> 19.01.04

Back in lectures
It is with great pleasure that I can inform you of my return to the lecture theatre once again! As part of this semester, my supervisor thought it would be a good idea for me to attend his course on manifolds and topology; I'm afraid I cannot fault his suggestion in any way and attended my first lecture for nigh on two years this morning. It was great to be back in a chair, taking notes as the lecturer wrote what he had to say on the board and I... {>>}

>> 15.01.04

The possibility of "failure"
It is natural for any student on any course to consider whether they will navigate the full length of their course and achieve the desired goal at the end of it. With "crucial" exams starting in the United Kingdom at earlier and earlier ages, and despite failure no longer being an inherent quality of examination in today's target-driven, politically-minded environment, any individual that wishes to undertake a course of learning considers whether they are going to be good enough to finish. Undertaking a postgraduate degree is, of course, no different,... {>>}

How things used to be
One of the books I picked up off Amazon has come in useful today for the study of the Frobenius method; though this is good for me, this is not the point I wish to make. Instead, I'll mention some of the blurb that is on the back of the book. The title in question, E. L Ince's Ordinary Differential Equations, has this written about it, or rather the materials of the book, on the back: "We have made every effort to make this the best book possible. Our paper... {>>}

>> 13.01.04

What to do in a day?
It seems at the moment that I am being pulled in several academic directions at once. In no particular order, I am acquainting myself with the topological approach to symmetry methods, recapping a bit of lost knowledge of ordinary differential equations and working on the initial value problems that I spoke about before the holiday. Each requires the same amount of attention (perhaps the latter deserves more, actually, given that it is the original work, although it is helped along by better knowledge of the other two areas) and so... {>>}

>> 12.01.04

Other PhD weblogs
As a slight aside, it is worth noting that there are plenty of others keeping track of their PhD studies online. Although these can be found individually (through google searches), there is one resource that brings together many PhD weblogs from many different areas. It is PhDweblogs.net, which has the advantage of being international in the sense that it has students from all over the world registered. When time allows and once the new year has settled down a little bit, I shall include a list of thos weblogs that... {>>}

Holidays at an end
The new year started today in terms of my normal PhD routine, following my return from the christmas holidays and the three week break. With the intention of fitting in work after the main christmas period, I had packed my bags expectantly with two text books and plenty of notes; although the reality of juggling lots of people to meet meant that not as much work as I would have liked was achieved in the first two weeks, the third week of the holiday was very productive. The last week... {>>}

>> 22.12.03

In my thoughts
Although not a lot is being done at the moment is terms of my work, a lot of thought is going in to what to expect over the next year. I have brought a book or two to read through over the holidays so that I can hit the ground running, but aside from that, I think I might just kick back and enjoy the holidays. I shall be back in the maths department on around the 12th January, so expect the diary to get back in to the swing... {>>}

>> 18.12.03

Prime number calculator
In much the same way as everyone in the entire world gradually slows down to a dead-stop when Christmas comes around, so this last week has proved to be as unproductive as I said it would be, not least because of the nonsense the School of Electronics and Physical Sciences (SEPS) has had me do over the last couple of days (SEPS being the school in which the maths department belongs). Rejoice, however, reader, for there are two things that make this all that little bit more bearable (and that's... {>>}

>> 16.12.03

Positively useless
It's going to be a bit of a moan, so the one positive thing about the day might as well be dealt with so that I can really get in to my stride: the presentations that I spoke about yesterday didn't last the three hours they were supposed to; hence, I was fortunately sitting at my desk by 10:30am, cup of tea in hand, happily reading the news on the BBC. Unfortunately, nothing else good can be said about today. First of all, having risen out of bed at 07:25,... {>>}

>> 10.12.03

My first exam
As was mentioned quite recently, today saw me take part in my first exam in an official capacity, as opposed to a student capacity. It wasn't an occasion that you would normally associate with end of semester exams, which is to say a large hall with several different exams running concurently; instead, I was invigilating a single student in a room. As it turns out, I wasn't to just invigilate: I was also the scribe for the student, which was quite an interesting experience. Way back when in those hazy... {>>}

>> 08.12.03

Types of degree
As with undergraduate studies, there are several flavours of postgraduate degrees. These split in to three main categories: taught programmes, research and practitioner doctorates. Below is a brief description of what each entails (taken from the University of Surrey postgraduate prospectus). Taught programmes: these are the most similar postgraduate courses to those a student experiences at an undergraduate level; programmes require entry requirements and take the form of modules split over two semesters. The main difference between an undergraduate course and taught postgraduate one is a major project, which aims... {>>}

The tea-lady
The tea-lady is normally that maternal type who always has a kind word for you in and around the work-place, pleasing everyone with her idiosyncracies and generally justifying her place on the pay-roll with tales of yesteryear and cups of tea. (Of course, a tea-lady could just well as be a tea-man, though I am yet to come across one doing it quite so successfully as their female counterpart.) In the maths department, we do not have a tea-lady but instead have a post-lady, and at some point down the... {>>}

>> 07.12.03

Overheard conversation
Sitting down to dinner recently in a restraurant after some successful Christmas shopping, I overheard a conversation between a graduand and his parents at the table next to us. As parents have a wont to do, they were asking their son what he was planning on doing now that the treadmill of standard higher education had come to an end. His options made for interesting eaves-dropping and though I doubt very much he actually knew what he wanted to do, going on to study for a postgraduate degree was certainly... {>>}

>> 01.12.03

Who's who
As time slowly progresses, so the mathematicians associated with the area of symmetry methods become more familiar. To keep things ticking over here, below is a brief list of some of the people associated with symmetry methods and their application to differential equations (in no particular order): Peter Olver >> Peter Hydon >> Nail Ibragimov (who made the news in South Africa, no less, with symmetries) >> Peter Clarkson >> Liz Mansfield There is also a research centre that deals with Lie group analysis and it's applications to mathematics. Although... {>>}

>> 27.11.03

Knowing your place
The first lecture given by Professor Barry Evnas as part of his research skills lecture course didn't exactly endear me to his cause (continually referring to the amount of money effective and efficient research generates doesn't exactly sound like encouragement in a form I would consider welcoming) and the second lecture has gone virtually the same way. Once again ignoring the constitution of his audience, Professor Evans discussed Research Projects: Their Organisation & Structure, a topic which allowed him the opportunity to discuss the benefits of and need for red-tape... {>>}

UniS postgraduate prospectus
I picked up a copy of the postgraduate prospectus for the University of Surrey yesterday and found that it made quite interesting reading. It certainly provides enough information for a prospective student (as you would hope) and also fills in a couple of gaps for current students that might have missed something along the way. Like me. There isn't much point in me repeating everything written, so perhaps the best thing to do is have a look at the on-line postgraduate prospectus and see what you make of it yourself.... {>>}

>> 21.11.03

The weekly non-linear seminar
A cursory glimpse at the maths department's website quickly reveals that one of the main research interests at UniS is non-linear dynamics. (If you think of a graph, then a non-linear equation is basically one that cannot be drawn by a straight line; if you remember that linear means y = ax + b, then you'll be fine). As a result of the deep interest in non-linear dynamics, the department has been hosting a series of seminars every Friday afternoon, at which an invited speaker gives a lecture on their... {>>}

Asleep in the back
The research skillls lectures once again prove to be the most numbingly predictable highlight of the day, with the University Research, PhDs, Organisation & Funding lecture taking it's turn to wither everyone present into a state of despair, or — in my case — slumber. I shall not discuss the merits of holding a lecture at 9am on a Friday morning, but instead consider the one issue of the hour the lecturer seemed most concerned to impress on the gathered unfortunate: money, and lots of it. The speaker was Professor... {>>}

>> 10.11.03

Becoming a part of the department
As an undergraduate, the number of hours spent in your own department is normally a relatively small number compared with lectures elsewhere; in fact, it is probably true to say that the only room within a department that is used effectively by students is the common room, effectively in this case meaning that the room is used for the purpose it was designed to be used for. As such, departments are useful as short-cuts and notice-posting areas - and an area neither for congregation or association. Considering the role of... {>>}

>> 04.11.03

Research sessions suspicions confirmed
I thought it a distinct possibility, but 9am this morning proved what I suspected all along: that the research skills course that I have to attend as a compulsory part of my PhD funding conditions was a waste of time. The title of this particular module is "Computer Skills" and today's "tutorial" involved turning up at silly'o'clock, being shown a URL and proceeding to work through some UNIX tutorials. It was a waste of time and I've a good mind to tell someone about it. It put me in a... {>>}

>> 27.10.03

Up to and including itself
arbitrary constant is a not-so-subtle hint when it comes to my subject matter: my PhD is concerned with pure mathematics; more specifically, the current working title is Structure Preserving Symmetries of Discretised Systems, on which there will be plenty of details at a later date. At this very early stage of a PhD, it is virtually unheard of to know the title of your project; it is more usual to know an area in which you like to work and go from there under the supervision of, erm, a supervisor.... {>>}

Some preliminaries
There is an obvious need for a little background to get this PhD diary started and I suppose the main points to cover are the normal who?, where?, when?, how? and why?, a task I shall endeavour to cover succinctly now. Who? is me, Richard Watts, proprietor of arbitrary constant, and where? is the maths department of the University of Surrey based in Guildford. When? is a timeline that starts roughly at the start of October 2003 and finishes in three years time, though whether that will actually be the... {>>}

>> 26.10.03

PhD diary
One of the main reasons for establishing this site was to keep a record of my progress during my PhD studies, and so here it is. Thanks go to Wrighty for setting this up late on a Sunday evening, particularly when you consider the fact that he gets to do this sort of thing every day at work and I'm not paying him anything near as much as his clients do. Progress may be slow, but — as I am led to believe — that is something I will have... {>>}