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I have an itch to learn more and research. PhD is an option, but comes with either a financial or physical/emotional burden. Should I pursue a PhD, or scratch the itch in some other way? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 1 year ago by hardware26@discuss.tchncs.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/2444019

I have electronics and digital design/verification background (MSc and some industry experience). As in the title, I am interested in learning and lately I got particularly interested in formal verification and started reading books, watching tutorials, on top of applying it at work. I really would like to learn more, participate to its advancement and contribute even slightest. I also enjoy academic environment. This is why I am considering a PhD. However leaving my job for full-time PhD means significant paycut even if I get into a funded PhD, also I am here on visa and many programs require you to pay the difference between foreign student price and domestic student price out of your packet, after receiving the funding. So leaving my job is likely not an option. I thought about doing a PhD part-time on top of my job. It will be very time and energy consuming, but I think I can take that. My bigger concern is, part-time PhD will take long time (6-8 years) and field is ever-changing, I am afraid my thesis may become irrelevant by the time I finish it. Also what I hear is that, if you do it part-time, you will not get the best subjects since professors would like to provide better supervision to and quick return from a full-time student. So I am hesitant about a PhD, even though it was something I was thinking of since a very young age. What do you think about a PhD, do you have any advice, some opportunity or downside which I did not consider? And if not with a PhD, how do I learn and research more? Reading and taking online courses are always options, but the problem is without any supervision, clear goal and guidance, I am sure I will get sidetracked and it may not be very fruitful.

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[–] Saigonauticon@voltage.vn 5 points 1 year ago

Hey! I'm in a similar boat. I also do electronics design and can't deal with the 100% pay cut that a PhD would incur. At least not yet.

My current solution is just to research things on my own, without a university. I design things I think might be interesting, then get the boards made at a factory (cheap these days), then populate them and test it out. Cost tends to be quite low per project (under 100$ even for fairly advanced things like particle physics). Then I write it up online or do a conference talk if people think it's interesting enough -- and if they don't, I really don't care: I'm already all about the next project!

If I strip away all the "publish or perish" nonsense as well as grant applications and teaching requirements, it turns out I can do a satisfying amount of research in my spare time. Equipment costs are not a disaster either -- maybe a 1000$ oscilloscope (which I need for work anyway), but very ordinary other stuff otherwise.

A good side effect is the stuff I work on keeps me sharp at work, and on rare occasions produces something commercially useful. It also forms a body of work that I use to advance my career, as examples of neat stuff I know how to do. I'd have a hard time putting a number do it, but I'd estimate my research has a negative cost.

Right now, I'm trying to do audio processing in 16 bytes of RAM and under 500 bytes of program. So far, it looks like it will work, but I don't know yet!