Guidelines for the Presentation of Seminar and Project Report

This document may be used for the preparation of seminar and project reports associated with the following academic programmes: B.Tech., M.Tech. (including, Dual Degree / V- yr. M.Tech.) and Ph.D.. It does not cover progress reports such as the Ph.D. research progress reports. For the preparation of progress reports the relevant guidelines, issued separately should be consulted. However, some material in this document may be of use in the preparation of any technical report.

1) Interaction with your Guide

It is recommended that you meet your guide regularly during the course of the seminar/project, though ultimately the form of this interaction depends on both of you. You should maintain a record notebook/file where you can include a record of your discussions with your guide, literature survey details, derivations etc. Such a system will allow easy and quick access to the details and chronology of your work.

You should submit report drafts as and when requested by your guide.

The final responsibility for producing an error-free report lies with you, and not your guide.

2) Submission
 

The bound copies of your report should be submitted within the given deadline to the designated person. Late submission may not be acceptable; If allowed, it will necessarily invite a penalty which may be reflected in your grade.

Make sure that the acceptance certificate in your report is signed by your guide before you make the final submission of the report.

Requirements: Please see Table 1. 

3) Format
 

3.1 TEXT AND UNITS

 It is mandatory to use plain A4 sized sheets, 70 to 90 gsm (16 to 20 pounds), smooth finish - the type of paper that is used for good photocopying. All material should be typed in double spacing. The recommended margins are 25 mm (1 inch) for top, bottom, right and left with an extra 13 mm (0.5 inch) for binding on the left. Other than page numbers, no material should intrude into these margins. The SI system of units should be used as far as possible. If non-SI units are the norm in the field, an addendum to the nomenclature must be given, identifying these units and giving conversion factors for translation to the SI units.

3.2 PAGE LIMITS

The total number of pages in the report, including figures, tables but excluding the preliminary pages, references and appendices should not exceed the limits specified in Table 1. (Caution : These are upper limits. Avoid writing a report which is artificially fattened ! Do not waste pages. Use space optimally).

Your guide / co-guide may require you to incorporate additional material (e.g. derivations, procedures, computer code listings etc.), which may be placed as appendices. These will not count in the total page count as per the specified page limits. Such matter can be placed only in the guide's copy provided this arrangement is approved by the guide, else these appendices should be appear in all the copies.

3.3 TOP COVER

The top page of your report should carry the following information in printed form or handwritten in neat block letters:

Softbound reports should have transparent cover and:

B. Tech./M.Tech./Ph.D. Seminar/Project
Title of Seminar/Project
Name of Student
Roll Number
Panel Number
Initials of Guide
Copy for: [Guide/Internal Examiner/External/Chairperson]
Date of submission

Hardbound reports should have the following printed/embossed on the cover:

Title of Project
Name of Student
IIT address
Year

and on the spine:

B.Tech Project/M.Tech Dissertation/Ph.D. Thesis
Name of Student
Year

See appendix IA and IB for sample formats.

3.4 PRELIMINARY PAGES

These are constituted, in the given order, by:

Title page
Certification page
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Nomenclature.

Each of these should commence on a fresh page. The preliminary pages should be numbered in small case roman numerals which should appear at the centre on the bottom.

Title page - see appendix II for a sample format.

Certification page -see appendix III for a sample format.

Acknowledgement - please keep this brief and resist the temptation of writing flowery prose! Do include all those who helped you, e.g. other faculty / staff you consulted, colleagues who assisted etc.

Abstract - the abstract must contain the context/relevance of the problem at hand, a description of what was done and a gist of the significant observations/results. This should not exceed one page and should usually be one paragraph.

Table of Contents - see appendix IV for a sample format.

List of Figures and Tables - sample entries are given below:

List of Figures

Figure No.
Caption / Title
Page No.
2.1 Schematic representation of a double layered droplet . . . 21  . . .     3.2 Variation in rate versus concentration . . . 32

List of Tables - sample entries are given below:

List of Tables

Table No.
Caption / Title
Page No.
2.1 Thickness of a double layered droplet . . . 22  . . .     3.2 Variation in rate versus concentration . . . 34

Nomenclature - All symbols that appear in the report should be listed alphabetically. First give all roman symbols, then Greek symbols.  Order: ascii ordering, to the extent possible.  Subscripts and superscripts should be listed separately if these are not an intrinsic part of the variable name. Some sample entries are shown below:

Nomenclature

Symbol
Name and Units
First used on Page No.
A area of a double layered droplet, m2 . . . 22 a  interfacial area, m2   k rate constant, s-1 . . . 34 kp partition coefficient , dimensionless   ki rate constant for reaction between the diffusant and the immobilized reactant, s-1   i  refers to point on the space grid   s  denotes saturation  

        Note the ordering sequence : Upper case symbols followed by small case ones; superscripted variables followed by subscripted ones and these should be preceded by unscripted variables. Avoid subscripts / superscripts that are more than two letters long and do not separate the letters by a ","; also kpx should follow kp in the nomenclature. In the text, if you have used a symbol such as Vai where i refers to a running index (identifying, for instance a particular location or time), enter the symbol Va in the nomenclature and enter i in the list of subscripts.

The addendum page showing conversion factors for non-SI units should be formatted as under:

Quantity/Symbol       fps multiply by to    get in  SI         volume/v ft3 0.0283 m3 temperature/T  oF (T-32)*(5/9)   oc

3.5 MAIN PAGES

It is mandatory that you divide the report into chapters each of which may be structured into sections (1.1, 1.2) and sub-sections (1.2.1, 1.2.2). Do not exceed this level of sectioning. The sections and sub-sections must carry titles. If possible, try and use different fonts for section titles and sub-section titles.

Each chapter should commence with a chapter number and title. The text should begin on the same page with 3 blank lines between the last line of the chapter title and the first line of your text material. Keep 1 blank line between the chapter number and the title. Adjust the chapter number and the title to fall in the center of the page and use bold, upper case fonts. The appendices, if any, may be numbered in upper case, Roman numerals (I,II etc.).

All pages, including figures and tables, should be numbered; the page numbers should appear at the top , right corner, except for the first page of a chapter, where these should appear at centre of the bottom of the page. The actual page numbering will commence from the first page of chapter 1.

Figures should be numbered sequentially with respect to each chapter. For instance, Fig. 3.2 will be the second figure of the third chapter. A similar numbering style should be adopted for tables.

Figures and tables should be complete in all respects (legends, number, caption/title, reference (if any), coordinate labels with units). Experimental data should typically be represented by centered symbols, while theoretical data by continuous curves in figures. See appendix V and VI for sample formats of figures and tables. A figure should not be smaller than what will fit into half a page (i.e. the drawing itself + a  25 mm blank band surrounding it on all sides; space occupied by the caption/title is not included in this). The caption and number for figures should be placed at the bottom of the figure, while those for tables at the top.

Figures and tables should appear as close as possible to their first occurrence/mention in the running text of the chapter these belong to; these must appear after the first mention and not before. Each figure / table should be on a separate page by itself.

Photographs should be treated as being equivalent to figures, with the caption being placed at the bottom of the photograph. Photocopies of photographs are not acceptable.

All equations should be numbered in a similar manner as the figures and tables. For example, equation 3.4 will be the fourth equation in Chapter 3. You may write the equations by hand but make sure that these are written properly and neatly. Do not use a pencil to write equations. Present equations in dimensionless form, wherever possible and appropriate.

All symbols should be explained the first time these appear in the text. For example,

"Particles of diameter, D,  settle with a velocity given by,

where, V is the settling velocity, k is a system parameter which depends upon the viscosity of the liquid and the index n represents the extent of non-linearity in the system. The second term (v) in eq.(3.1) gives the fluctuating component of the velocity, V."

When dealing with numbers use only the appropriate/correct number of digits. It is ridiculous to mention values of rates to the sixth decimal place when your measurements cannot go beyond, say, the third place.

When displaying computer code listings (usually in an appendix) please ensure that these contain appropriate comment statements so that the code can be understood easily. It is always desirable to have a high degree of similarity between the variables names / symbols that you have used in the report and those which appear in the code (e.g. D and  and RHO etc.).

3.6 REFERENCING STYLE

IN TEXT: use the (author, year) format - see extract below

The values of thermal conductivities for a variety of substances have been reported by Varma (1982). For polymers, however, the information is more limited and some recent reviews have attempted to fill the gaps (Batchelor and Shah, 1985).

 

For two authors -

        (Batchelor and Kapur, 1985)

For more than two authors -

        (Batchelor et al., 1986)

By same author/combination of authors in the same year -

        (Batchelor, 1978a; Batchelor, 1978b; Batchelor et al., 1978)

IN BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCE LIST:

Use standard journal abbreviations. The correct abbreviation may be located from the respective journal itself. Do not number the references. Print them one after the other, in alphabetical order of the names of the first author, with one blank line in between each entry. The second and subsequent lines of each reference should be indented towards the right by about 6 blank spaces. Typical formats are given below.

Journal articles: -

David, A.B., Pandit, M.M. and Sinha, B.K., 1991, "Measurement of
      surface viscosity by tensiometric methods", Chem. Engng Sci.47,
      931-945.

Books: -

Doraiswamy, L.K. and Sharma, M.M., 1984, "Heterogeneous Reactions-
      Vol 1", Wiley, New York, pp 89-90.

Edited books/Compilations/Handbooks: -

Patel, A.B., 1989, "Liquid -liquid dispersions", in Dispersed Systems
      Handbook, Hardy, L.C. and Jameson, P.B. (Eds.), McGraw Hill,
      Tokyo, pp 165-178.

Lynch, A.B. (Ed.), 1972, "Technical Writing", Prentice Hall, London.

Theses/Dissertations: -

Pradhan, S.S., 1992, "Hydrodynamic and mass transfer characteristics
      of packed extraction columns", Ph.D. Thesis, University of
      Manchester, Manchester, U.K..

Citations from abstracts: -

Lee, S. and Demlow, B.X., 1985, US Patent 5,657,543, Cf C.A. 56,
      845674.

Personal Communications: -

Reddy, A.R., 1993, personal communication at private meeting on
      22 October 1992 at Physics Department, Indian Institute of
      Technology, Delhi.

Electronic  sources (web material and the like):

For citing web pages and electronic documents, use the APA style given at:
http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html

Whereever possible, use the author style (as expalined above) to cite such internet references in the text. When a author is not known, use the institution, or use a standard keword such as WebRef1, WebRef2, ... WebRefN. Also see: http://www.apastyle.org/electext.html

3.7 GENERAL GUIDELINES

The material should be placed and bound in the following order:

Top Sheet of transparent plastic

Top Cover

Preliminary Pages

Chapters (Main material)

Appendices, if any

References/Bibliography (consolidated, from main text and appendices)

Evaluation Form (one copy) (please see Appendix VIII)

Back cover (blank sheet)

Back Sheet of plastic: may be opaque or tranparent

Do not use spiral binding for reports. Use soft binding for most reports, e.g., seminar reports, RPC reports, and "first submission versions" of final BTP, MTP, DD, PhD, Etc reports. Final submission versions of BTP, MTP, PhD reports (thesis, actually) must be hard bound as per established styles for each.

Please maintain consistent tense in your report. Do not keep flipping between past and present tense. It has been the norm to use the passive voice ("was done") in technical writing. However, the active voice ("we did") is increasingly being accepted. If you wish to use the active voice be sure to obtain your guide's consent. Pay attention to detail and accuracy. Be clear, but concise !

Please make a sincere effort to weed out typographical errors. Remember that these mistakes will cost you marks and may even earn you a re-submission. If you have become tired of reading your report over and over again and suspect that this fatigue will cause you to overlook typos and grammatical mistakes get a friend to help you out (perhaps you can also provide similar help in reciprocation).

4. CONTENT

4.1 EXPECTATIONS

The technical reports that you would be writing will pertain to (i)seminars, (ii)research projects and (iii)deisgn projects. A brief idea of what is generally expected in each of these is outlined below [material enclosed in square brackets pertains to an example {curly brackets enclose the section of the report this material must be put in}. The grade that you obtain will depend upon how far you meet these expectations.

Seminar :

(i) exhaustive survey of literature based on a clear definition of the scope and focus of the topic [Title: Process control of aerobic fermentors/ scope: aerobic fermentors/ focus: process control] {literature survey};

(ii) development of a theme or a unifying or classification scheme within which this literature can be reviewed and discussed cogently [classification scheme: according to the type of control, i.e. feedback, adaptive, model based etc.] {literature survey};

(iii) critical analysis of selected studies from the literature which includes pointing out lack of or deficiency of data or information in the literature, comments on the validity of data or assumptions in theory and models, comparison of data or models, inconsistencies [adaptive control is more suited to a particular class of fermentations, model given by X is better than that given by Y and why it is so] {main material};

(iv) summary of salient observations and trends, scope and desirability of further work in the area of review, implications on related fields, applications [adaptive strategies form the largest class, these are most successful and commercially followed] {conclusions};

(v) the above described requirements are essential to a seminar. In addition to this, you should seriously assess the possibility of making active theoretical contributions such as extending a model to include more cases, re-doing a derivation with changed assumptions and so on. This type of work is not essential in a seminar but nevertheless, highly desirable [for the situation discussed by X a modified model is developed with justifications] {main material and results and discussion}.

Research :

(i) literature survey of related work with a clear identification of gaps in the literature and the justification and desirability of undertaking the study [Title : Heat transfer correlations in annular flow] {literature survey};

(ii) theory / model equations including method of solution. This section may also contain a detailed rebuttal of some previous study [details of how a corrrelation developed earlier is incorrect, energy balances for the flow situation, velocity profile from a previous study, non-dimensionalisation equations solved by Crank-Nicolson method] {main material};

(iii) experiment / design of experiments, description of equipment and materials, methods of analysis. This section may include a critique of some previous experimental work [equipment diagram for annular flow with probes and control elements accompanied by a textual description, sequence of experiments, calculation of output variables such as the heat transfer coefficient] {main material};

(iv) salient observations on the results you have obtained such as the relationships between different variables and parameters, unusual trends, interpretations of the observed trends, comparison between theory and experiment, comparison with previous literature, limitations, justification of prior assumptions made, inconsistencies [heat transfer coefficient goes up with flow rate and decreases with viscosity, and wall material has no effect on it, physical arguments from the non-dimensional equations explaining the effects, reasonable agreement between measured and predicted values of the heat transfer coefficient, limitations of the operating temperature range] {results and discussion};

(v) summary of salient observations and trends, how the study filled some gaps in the literature, scope and desirability of further work on the problem, applications, potential areas [effect of wall material is not important for the given configuration, high viscosity range had not been covered before, work required on a larger temperature range] {conclusions}.

Design :

(i) literature survey of related processes or of similar simulation studies on identical or similar equipment [Title : Design of a 1000 tpd urea plant starting with carbon dioxide and ammonia as feedstock with a detailed design of the urea reactor / survey of commercial flowsheets for urea plants] {literature survey};

(ii) choosing a flowsheet and the detailed equipment diagram accompanied by a textual description [flowsheet of the ICI process was chosen along with a detailed sketch of the urea reactor} {main material};

(iii) survey of data and information sources for obtaining thermodynamic, kinetic, transport properties etc. [heat capacities of the flow streams, reaction rate constants, heat and mass transfer correlations] {main material};

(iv) material and energy balances and preliminary sizing of all major units in the process [equipment by equipment calculation of enthalpies, concentrations, temperatures etc at the inlet and outlet and estimate of unit sizes] {main material};

(v) design or model equations for the detailed design part and method of solution [species balances for the urea reactor, energy balance, to be solved using Newton-Raphson technique for non-linear equations] {main material};

(vi) design outputs such as sizes and conditions as well as the relationship of selected output variables (for the detailed design part) as a function of operating parameters, interpretation of the trends, limitations of the procedure [the estimated sizes of all units in the flowsheet, size of the reactor as a function of catalyst concentration and the intensity of stirring] {results and discussion};

(vii) economic feasibilty studies, comparison with commercial experience [calculation of the payack period and other relevant economic indices] {results and discussion};

(viii) salient observations and identification of the primary variables which affect design, computational problems and the nature of the model equations [reactor size is highly dependent on the catalyst concentration, intensity of stirring must be maintained beyond a critical value] {conclusions}.

If the report refers to progress in a particular period of your work (e.g. last six months) then this must be clearly brought out in your report including a summary of what was done in the preceding period and what is to be done in the next phase. The bulk of your material should, however, refer to the work done during the period in question.

4.2 STRUCTURE

It is recommended that the contents of the report be structured into the following categories/chapters. You may adopt a different way of organizing the material with the consent of your guide. You will notice that there is a rough correspondence between the expectations outlined above for the different types of documents and the structure given below. However, the emphasis on the various aspects is different for each type of report.

Introduction:

* Statement of the problem/objective/topic; its relevance.

* Brief description of the structure and location of contents of the report.

Literature Survey:

* Should be as exhaustive as possible.

* Primarily, you should discuss previous studies which specifically pertain to the problem/topic at hand.

* Attempt to minimize referring to work which is indirectly related to your topic. Avoid making forced connections and do not try to cram in irrelevant references.

* The last part of this section must contain a brief mention of the gaps in the literature and a justification for undertaking your study/project.

Main Material:

* A detailed report of previous studies, if necessary (do not make this sound as if this is your work. Cite references properly at appropriate locations). Attempt to understand the material that you incorporate from various references. In a seminar, such a review will form the major portion of the main material.

* Do not restrict your references to the literature survey chapter only.

* Do not copy word for word from published literature.

* Presentation of your contributions should include formulation, derivations, description of experimental set-up, experimental data/measurements, design calculations etc. For an experimental investigation, raw data must be available (preferably in an appendix). For a project involving software development, user's manual, programmer's manual, source code diskette/listing must be available. User's and programmer's manuals are considered to be separate documents, distinct from your report and are therefore not included within the specified page limits. As mentioned previously, these could form appendices. In a seminar, it is unlikely that you would have made an active or original contribution (this is not necessarily true - one can contribute in an active sense by correcting a derivation, extending an existing analysis to a different situation etc.) so that in such a case this material on your contribution may be very small or may not be necessary.

* Ensure that sufficient details are provided for anyone to reproduce your work.

* Do not be too general. Avoid writing essays on historical developments.

Results/Discussion/Comments:

* If there are too many aspects to be covered then organize them in a logical manner.

Conclusions:

* State these clearly, in point-wise form if necessary, with respect to the original objective.

* Do not disguise "descriptions" of specific aspects, covered in the work as conclusions. For instance,"a correlation has been developed for estimation of heat transfer coefficients for annular flow..." is NOT a conclusion whereas "the heat transfer coefficient in annular flow does not depend on the wall material" is a valid conclusion.

Use appendices to describe anything that breaks the regular flow of your report such as, sample calculations, estimates of properties, numerical details etc.

It is advisable to read the contents of "Instruction to Authors" pages from a few professional journals to get a good idea of how to structure a typical report, especially a research report.

5. PRESENTATION

5.1 TIME LIMITS

Please seeTable 1.

It is a good idea to have a mock presentation with the help of your friends. Do not expect your guide to be involved with this effort. You should attempt to organize this on your own.

5.2 TIPS FOR PREPARING OHPS

Remember more talks are ruined due to poor slides than for any other reason ! So, design and prepare your slides carefully !

It is a good practice to title every OHP which reflects the theme of the material contained in it. Use reasonably sized letters (preferably, upper case) so that a viewer can read the material comfortably.

Never prepare a highly cluttered or a densely packed OHP in an attempt to retain everything on it. Remember OHPs are an aid to presentation and not an extract from a printed text for you to read out.

Also remember that you have only a limited number of OHPs to display. Use this area judiciously so do not waste space.

Do not produce slanted text on the transparencies - write straight. Write legibly and neatly. If you are not upto this feat get a friend to write it out for you or else use stencils /wordprocessors. Try and use different colored pens effectively (however, do not use yellow colored pens).

Do not write long running sentences on an OHP nor mix many sentences - put points or keywords.

Avoid presenting photocopied matter unless absolutely necessary. If you do, then make sure that the reproduction is decent sized and that it is not faint.

Try and put more graphics on the OHP as compared to text, since for a viewer this is the easiest and fastest to comprehend. Use within 150 mm x 225 mm of area. Use one size (A4) for the OHP sheet.

Avoid too many equations since these require considerable effort to understand for the audience. Resist the temptation of "impressing" the viewers with high powered greek and latin ! In any case, skip all intermediate steps of a derivation and focus only on the problem formulation and the final equations / solutions. Also, do not waste space defining terms/symbols on the OHP.

Do not have a transparency that is larger than what will fit on the projector. Do not move or adjust the transparency while it is is being projected. If you have to use an OHP more than once during your presentation, at different points in time, make multiple copies rather than trying to fumble and find the one that you want, under a heap of OHPs.

5.3 TIPS ON SPEAKING

Speak clearly and evenly (avoid elocutionary postures). Your speech must be audible enough so that it does not seem like a general murmur.

Punctuate your speech properly; bring out the emphasis clearly. Do not drone on monotonously. Remember those lectures when you went off to sleep in the classroom ! Do not speak too fast.

Avoid referring to material that you do not fully comprehend. You may land yourself in serious trouble if someone decides to quiz you on such a topic.

Do not recite by heart (avoid memorizing your talk) nor read off from the OHP as if you are reading a text book.

Answer questions directly. Do not beat around the bush. If you do not know the answer acknowledge gracefully without display of unnecessary aggression. If you have not understood a question please say so; request for it to be rephrased. In any case do not be insolent - keep quiet to get out of an awkward situation.

End your talk with a thank you.

 

Table 1

Table 1: Details of limits pertaining to seminar and project reports for various academic programmes

Report for Page limit Presentation
time limit(min) Question &Answer(min) Suggested no. of OHPs  aNo. of (Type) copies BTS 30 10 15 5-10 3(softbound) BTPI 30 10 15 5-10 3(softbound) BTPII 60 15 15 6-12 4(soft)+1(hard) MTS 40 10 15 6-12 3(softbound) MT MiniP 10b informal  / guide nil 2(filed)* MTPI 30 15 15 6-12 3(softbound) MTPII 10 10 10 5-10 3(filed)* MTPIII 120 20 20 10-15 4(softbound)** Ph.D.S 60 20 30 10-15 4(soft bound) Ph.D.Th  guide 30 30 15-25 5(softbound)**

a add n copies for n copies for n co-guides
bpreliminary pages are not required.

* may be handwritten; follow norms for softbound reports for top cover. ** will have to be converted to hardbound after examination.

APPENDIX IA: SAMPLE SHEET FOR TOP COVER (softbound)

M. Tech. Project
Title : PROCESS CONTROL OF AEROBIC FERMENTERS
Name : VINAY RAMACHANDRAN
Roll Number : 78002045
Panel Number : 4
Guide : MCR
Copy for: Internal Examiner : NCD
Date of submission: November 1, 1991

APPENDIX IB: SAMPLE SHEET FOR TOP COVER (hardbound)

PROCESS CONTROL OF AEROBIC FERMENTERS

VINAY RAMACHANDRAN

Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 400 076
  1991

APPENDIX II: SAMPLE SHEET FOR TITLE PAGE

PROCESS CONTROL OF AEROBIC FERMENTERS

M. TECH. PROJECT

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY

in

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

by

VINAY RAMACHANDRAN

(Roll no. 78002045)

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
BOMBAY 400 076

NOVEMBER 1991

APPENDIX III: SAMPLE SHEET FOR ACCEPTANCE CERTIFICATE

Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

The project report entitled "Process Control of Aerobic Fermentors" submitted by Mr. Vinay Ramachandran (Roll No. 78002045) may be accepted for being evaluated.

Date: November 20, 1991                                                 Signature

(Name of guide)

For Faculty:

If you choose not to sign the acceptance certificate above, please

indicate reasons for the same from amongst those given below:

(i) the amount of time and effort put in by the student is not sufficient;

(ii) the amount of work put in by the student is not adequate;

(ii) the report does not represent the actual work that was done / expected to be done;

(iv) any other objection (please elaborate):

(Signature)

APPENDIX IV: SAMPLE SHEET FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPENDIX V: SAMPLE SHEET FOR FIGURES

APPENDIX VI: SAMPLE SHEET FOR TABLES

Table 3.3: Rate of Reaction versus Broth Temperature at various pressures. Data used: A = 2.0 x 105s-1, CA= 1 mol/m3.

 P(KPa)   Ta ( K )   RA*107(Kmol/m3)   Remarks  100 300                      345                      375 5.00                    8.30                    10.2 broth very viscous phase seperation trasparent mixture 200 312                     337                     365 6.30                    7.25                    8.13 two phases           decomposition  observed

ameasured by thermocouple-in-well method

(note that for tables that cannot fit breadthwise and are fitted lengthwise, the table must begin from the binding spine towards the outer edge of the paper)

APPENDIX VII : SAMPLE SHEET FOR OHPs

APPENDIX VIII : EVALUATION FORM

(To be filled by the appropriate evaluator only)

 

Name of Candidate :
Roll No :

I. For use by Guide/Internal Ex./External Ex. ONLY

Please tick:

OBJECTIVE IDENTIFIED & UNDERSTOOD

LITERATURE REVIEW / BACKGROUND WORK
(Coverage, Organization, Critical review)

EXPERIMENT/COMPUTATION/THEORY DEVELOPMENT/DESIGN
(Quality, Quantity)

RESULT INTERPRETATION/

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS
(Clarity, Exhaustive)

ORAL PRESENTATION
(Clear, Structured)

TRANSPARENCIES
(Readable, Adequate)

Overall, should the candidate be given a fail grade : Yes/No

Suggest an overall grade:

Signature:

Date:

*Note: An 8 point scale is used for grading. The abbreviations used are as follows: O= outstanding (100), E= excellent (90), VG= very good (80), G= good (70), F= fair (60), S= satisfactory (50), P= poor (40), R= rejected (30 or below).

II. For use by Chairperson ONLY

1.Presentation started at --- ended at ---
Duration of presentation was:

2.Report is submitted in correct format:

3.Quality of slides/OHPs was satisfactory: Yes/No

4.Candidate spoke clearly: Yes/No

Signature:

Date:

Tips for Students Doing Seminar Excercises

Tips for Effective Seminar Work

 

 

G. K. Suraishkumar

with inputs from A. Mehra

The seminar exercise at the B.Tech., M.Tech., or the Ph.D. levels is designed to help students develop critical literature survey skills, and presentation skills. To achieve the overall aims mentioned above, in approximately 12 weeks, a `model' topic is assigned to a student (based on a certain merit criterion) to give a proper direction to the exercise. The topic is floated by a faculty member who has agreed to guide the student on the seminar exercise. From a student's perspective, an effective road-map to maximize the gains from the seminar exercise, by spending about 6 hours a week, is as follows:

 

1. Read and collect (order important) up-to-date, authentic, scientific information on the topic (weeks 1-11)
2. Focus on aspects to apply critical thought (weeks 7, 8)
3. Apply critical thought to the literature that has been/is being collected (weeks 8-10)
4. Organize the information resulting from critical thought application (weeks 10-11)
5. Present the processed information in report/oral forms (weeks 11-12 + presentation date)

In the following sections, let us look at some tips that will help the student to do effective seminar work while following the above road-map.

 

 

1. Collecting information:

 

 

Sources: There are various sources of scientific information, and the first thing that comes to mind, nowadays, is GOOGLE. Google and other search engines can be the first approach to get information. However, the effectiveness of the search depends extensively on the keywords used. Finding the right set of keywords to extract the best information from the vast sea, is an art.

 

 

With the preliminary information found through Google, one can look at books on the topic to get elementary information on the topic. With the elementary information in place, one needs to search for journal articles/patents/conference proceedings published on the web, or in print, to get up-to-date scientific information. The web-addresses of some of the sources of the scientific information, that were compiled by Professor Santosh Noronha, are available on my web-page: www.che.iitb.ac.in/faculty/gks/teaching/science-data-search.html

 

 

Our central library has a large collection of printed journals, both current and back-volumes, as well as access to many on-line journals. If a particular paper is not available, an inter-library loan request can be placed with our librarian, but, these take a couple of months to materialize; so do not attempt inter-library loan if you do not have the time. Another route to get the paper is to write to the corresponding author through email; if the author is kind enough, you may get a pdf version of the paper by return email.

 

 

When you collect any information, make sure that the complete source details (authors, article title, book/journal name, editors, volume, issue, page numbers, year, complete URL with date accessed) is available on the front page of that information. This will prove to be very handy when you write your report.

 

 

Authenticity of sources: The students need to be aware that for scientific information, all sources are not equal. The `authenticity index' decreases as follows:

 

• Reviewed information: journal article/textbook
• Patent
• Conference proceedings article
• Thesis
• Professional society web-page
• Faculty web-page
• Student web-page

One can rely more on information from the sources high on the authenticity scale above, and should avoid quoting information from the last few sources on that scale.

 

 

How to read a paper: It is always advisable to read a paper, and then make a copy of it for further reading/processing. Many a time, one has huge stacks of xerox copies of papers which one intends to read `sometime', and never does; unread information is a waste.

 

 

However, reading a paper is not always easy for a person new to the field, which is usually the case with the student doing the seminar exercise. Therefore, first choose the paper to read further by its title - the guide can help you in this, initially, by pointing out the relevant papers from a list of titles/abstracts that you give him/her. Then, read the `relevant' parts of the paper in this order: introduction, conclusions, and the various sub-headings in the results and discussion section, first. From those, you will get an idea of what the paper has contributed, and why. Then you can read the results and discussion section and the abstract. You may not understand most of it in the first reading, but, if the paper is relevant, you may get the most out of this section of the paper through repeated readings, later. It is advisable not spend more than 20 minutes on the first reading of a paper. Read the materials and methods, and mathematical model sections only if necessary, in the later readings.

 

 

2. Focussing on Aspects to Apply Critical Thought

 

 

At the end of six weeks, you must have read, and collected a good number of papers to process further. Although information collection will occur over the entire duration of the seminar, you should spend less and less time collecting information, and more and more time processing the information, after six weeks. For the first level of processing, choose broad aspects from the information that you have read thus far. Remember, this task of choosing broad aspects can be very intimidating the first time, but, this is the place to start. It is good to choose about 10 to 15 broad aspects to work further. For example, if the topic is `application of micro-array technology to analyze gene function', the broad aspects could be: what is micro-array technology, history of micro-array technology, principle of micro-array technique, manufacture of micro-arrays, applications of micro-array technology, what are genes, what is the importance of genes, how can micro-array technology be applied to infer gene function, how is it more beneficial than other methods, and so on.

 

 

3. Applying Critical Thought

 

 

Take each of the broad aspects selected, one at a time, and see what the information that you have collected says about the aspects. It will not be given in a straight-forward fashion in various papers, but, you will have to read the papers carefully to see what is said in the context of the broad aspect. Also, not every paper will address all the aspects that you have chosen. You can ask the following kinds of questions on the information on each aspect:

 

• What do the different authors report?
• What are the various models used to describe a phenomenon/process?
• What are the differences between the models? Any superior model? Why?
• Do the various authors agree/disagree on a particular point?
• What are the reasons for disagreement (data collected under different conditions?)?
• What is the range of information available (e.g. are all regimes covered?)?
• Can you offer valid scientific criticisms of literature information?
• Is something new emerging from the way you look at the information that was not apparent in the literature?

You need to think on your own during the critical appraisal and contribute. Some hints for the things to do to achieve the same are:

 

• Mini-derivations for aspects that are not explicitly given in the literature
• Quantitative calculations for getting useful estimates or quantities not explicitly mentioned in the literature
• Checking derivations that are already given in the literature

During this critical appraisal exercise, you may need to re-read some papers several times, verify information, do calculations, or run small programs.

 

 

4. Organizing the Information

 

 

Now, you need to organize, or arrange, the various broad aspects that you had critically analyzed in a logical fashion. That will form the bulk of your seminar report. You are closest to the information that you have spent ten weeks with, but, the reader of your report may not be aware of the same. Therefore, you need to present the processed information in a form that is easily readable (understandable). It should be presented in such a way that it is understood by the intended reader in one reading. One of the key steps to achieve that is a well-written, coherent report. Coherence can be achieved by organizing the information in a logical flow. For example, first give the background, then the importance of a particular topic, your motivation for studying that topic, and what you have achieved, before you give the details, which are also arranged in a logical sequence. I had covered some tips for writing coherent reports in an earlier article that is available at www.che.iitb.ac.in/faculty/gks/teaching/ coherence_paper_webpage.pdf

 

 

Presenting the Processed Information in Report/Oral Forms

 

 

While writing, make sure that you give due credit to the source of information. Otherwise, you will be committing a crime called plagiarism. Typically, a seminar report needs to be `littered' with references, because you are processing the information already available.

 

 

Good tips by Professor Uday Shenoy on writing reports, and on giving oral presentations are available as mpeg files, on an ftp server. If interested in viewing them, please contact me.

 

 

Thus, regular work in the correct direction will help you do excellent seminar work. One should aim to write a review paper with the work done during the seminar exercise, on a particular topic.

 

Comments may be sent to this id gksuresh@che.iitb.ac.in

Coherence in Communication

Accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Education (2003)

Improving Coherence in Technical Writing

G. K. Suraishkumar1

Biochemical Engineering Group, Department of Chemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, INDIA

Keywords: effective communication, technical writing, coherence.

Abstract

The technical documents of many inexperienced student writers do not effectively communicate,

even after the spelling and grammar aspects are addressed well. This results, because the student

is not clear in his/her mind about the aspects that need to be communicated, although (s)he may

be knowledgeable in the area. Also, the methods of effective communication are not well defined,

and hence, first-time writers find it difficult to understand them. This article addresses coherence,

which can significantly improve the communication, but is one of the elusive aspects for novice

writers. This article aims to provide a structured approach that faculty members can use to improve

the technical writing skills of students.

Introduction

It is well recognized that effective technical communication is an important skill that graduate/

undergraduate students in engineering disciplines need to develop, and several good suggestions

have been made [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] to improve the same. Although good communication critically

involves good skills in writing, speaking, reading, and listening aspects (www.writing-reading.com

accessed on 3rd February 2003), usually, we concentrate on developing speaking (presentation),

1can be reached at gksuresh@che.iitb.ac.in

Tel.: +91 (22) 2576 7208 Fax.: +91 (22) 2572 6895/3480

1

and writing skills in students. Between the two, usually, it more difficult to develop good writing

skills. This is probably because good writing requires higher clarity and rigor in the thought process.

Further, there is a general notion that one learns to write well as one learns to ride a bicycle, to play

a musical instrument [7], or to swim, i.e., in an experiential manner.

When graduate students write their first manuscripts, the spelling and grammatical aspects are addressed

first, either by a person comfortable with the language, or by a word-processor. However,

a grammatically correct document may not always read well. When such a situation arises, many

advisers know that the manuscript is not written well, but cannot clearly explain the reasons. They

tend to talk about ‘clarity’ and ‘style’ (as distinct from that described in the Chicago, or the American

Chemical Society, style manuals), and students get further confused. Ultimately, the advisers

say, ‘it is all in there; you just need to communicate it better’, and ask the graduate students to

re-write paper drafts, without further directions. Typically, students re-write their first manuscript

many times, and the writing improves intuitively. During this process, reading well written scientific

literature [8] is helpful. Finally, when the adviser accepts the manuscript, the students know

that the final draft is better written, but are usually not aware of the reasons for the improvement

in their communication. Since the same students later become professors/advisers, and University

teaching is probably the only skilled profession for which there is no formal training (Felder,

www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/RMF.html accessed on 3rd February 2003), the cycle continues.

This article presents a reasonably structured approach that faculty members can use to improve the

writing skills of students. Alternatively, it provides a direction for the not-so-experienced writers of

scientific material to improve their writing skills, consciously.

Coherence

Good communication, in written or oral formats, results from a good knowledge in the area, a clear

awareness of the aspects that need to be communicated (and the aspects that need to be left out), clear

thinking, and good organization, assuming that the language (grammar, spelling, and pronunciation)

aspects are addressed well. For the most appropriate organization, one needs an awareness of how

the reader/listener will perceive the information. In other words, one needs a good ability to ‘tell

2

a story’, or, an ability to present the relevant material coherently. In fact, many advisers ask their

students, ‘What is your story?’, when they discuss their research work. The above requirements

become more critical in written communication because, the communicator is not present when the

receiver reads the document. If present, as is possible during an oral presentation, the communicator

can draw on non-verbal communication cues to bolster up the material that may be sub-standard

from a communication viewpoint.

The published fairy tale is, arguably, the best example of coherent presentation. A child listens to a

fairy tale being read by the parent, and understands the story, even while falling asleep. Therefore,

if the students are able to understand the coherence aspects inherent in a fairy tale, they would be

able to write (or present) coherently. This idea led to an initial exercise for the students taking the

M.Tech. (graduate level) communication skills course at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)

Bombay; they were required to narrate a fairy tale in front of their class. Not surprisingly, many

students could not coherently narrate even a simple fairy tale such as Cinderella, the first time. An

example was, ‘Cinderella is that girl who wore a shoe. The Prince found her with the shoe. She went

to the Ball in a chariot made from a pumpkin. There was a fairy that helped her. While running away

from the Ball she lost one of her shoes. Cinderella had a wicked step-mother and two step-sisters...’;

the chronological organization of information that is a crucial requirement for the successful delivery

of a fairy tale was completely absent. Faculty members can compare the typical first draft of a

manuscript written by a student with the above presentation of Cinderella; the similarity in presentation

of mere facts, in the order of recall, without bothering about the relationships between them,

could be striking.

However, there is an important distinction between the fairy tale narrative and the scientific narrative,

i.e. the concept of external and internal times [9, 10]. External time refers to the time taken for

the actual presentation of say, the fairy tale, whereas, internal time refers to the duration of the

sequence of events that constitutes the tale. For example, if a person narrates the Cinderella story

in fifteen minutes, the external time is fifteen minutes, but the internal time, is the few years over

which the Cinderella story is set. While external time is relevant for both the fairy tale narrative

and the scientific narrative, the internal time is normally absent in the scientific narrative, except,

perhaps in the background section. Instead of the chrono-logic of internal time, a logical sequence

3

of scientific information (facts, graphs, tables, derived information, discussion, etc.,) is present.

Normally, students develop the ability to present in a logical sequence, experientially.

Tools for Coherence

Students can be encouraged to develop the logical sequence of presentation, in a structured fashion,

as described in a later section. Now, we will consider tools that can be used to improve the coherence

(see Kies, papyr.com/hypertextbooks/engl 126/book126.htm accessed on 3rd February 2003), and

hence the communication of the material after it is logically sequenced. To appreciate the use of

tools, let us first see a well written passage by Bird [11], which has been slightly adapted here:

‘In educational circles today we hear a great deal about teaching and research. However,

we hear very little about the activity of book-writing, which ought to be included

as a third principal activity of a university teacher since it is concerned directly with

the production, evaluation, organization, and dissemination of new knowledge. Therefore,

I thought it might be useful to use this lecture to focus attention on the “rites,

rewards, and responsibilities” of book authorship. Since I have had the pleasure and

good fortune to co-author several books perhaps I can offer some appropriate words of

encouragement to aspiring writers and even a few helpful suggestions regarding the art

of writing. Maybe I can help others avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made. From time to

time I will cite specific personal experiences in order to avoid discussing the problems

of authorship in the abstract.

...

WHAT KIND OF BOOKS DO CHEMICAL ENGINEERS NEED

A library of professional volumes includes various classes of books: (i) edited volumes

to present very recent developments by teams of experts; (ii) research monographs to

catalog and evaluate the research published in the preceding 5-10 years; (iii) treatises

to give authoritative, encyclopedic coverage to one particular topic; (iv) textbooks to

set forth the basic ideas in the field in a form suitable for students; (v) handbooks to

4

summarize standard results of widespread use; and (vi) design manuals to provide upto-

date procedures for practicing engineers. Each of these categories has a different

audience, and each requires special organizational talents. Generally speaking there is

a flow of information from (i) toward (vi) in the above listing – that is, from innovative,

exploratory, and (sometimes) impractical ideas of the researcher all the way to the timetested

and reliable tools of the practitioner. Along the way many ideas and methods are

inevitably discarded, and only the most useful material survives to the arena of industrial

practice. But without this constant exploration of new ideas and subsequent filtration, a

profession can stagnate and atrophy.’

Repetition is an important tool for improving coherence. In the above example, Bird repeats the

word ‘book(s)’ in a few places to build coherence.

If repetition becomes boring, Synonymy can be used; e.g., Bird uses the word ‘volumes’ to avoid a

tiresome repetition of the word ‘books’ in the first sentence of the last paragraph presented. Similarly,

Antonymy, using the opposite, can improve coherence; e.g., see the use of ‘impractical ideas’

and ‘reliable tools’ in the same sentence in the last paragraph of Bird’s passage (Bp).

The Pronoun is commonly used to improve coherence between sentences; e.g. the pronoun ‘it’ is

used to refer to ‘book-writing’ in the first paragraph of Bp. Also, Parallelism, which refers to the

use of the same sentence structure in subsequent sentences, improves coherence.

A tool that is commonly used by engineers is Enumeration, which refers to the use of specific

markers of sequence to achieve the connection between the thoughts presented. A good example

of enumeration appears in the second paragraph of Bp, in which Bird uses enumeration to link the

various classes of books.

A tool that students easily learn is Transition. Transitions are conjunctions or conjunctive adverbs,

which link sentences with specific logical relationships. They can be subcategorized according to

their meaning (Kies, papyr.com/hypertextbooks/engl 126/ book126.htm accessed on 3rd February

2003) as follows:

Identity. Indicates sameness: that is, in other words.

5

Opposition. Indicates a contrast: but, yet, however, nevertheless, still, though, although, whereas, in

contrast, rather.

Addition. Indicates continuation: and, too, also, furthermore, moreover, in addition, besides, in the

same way, again, another, similarly, a similar, the same.

Cause and effect: therefore, so, consequently, as a consequence, thus, as a result, hence, it follows

that, because, since, for.

Indefinites. Indicates a logical connection of an unspecified type: in fact, indeed, now.

Concession. Indicates a willingness to consider the other side: admittedly, I admit, true, I grant, of

course, naturally, some believe, some people believe, it has been claimed that, once it was believed,

there are those who would say.

Exemplification. Indicates a shift from a more general or abstract idea to a more specific or concrete

idea: for example, for instance, after all, an illustration of, even, indeed, in fact, it is true, of course,

specifically, to be specific, that is, to illustrate, truly.

It is easy to see the use of transitions in Bp.

Thus, coherence tools can be used to improve scientific writing. It is unlikely that Bird was consciously

aware of the coherence tools that he had employed while writing. However, as explained in

a later section, the faculty member can encourage the novice writer to consciously use the tools, for

writing better, until they become a sub-conscious part of the writing process.

A Structured Approach for Better Coherence in Writing

The coherence tools can only help improve a piece that was reasonably well written, initially. The

following structured approach is one of the ways, by which well written drafts can be achieved. It

is neither a panacea nor the only way, since there are as innumerable factors that contribute to good

writing as to swimming. Also, many factors that contribute to good writing are related to the writer’s

personality.

6

The Preliminaries

1. The student needs to have the requisite knowledge/information in the area, before beginning to

write. This is an absolute pre-requisite.

2. If a manuscript for journal publication, a thesis, or a report is to be written, a substantial number of

the discussion aspects (say, 50%) must be clear to the student before the writing begins. Therefore,

the student needs to be encouraged to analyze scientific material well, and note down the salient

discussion points, with clarity, before writing. Many first manuscript drafts are poor in the discussion

of data/simulations.

3. The student needs to be relaxed; (s)he can be encouraged to drink a glass of water; to take a few

deep breaths, taking care to exhale more slowly than during inhalation.

Then the student needs to take a few blank sheets, a pencil and an eraser, or, a word-processor, and

sit at a place where (s)he will not be disturbed.

The Questions

Now, the student should ask himself/herself the following italicized questions, and follow the suggestions

given. To illustrate, I will present an example of my own thought process while writing a

paper, a few years ago.

1. What is the main idea that I need to communicate?

For example, we had just discovered that induced free radicals could improve the productivity of

cells in bioreactors, and we were very excited about the same. Therefore, the main idea that we

needed to communicate was, ‘induced free radicals can be used as a novel means to improve bioreactor

productivity’. Considerable thought may be required for first-time writers to realize the main

idea that needs to be communicated. However, that is the place to start.

2. How do I communicate the main idea?

This is fairly simple for us engineers/scientists, because we are normally bound by the required format

of the journal, the University, or the funding agency. Typically, we are required to communicate

the main idea in various sections such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Mathematical Model,

7

Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Nomenclature, References, Appendices, etc.,. Also, we rarely

use anything except a linear presentation of information, which makes this aspect very simple.

3. Take one section at a time and ask the question: what do I want to communicate in this section?

Jotting Down

Suggestion: Write down the points as they occur to you.

For example, what do I want to communicate in the Introduction of the manuscript on induced free

radicals? We were excited about the novelty of the strategy and therefore, I needed to communicate

the novelty. I also wanted to communicate the various contributions that we have made in this

work. In addition, I liked to tell the readers about what motivated us to do this work. Further, the

typical reader of this journal is unlikely to know much about free radicals, and therefore, I needed

to give the relevant background on free radicals. Also, to provide the necessary focus, I needed

to present the overall aim and objectives of the work.

If the information is given in the above order, the reader, who will most probably not be familiar

with the work, will find it difficult to understand. However, if the same information is presented in a

logical sequence in the reader’s viewpoint, his/her understanding, and hence the readability, would

significantly improve.

Ordering Information

Suggestion: Put yourself in the reader’s position. Now, order the aspects written in bold in the above

section, logically. A possible list:

1. Relevant background on free radicals.

2. Motivation for the work.

3. Novelty of the strategy.

4. Overall aim and objectives of the work along with contributions.

8

Jotting Down - Paragraph Level

Now, let me take the first two aspects in the list to detail further. First, the relevant background on

free radicals. From my reading of the literature, and my own experience with the work, I wanted to

communicate (wrote them down as the thoughts arose):

(i) Free radicals can be expected to improve bioreactor productivity. (ii) Free radicals mediate cell

processes such as cancer, apoptosis, etc.,. (iii) Free radicals are suspected to be the mediators of the

effects of temperature, osmolarity, and nutrient levels (important bioreactor variables), on cells.

Logical Ordering - Paragraph Level

If I had written the above in the same order, an intelligent lay-person, the common reader, would

have found it difficult to understand. Therefore, I needed to put myself in the reader’s position,

and order them in such a way that the common reader would appreciate. For example, a suitable

possibility was:

1. Free radicals are known to mediate a number of cell processes including apoptosis and cancer

(cite references).

2. free radicals are suspected to be the mediators of the effects of temperature, osmolarity, and

nutrient levels, on cells (cite references) that are also important bioreactor environment variables.

3. Free radicals can be expected to play a significant role in determining bioreactor productivity.

Note that in the process, I had also improved the accuracy of the information.

Linking Sentences - Paragraph level

Suggestion: Next, link the sentences and improve coherence through the various linking tools mentioned

earlier.

Free radicals are known to mediate a number of significant cell processes, including

apoptosis, and cancer (Feig and Loeb, 1994; Feig et al., 1994; Okuno et al., 1998; Reid

9

and Loeb, 1993). Further, free radicals are suspected to be the mediators of the effects

of temperature, osmolarity, and nutrient levels, on cells (Nagarathnamma et al.,

1997; Osbourn et al., 1990), which are also important bioreactor environment variables.

Therefore, free radicals can be expected to play a significant role in determining bioreactor

productivity.

Note that in addition to the transition tools indicated in bold earlier, I had sub-consciously used

repetition, when I framed the paragraph.

With this, the first paragraph that communicated (and not merely presented) the background was

ready.

Second Paragraph

In a similar fashion, i.e., jotting down thoughts, ordering sentences and linking them, the motivation

aspect could be communicated as follows in the second paragraph:

Xanthan gum is secreted by Xanthomonas campestris when it attacks plants (Chamnongpol

et al., 1995). The extent of xanthan gum secretion (mucoidy) is directly related

to the pathogenicity of the organism on plants, which it attacks (Throne et al., 1987;

Weiss et al., 1994). Pathogenicity is related to the induced oxy free radicals (Sutherland,

1991). From an industrial viewpoint, Xanthomonas campestris is employed

for commercial bio-production of xanthan gum, which has wide applications in food,

pharmaceuticals, oil, and other industries (Lee, 1996). If the relationship between free

radical induction and gum production is better-understood, free radical induction may

be employed as a means to improve xanthan gum productivity. In addition, a better

understanding will help to improve cultivation strategies where oxygen is provided in

situ through the liquid-phase oxygen supply strategy (Sriram et al., 1998).

If the two ‘completed’ paragraphs are read one after another, one can notice an abrupt jump in ideas

between the two paragraphs. The first talks about free radicals, and the second, about xanthan gum.

The aspects in the two paragraphs do not seem to be linked at all. This is not desirable, because

10

the reader, who is sub-consciously expecting a link, will experience discomfort when (s)he does not

find one, and this in turn, would lead to a loss in communication.

Linking Paragraphs

In the context of the example, the relationship between free radicals and xanthan gum, especially

from a production viewpoint, was unknown in the literature at that time. Therefore, known information

could not be used to link the two paragraphs. Given this constraint, how did I link the ideas in

the paragraphs?

The third sentence in the second paragraph talked about free radicals, and hence, it qualified as

a connecting sentence. Therefore, bringing this sentence to the beginning of the paragraph, and

suitably modifying the relationship expressed in this sentence was expected to help. This was indeed

done, and let me present both paragraphs together with the modification in bold:

Free radicals are known to mediate a number of significant cell processes, including

apoptosis and cancer (Feig and Loeb, 1994; Feig et al., 1994; Okuno et al., 1998; Reid

and Loeb, 1993). Also, free radicals are suspected to be the mediators of the effects of

temperature, osmolarity and nutrient levels on cells (Nagarathnamma et al., 1997; Osbourn

et al., 1990), which are also important bioreactor environment variables. Therefore,

free radicals can be expected to play a significant role in determining bioreactor

productivity.

Oxy free radicals and oxidative stress are important aspects of plant defense mechanisms

against invading microorganisms (Chamnongpol et al., 1995; Sutherland,

1991) such as Xanthomonas campestris, a plant pathogenic bacterium. Xanthan gum

is secreted by Xanthomonas campestris during its attack, and the extent of xanthan

gum secretion (mucoidy) is directly related to the pathogenicity (Throne et al., 1987;

Weiss et al., 1994). From an industrial viewpoint, Xanthomonas campestris is employed

for commercial bio-production of xanthan gum, which has wide applications in

food, pharmaceuticals, oil, and other industries (Lee, 1996). If the relationship between

free radical induction and gum production is better-understood, free radical induction

11

may be employed as a means to improve xanthan gum productivity. In addition, a better

understanding will help to improve cultivation strategies where oxygen is provided in

situ through the liquid-phase oxygen supply strategy (Sriram et al., 1998).

(These were indeed the first two paragraphs in the published paper [12]).

In a similar fashion, I could move forward, compose the other paragraphs, and link them to produce

a coherent document.

To summarize, the important steps in the structured approach to improve coherence were:

Most importantly, the student needs to be knowledgeable in the area, and aware of the aspects that

need to be communicated. Then, the student needs to:

1. Write down the points that (s)he needs to communicate in each section, as it comes to his/her

mind.

2. Order them logically.

3. Improve coherence (by using tools).

4. Link paragraphs.

5. Link sections/chapters, if needed.

Effectiveness of the Structured Approach

The above structured approach was given to the students taking the communication skills course at

IIT Bombay. In addition, they were given exercises to practice writing (and presentation). Their

writing (and presentation skills) improved significantly. Students were thankful that such a course

was offered to them. Some students who were comfortable with the language were initially skeptical

about the utility of the course to them. Those students learned that effective communication does

not necessarily arise from an ability to write correct grammar alone. Such students also said that

they significantly benefited from the course. Many (15 out of 28) faculty members had, on their

own, expressed their appreciation for, and satisfaction with the improvements in communication

12

that they had observed in the M.Tech. seminar course. In the seminar course, the students work on a

research area, and present a critical evaluation of the literature through a written report, and an oral

presentation. Six other faculty members said that the course was useful, after being asked for their

input. No negative comments were received either from the faculty or the students, except, about

certain individual preference based aspects on presentation style. For example, one of the faculty

members did not like the student revealing parts of a slide at a time; instead he preferred the different

parts on different slides.

In short, through clear thinking, and better organization of information that is based on a sensitivity

to the reader’s needs, better writing can be achieved. Very often, bad writing results from muddled

thinking, and an inability to perceive the reader’s needs. Further, writing is a skill, as is swimming.

One cannot expect a person who does not know swimming to swim well with a set of verbal/written

instructions alone; a lot of practice is required. Similarly, good writing requires a lot of practice, and

the structured approach given in this article cannot obviate that requirement. But, it provides a clear

direction for the practice.

Acknowledgments

I thank my colleagues, Professors Preeti Aghalayam, Hemant Nanavati, Kartic Khilar, and Santosh

Noronha, as well as my graduate student, Susmita Sahoo, for their inputs.

13

References

[1] Woods, D. R., R. M. Felder, A. Rugarcia, and J. E. Stice, “The Future of Engineering Education.

Part 3. Developing Critical Skills”, Chem. Eng. Ed., 34, 108–117 (2000)

[2] Nirdosh, I., “Making Successful Oral Presentations. A Guide”, Chem. Eng. Ed., 31, 52–55

(1997)

[3] Newell, J. A., D. K. Ludlow, and S. P. K. Sternberg, “Development of Oral and Written Communication

Skills Across An Integrated laboratory Sequence”, Chem. Eng. Ed., 31, 116–119

(1997)

[4] Prausnitz, M. R. and M. J. Bradley, “Effective Communication for Professional Engineering

Beyond Problem Sets and Lab Reports”, Chem. Eng. Ed., 34, 234–237 (2000)

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Why Should I do a PhD?

Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science

Mor Harchol-Balter

School of Computer Science

Carnegie Mellon University

Last updated 2004

1 Introduction

This document is intended for people applying to Ph.D. programs in computer science or related

areas. The document is informal in nature, and is meant to express only the opinions of the author.

The author is currently an assistant professor of computer science at CMU, and has been involved

in the Ph.D. admissions process at CMU, U.C. Berkeley, and MIT.

Please direct any further questions you have after reading this document to the admissions

coordinator Martha Clarke (mwc@cs.cmu.edu). Do not send email to the author of this

document.

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Do I really want a Ph.D.? What does a Ph.D. entail? 2

2.1 What is a Ph.D.? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.2 Lack of emphasis on courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.3 The research process and advisor/advisee relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.4 Frustrations and joys of research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.5 Funding during the Ph.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.6 Life after the Ph.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.7 Should I get a Ph.D.? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1

3 The Application Process 7

3.1 Transcript – grades and classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.2 GRE scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.3 Personal statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.4 Previous Research Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.5 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.5.1 Whom to ask for a letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.5.2 How to ask for a letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.6 Awards and Extracurriculars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.7 How many schools should you apply to? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4 Fellowship Information 16

4.1 Why you need to apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.2 List of fellowships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5 Choosing the right Ph.D. program for you 17

6 Current 2002 Rankings of CS Ph.D. programs in the U.S. 19

2 Do I really want a Ph.D.? What does a Ph.D. entail?

2.1 What is a Ph.D.?

A Ph.D. is a long, in depth research exploration of one topic. By long we’re typically talking about6 years. By in depth we mean that at the end of the Ph.D. you will be the world expert or close to it

in your particular area. You will know more than your advisor about your particular research area.

You will know about your research than anyone at your school. By one we mean that by the last

couple years of your Ph.D., you will typically be working on only one narrow problem. The Ph.D.

is not about breadth, it is about depth.

2.2 Lack of emphasis on courses

The M.S. and B.A. degrees are about breadth not depth. The main requirement in the M.S. and B.A.

degrees is often a large numbers of courses. A B.A. or B.S. in CS often entails taking 3 or 4 classes

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a semester in CS or Math or Engineering. An M.S. is similar.

In contrast, a Ph.D. program typically requires typically less than 10 courses during the entire 6

years (at CMU there are 5 required “core” courses, and 3 required “electives”). The emphasis in the

Ph.D. is not on classes, but rather on research. A Ph.D. student will typically take classes only when

she feels that they will be useful in her research. The classes she takes may not even be in CS at all.

They may be in Statistics, Operations Research, Psychology, Linguistics, or anything else useful for

her particular research topic.

2.3 The research process and advisor/advisee relationships

As stated earlier, the main focus of a Ph.D. is on research. You typically begin your research at the

time when you select an advisor. At most schools you pick an advisor sometime after your first year.

At CMU, we like you to start research right away, so you pick an advisor within a month or two of

starting the program.

Research is very different from taking classes. Many students never make the transition between

taking classes and doing research – in fact, at most schools only 1/2 of the students who enter

the Ph.D. program leave with a Ph.D. (at CMU, about 3/4 end up with a Ph.D.). Keep in mind

that we’re typically talking about students who came in with 4.0 GPA’s from their undergraduate

program.

Some key differences between classes and research:

• In classes, the homework problems all have known answers and the techniques needed for

solving the problems have (usually) been introduced in class. In research, you may be working

on a problem for years without a clue of whether it is solvable. You will be the one inventing

or finding the techniques for solving the problem.

• In classes, you are assigned certain problems to work on. In research, you get to pick the

problems. In fact it is your job to find good problems. By “good” we mean problems which

are “fundamental.” For example, finding a system hack which makes a particular product

like Cisco’s Local Director run better is something that Cisco would love, but would not

count as fundamental research. However discovering better algorithms for the problem of

task assignment of jobs to hosts in a server farm is considered fundamental research. You

are also responsible for making sure that no one else has already solved this problem. This

typically involves reading hundreds of papers on earlier research in this area.

• In classes, if you can’t solve your homework problem, you can always ask other classmates.

Even if none of your classmates know, you can ask the professor, who certainly knows the

answer. In research, you are often working alone, or at best with you advisor and maybe one

other student. You are free to ask anyone in the world for help, but they will typically not be

able to help you, since they don’t know the answer either – if they did, it wouldn’t be research.

Many students have a hard time with working independently.

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• In classes, you are constantly being given grades and you are constantly being told what to

do next. In research, there are no grades. There is some instruction (from your advisor), but

mostly it’s up to you to be self-motivated and pro-active.

• In the classroom, there is a distance between you and your professor. In research, you and your

advisor will work side-by-side. Your advisor will still tell you what to do – give you ideas for

problems to work on, assign papers for you to read, give you programming assignments, and

often give you a time-line and schedule. However, when you and your advisor are working

on a problem together, you will work as equals. You will both learn from each other. You

will make discoveries together. Many students are surprised to find that their advisor is very

different in research than in the classroom. A professor who is very dry in the classroom and

often looks bored and uncomfortable will often become extremely enthusiastic and excited

when working on research problems. In the classroom, you hear your professor discuss results

which he/she has already worked out. All problems are always solved by the end of lecture. In

research, you will watch your advisor think out loud and see how he/she thinks and reasons.

Students often find this very exciting. You may find that you think more quickly than your

advisor, but your advisor has more ideas than you. Or you may find that you are better at

computations or coding, but your advisor is better at proofs or writing or speaking. This

surprises many students, who expect their advisor to be better than they are at everything.

Don’t pout, this is an unrealistic expectation. As in all of life, you will be most successful if

you simply figure out what skills your advisor has that you don’t and work hard at picking up

all of those skills without complaining.

• When taking classes, you will almost never see your professor alone. When doing research

with an advisor, you will typically have 1 hour per week when you meet with your advisor

alone. If your advisor is especially busy (remember, professors have to do research, teach,

apply for grants, serve on committees, fly around giving talks, etc.) you may only get 1/2 hour

a week. If your advisor is a newer faculty, you may get as much as 2 hours per week. It’s your

job to plan ahead so as to maximize the utility of your time together.

Keep in mind that no one can give you a complete picture of what research is. The best way to

learn what research is, and whether you like it, is simply to start doing it. The earlier the better!

2.4 Frustrations and joys of research

Research can be very rewarding and very frustrating. Most students describe graduate school as a

roller-coaster with tremendous highs and tremendous lows.

Frustrations can come from not being able to solve a problem that you’re working on, or from

having someone else beat you to the solution. Frustrations can come from loneliness. However,

probably the biggest frustration is the realization that you’re not as great as you thought you were.

Here’s a very typical story:

Student X comes from famous school Y in country Z, where he was ranked 5th out of

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over hundreds of thousands of students. He was also ranked #1 in his class for the year

in terms of GPA. The student comes to graduate school expecting to be the best and

starts working very hard on research. By the end of his first or second year, the student

realizes that he has not yet published any papers. His friends and family from home start

asking what’s wrong with him. He feels frustrated and ashamed. He blames his advisor,

he blames his department, he blames his school. Finally, he grows up and accepts the

fact that maybe he’s not the best, but he can still do well if he works hard. He starts

listening better, works harder, and ends up quite successful.

For all the frustrations, research can be extremely joyous. For some people, the joy of research

is the joy of discovering something new that no one knew about. You might be discovering a new

algorithm, a new operating system design idea, a new idea for maximizing the performance of disk

arrays, etc.. For others, there’s the joy of truly understanding. You’ve probably noticed that in

classes a professor or book will stop just when things are getting really interesting and say, “the

rest is beyond the scope of this class.” In research, you can take a problem as far as you want and

understand everything about it. For many, the joy of research comes from being able to make an

impact – to change the way systems are built and design them in a smarter way. There’s also the

joy of doing it right. In a company, the aim is to get a working product and ship it out quickly. In

research, you can take your time and plan out your project so that you are proud to defend every one

of your design decisions. Research is not about simple heuristics or quick hacks. Many people also

relish the joy of being the authority on an area and of having their work cited by others.

2.5 Funding during the Ph.D.

Unlike the B.A., where you or your parents paymany tens of thousands of dollars, or theM.S., where

you typically work as a teaching assistant and possibly continue to pay many tens of thousands of

dollars, the Ph.D. is a time where funding is not a concern to you. At most schools, you will not pay

tuition during the time that you are getting a Ph.D.. Typically, you will also receive a living stipend

– on the order of $1700 per month, from which you will pay your living expenses. Ideally, your only

responsibility will be research. This is called doing an RAship (Research Assistantship).

The Ph.D. is a tremendous opportunity. You get to pick an advisor in any research area you like

and then you get to do research in that area, receive mentoring, think deeply on problems, publish

papers, become famous, while paying zero tuition for 6 years and receiving a salary. Your advisor

is paying for this opportunity by writing grant proposals to companies and to the government to ask

for funding. A single graduate student can cost an advisor upwards of 50K per year (given the cost

of tuition, the stipend, the overhead tax charged by the school, cost of equipment and physical space,

etc.).

Important note 1: At most schools, you can only do an RAship if you have an advisor who has

funding for you. Since some advisors don’t apply for grants or are in areas which aren’t well-funded,

you may have to work as a teaching assistant every semester to get your stipend. This is called a

TAship (Teaching Assistantship). When I was a graduate student, I had a few friends who were

forced to TA 13 semesters, to fund their way through school! Alternatively, you will have to restrict

5

your choice of advisors to those who have funding. At CMU, every Ph.D. student is guaranteed a

stipend plus tuition regardless of which advisor she chooses to work with.

Important note 2: There are many companies and government organizations which offer Graduate

Fellowships for Ph.D. students. If you are lucky enough to get one of these, they will cover

your full way through graduate school, and you will never have to worry about whether your advisor

has funding or not. Details about graduate fellowships will be discussed in Section 4.

2.6 Life after the Ph.D.

When making a decision about the next 6 years of your life, it’s good to stop and think about what

you might do when you finish. Most students upon completing a Ph.D. either go into academia

(research university or teaching school) and become a professor, or they go to a research lab. Some

people never do research again after completing a Ph.D.. For such people, the Ph.D. was largely a

waste of time.

If you choose to be a professor at a research university, your life will consist of the following

tasks: (i) doing research on anything you like, (ii) working with graduate students, (iii) teaching

classes, (iv) applying for grants, (v) flying around to work with other researchers and to give talks

on your research, (vi) doing service for your department and school (like giving this talk). Note that

I say “your life” rather than your job, because for new faculty, your life becomes your job. It’s a

fantastic job/life for me because I love these activities, so I’m happy to work hard at all of them, but

it’s not right for everyone.

If you choose to be a professor at a teaching college, your job will consist of the following: (i)

teaching lots of classes, (ii) doing service for your department or school, (iii) occasionally advising

undergraduates on undergraduate research, or doing a little of your own research.

If you choose to go to a research lab, your job will consist of the following: (i) doing research

(half will be on whatever you want, half will be on whatever the company wants you to do), (ii)

working with other people in the company, (iii) traveling around a little to give talks and work with

others.

2.7 Should I get a Ph.D.?

Here are some things to keep in mind when making this decision:

i. A Ph.D. is not for everyone!

ii. A Ph.D requires 6 years on average. The opportunity cost is high.

iii. Do not even think of applying for a Ph.D. if you have not tried research and/or teaching

and found that you like at least one of those. (Note: the Ph.D. program will require mostly

research, not teaching, but a love of teaching may help motivate you to get through, so that

you can go on to be a teacher. I have seen many examples of this.)

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iv. A Ph.D. requires a particular type of personality. You need to be someone who is obsessed

with figuring out a problem. You need to have tremendous perseverence and be capable of

hard work. You need to be willing to do whatever it takes to solve your problem (e.g., take 5

math classes, learn a whole new area like databases, rewrite the whole kernel, etc.).

v. You need to know why you want a Ph.D. You need to have vision and ideas and you need to

be able to express yourself.

vi. Obviously, many people are still unsure straight after a B.A.. I was one of them, so I understand.

For such people working in a research lab or in an industrial lab which involves doing

research for a few years will help them decide. If you are unsure, I highly recommend working

for a few years before starting a Ph.D.. Do not apply to graduate school until you are sure

you know what you want.

My own story: After I finished my B.A. in CS and Math, I went to work at the Advanced

Machine Intelligence Lab at GTE in Massachusetts. At first I was very excited by my paycheck

and the great feeling of being independent. I also really enjoyed my area of research

at the time: pattern recognition and classification. I was working with frame-of-reference

transformations involving eigenvectors of autocorrelation matrices. It was exciting! However

I quickly realized that I wanted to know more. I wanted to know why some algorithms producedgood results and others didn’t. I wanted to come up with my own algorithms. I worried

that I didn’t have enough of a mathematics background to answer my own questions. In summary,

I wanted to delve deeper. Everyone around me thought I was odd for wanting these

things. I left after 2 years and went to graduate school. That first month of graduate school I

looked around and realized that everyone there was just as weird and obsessed as I was, and I

knew I had made the right decision.

3 The Application Process

The Ph.D. application has several parts:

i. Transcript – Grades and classes

ii. GRE scores

iii. Personal Statement

iv. Previous research experience (possibly in industry).

v. Recommendation letters

vi. Awards and extracurricular activities

In case you didn’t notice, the words “you need to be smart” are purposely absent from the above list. Anyone

accepted is more than smart enough. The rest is up to your own determination.

7

I will elaborate on each of these below in detail. People often ask me which of these is mostimportant. The answer is: it depends. For the top Ph.D. programs in CS, the most important

component is your prior research experience and what your recommendation letters and personal

statement have to say about your prior research experience. At these schools every application is

carefully scrutinized by at least 3 faculty, all of whom are trying to gauge your research potential.

At lesser-ranked schools, there may be a simple formula which looks at GRE scores and GPA and

undergraduate school and based on that classifies applications into piles of “highly-desirable”, “lessdesirable”,

etc.. Everyone in the highly-desirable pile is then admitted.

Since my view is that of the top-ranked CS programs, my description below will follow the

perspective of those schools. By a top-ranked program, I’m typically talking about a Ph.D. program

ranked in the top 10 or so.

3.1 Transcript – grades and classes

When applying to a Ph.D. program in CS, you’d like your grades in CS and Math and Engineering

classes to be about 3.5 out of 4.0, as a rough guideline. It does not help you, in my opinion, to

be closer to 4.0 as opposed to 3.5. It’s a much better idea to spend your time on research than on

optimizing your GPA. At CMU the mean GPA of students admitted is over 3.8 (even though we

don’t use grades as a criterion), however students have also been admitted with GPAs below 3.3,

since research is what matters, not grades. A GPA of 4.0 alone with no research experience willnot get you into any top CS program. Keep in mind that GPAs are evaluated in the context of the

undergraduate program. A 3.4 GPA from a top-ranked CS undergraduate program like CMU counts

the same as a 3.8 or 3.9 GPA from a less well-known CS undergraduate program.

Some questions I hear frequently are “will taking extra classes make me look good” and “will

it make me look good to take advanced graduate classes?” The answer to both questions is “only

if these extra courses lead you to work on an interesting research problem.” Taking arbitrary extra

classes usually does not lead to doing more research. However, taking one or two carefully selected

graduate classes, and cutting back on other classes that semester, will often lead you to find

interesting research problems to work on.

Note: Your grades may be somewhat low – under 3.0 – because you were having a good time

in college and you may therefore be having trouble getting into a Ph.D. program. In this case, you

may want to do an MS and use the time to boost your grades and reapply after the MS.

3.2 GRE scores

The GRE exam has 2 parts, which you can take on the same day or different days.

i. The general GRE exam – This is very much like the SAT test you took to get into undergraduate

school, except that it has Quantitative (Math), Verbal (English), and an Analytic Writing

portion.

8

ii. The subject exam – If applying to a CS Ph.D. program, you should probably take your subject

exam in CS, Math, or Engineering. Check with the school you’re applying to.

Each exam is 3 hours long. You can study for these exams. I did. Most bookstores have study

guides with old exams. Study guides are also on the Web.

The GRE Verbal (English) portion is very similar to the SAT. However, just because you got an

800 on your Verbal SAT does not mean that you will repeat this performance. If you’ve been in a CS

program for 4 years, your vocabulary and reading speed are not what they were 4 years ago. Also,

you’ll be competing with people who majored in English for 4 years.

The Analytic Writing portion is different from the SAT. You will be asked to write two essays.

In the first you will be given an argument and asked to analyze it. In the second you will be asked to

give your perspective on some topic. There are examples given on the GRE web page.

The Quantitative (Math) portion is very similar to the SAT math test. It doesn’t go beyond the

10th grade level.

The GRE exam is offered every 2 months. Check out this web site:

www.gre.org

for everything you ever wanted to know about the GREs, including test dates, test center locations,

and lots of information on how to study.

Once again: Your score on the GRE will be largely ignored by the top schools, particularly if you

are coming from a top school. At CMU we look at the Verbal GRE score only when the applicant is

not a native speaker of English. We look at the Subject test score only when we have an application

from a school whose CS department we’re not familiar with.

At lesser-ranked schools, however, your GRE score can be the difference between your getting

in or not.

Note: If you are planning to work for a few years between completing your undergraduate

degree and applying to graduate school, I highly recommend taking the GRE exam before leaving

your undergraduate school. The material is fresh in your mind while you are an undergraduate, and

more importantly, your test-taking skills will diminish while you’re working.

3.3 Personal statement

It’s misleading that the personal statement is called a “personal” statement, since what admission

committees are really looking for is a research statement. What admission committees want is

a statement about what research you have done, what research you hope to do, and why you like

research.

Here’s a template if you need one:

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i. First paragraph – Describe the general areas of research that interest you and why. (This is

helpful for a committee to determine which professors should read your application.)

ii. Second paragraph and Third paragraph – Descibe some research projects that you worked on.

Tell us what you found, what you learned, what approaches you tried. It’s fine to say that you

were unable to prove what you wanted or to solve your problem.

iii. Fourth paragraph – Tell us why you feel you need a Ph.D.. Look back to section 2 and explain

what in there appealed to you.

iv. Fifth paragraph – Tell us why you want to come to CMU.Whom might you like to work with?

What papers have you looked at from CMU that you enjoyed reading? What will CMU teach

you?

It’s important to realize that the research statement is not a commitment to do research in that

area. A third of all applicants end up working in an area different from that which they described on

their research statement.

Here are the common mistakes that half of our applicants make:

• The grade regurgitator – “In my high school, I was ranked Number 1. Then I got a perfect

score on my college entrance exams. Then I competed in a statewide math competition and

I was the best. Then I competed in a national programming competition and I was 5th. In

college, my GPA was 3.95 out of 4.0. For these reasons, I believe I will do well in your

graduate department.”

What’s wrong with this? This portion of the essay is a waste of space. Awards are certainly

relevant, however any award you won should be listed on a separate piece of paper which

is titled “Awards and Honors” and which you can include with your application. There is

no reason to tell us all this in your essay. It will only piss-off the people reviewing your

application because they already read all this information earlier in your application and they

now want to hear about research only.

• The boy genius – “When I was born, my mother gave me a glass ball to play with. I would

lay and look at the prisms of light shining through my ball. At age 3, my father brought home

our first computer and I disassembled it and then put it back together. It was then that I knew

I wanted to become a computer scientist. By age 5, I had taken apart every appliance in our

house. At age 6, I became a chess whiz ....”

What’s wrong with this? We simply don’t care what you did as a child, and we don’t believe

you either. You’d be surprised how many applications from Einstein-wanna-be’s we get. If

you really think this is relevant, put the important facts on a separate sheet of paper, and

include it in your application. It’s best if your essay can stick with stuff you did in college and

later.

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3.4 Previous Research Experience

As I’ve said earlier, to get into a top graduate school you need prior research experience. This is

not necessarily true for schools below the top 10, or maybe even the top 5. Note that prior research

experience does not mean that you need to have published a paper. It does not even mean that your

research needs to have yielded a result – results can sometimes take years. We just need to have

confidence that you know what doing research is like. At CMU we receive hundreds of applications

each year from 4.0 GPA students who have never done research. These are all put into the high risk

pile and are subsequently rejected.

So the question is, where can you get this research experience?

There are five places where you might get research experience:

i. As an undergraduate, you can do research with a professor. I did this. You can even get course

credit for this, and sometimes if you’re really lucky you can get paid a little (e.g., during the

summer).

ii. As an undergraduate, you can apply for a summer internship at a research lab, e.g., AT&T. I

did this. They will pay you a little and you will learn a lot about doing research. This was a

great experience for me! Here’s the web site for the AT&T summer program that I attended:

http://www.research.att.com/academic/

When you go to this web site, click on “Special Programs and Fellowships.”

iii. After graduating, you can get a job, where sometimes you can do research on the job. I did

this.

iv. As an MS student, you will work on an MS project.

v. You can work alone or with a friend. Ask professors in your classes to tell you about interesting

open problems and new research (most professors enjoy doing this). Ask them to tell

you names of conference proceedings. For example in my area (performance modeling of

computer systems) a relevant conference proceeding is Sigmetrics. Sit down and start reading

these proceedings. You will come across all sorts of interesting problems. Think about how

you can improve upon the solution proposed in the paper.

Since most of you reading this are probably undergraduates in your Junior year, I will spend

most of my time talking about option 1 above. Unfortunately, convincing a professor to take you on

for a research project is sometimes easier said than done. I have therefore put together the following

guide:

How to ask a professor to do research with him:

i. Make a list of professors with whom you might want to work. Most professors have a web

page with lots of papers and descriptions of their research. Take your time and read these.

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ii. Make a summary sheet about yourself. This is a one-page piece of paper which you will be

giving out. It should have the following information about you:

(a) Your photo. Professors can’t remember names, but they do remember faces.

(b) Your name and contact info.

(c) Brief description of your research interests.

(d) Your availability – are you looking for a full-time summer position, a part-time fall

position, both? How many hours can you devote to this project? Are you looking for

class credit?

(e) List of every class you took and your grade and the professor you took it with (professors

like to talk to each other about you).

(f) Relevant previous experience and skills.

iii. Talk with your undergraduate advisor – at CMU this is Mark Stehlik – about whether anyone

has an open position for undergraduate research. Mark maintains many such lists.

iv. Pick a professor from your list. Go to his/her office hours or send email to schedule an appointment

(most professors prefer office hours). Explain your situation and give your summary

sheet. Be prepared for the following questions which he may ask you:

(a) Do you have any ideas about what you might want to do research on?

(b) Which of my projects are you most interested in working on?

(c) Describe your math background.

(d) Describe your programming background.

With very high probability the professor will thank you for your interest, but tell you that he

isn’t taking on any undergraduates this term. This does not mean that he hates you! Be brave!

Try the next person on your list. You may have to try this 10 times. Hang in there. If the

professor does say yes, you need to be prepared with your own list of questions:

(a) What is the goal of the project?

(b) What exactly will be my responsibilities?

(c) Whom will I work with? – e.g., will you work directly with the professor, with one of

his graduate students, with another undergraduate?

(d) What background material can I read to learn more about this project?

(e) What textbooks can I study to learn more about this research area?

Warning for international applicants: The admissions committee needs to be able to evaluate

your research. If your publications appear in conferences/journals which we are not familiar with

and have no access to, then we cannot evaluate the quality of your work. In my experience, this

usually leads us to discount such publications. If you don’t want this to happen, here are two things

you should do:

12

i. Publish in internationally recognized conferences – ask your advisor.

ii. Create a web site that has links to all of your papers in English in either postscript or pdf.

Explain in your application that all of your papers can be found on your web site.

3.5 Recommendations

Perhaps the most important part of your application is the letters of recommendation. You will need

3 letters of recommendation for the Ph.D. program, and typically 4 letters of recommendation for a

fellowship.

3.5.1 Whom to ask for a letter

Ideally you would like to make all your letters of recommendation count. Consider the following

two letters:

i. Letter 1: “I highly recommend student X for your graduate program. Student X received an

A+ in my undergraduate algorithms class. He was ranked Number 2 out of 100 students. He

got the highest score on the final. He worked very hard all semester, never missed a class,

and was always able to answer the questions that I asked in class. This conscientious attitude

makes him an excellent candidate for any graduate program. ”

ii. Letter 2: “I highly recommend student Y for your graduate program. Student Y received a B in

my undergraduate algorithms class. He was ranked Number 29 out of 100 students. Halfway

through the semester we started working on network flows. Student Y seemed extremely

excited by this topic. He disappeared for 4 weeks and even missed an exam. However when he

came back, he showed me some work he had been doing on a new network flow algorithm for

high-degree graphs. He had done some simulations and had some proofs. I’ve been working

with student Y for the past couple months since then and he is full of ideas for new algorithms.

I think student Y’s initiative makes him an excellent candidate for any graduate program.”

Which letter do you think is stronger? It turns out that Letter 2 is very strong. Letter 1 actually

counts as 0. At CMU we mark all letters like letter 1 with the acronym D.W.I.C.. This stands for

“Did Well In Class” which counts for 0, since we already know from the student’s transcript that

he did well in class. By contrast, student Y’s letter gives us a lot of information. It explains that

the reason student Y didn’t do better in class was that he was busy doing research. It also tells

us that student Y started doing research on his own initiative, and that he is quite good at doing

research. The professor was impressed enough with student Y’s ideas that he took him on as a

student researcher despite student Y not having high grades.

You want your letters to all be of type 2 (this doesn’t mean that you should skip class!). Remember

that letters of type 1 will not count. You want words like self-motivated, strong research

13

potential , own initiative, independent, and driven to appear in your letters. These are the words that

we circle when reading recommendation letters. You therefore want to ask letters from people who

have seen you do research. These may be professors or employers.

One caveat: It makes some difference whom you ask for a letter. As a general rule (there are

always exceptions due to people’s fame), letters from professors count the most. Next highest are

letters from research scientists. After that come letters from lecturers, systems scientists, employers,

or postdocs. Please do not get a letter from a graduate student. If you found yourself doing research

where you were supervised by a graduate student or postdoc, you should ask the professor for whom

they work if she can co-write the letter. The reason is simple: professors are the ones reading the

letter, and they are most likely to know other professors.

There is an issue for students who have been working for a while. You will certainly want a letter

from your employer, but you will also want two letters from professors. This was an issue for me

when I applied to graduate school. What I did was to keep touch with a few professors during my

time at work. When I was ready to apply to graduate school, I contacted the professors who knew

me well and scheduled a meeting with them to discuss the research that I had done while I worked.

I gave them each an oral presentation. I also gave them each writeups of each of my projects.

3.5.2 How to ask for a letter

Asking for a letter of recommendation won’t be a problem if you have been doing research with this

person, but that won’t be possible in every case. Here’s a guideline which willmaximize the contents

of your letter. This works on the theory that professors have very little time and little memory (both

of which are good assumptions):

i. Prepare a packet for each recommender. This packet should contain all the relevant information

about you that could help the recommender. Be careful not to make the packet too large.

Here’s what should be in it:

(a) Your statement of purpose.

(b) A summary of every research project you worked on and with whom, regardless of

whether this was at a school or research lab. If you have published a paper, or have

a technical report, please include that too.

(c) A sheet of paper listing all math/cs/engineering/science classes you have taken with the

names of professors and grades.

(d) A list of extracurricular activities and awards/competitions.

At the top of the packet should be:

(a) A recent photo of you – professors receive many such packets and don’t remember you

the second after you leave the office.

(b) Directions. E.g., please seal and sign and send to this address by Jan. 5. Put an earlier

date than the real deadline – professors are notoriously late.

14

(c) Confirmation information: Please send me email at blank address after you send this off.

If I don’t hear from you by Jan. 5th, I will send you an email reminder. (You need this

confirmation information because otherwise you’ll never know if the recommendation

was sent and you’ll be sitting around biting your nails wondering.)

ii. Go to your potential recommender with your packet and ask him/her the following question:

“Do you feel comfortable writing a strong letter of recommendation for me to graduate

school?” You need to phrase the question this way so that the potential recommender has a

way out. Do not be upset if the potential recommender says no. It is good that he/she let you

know. This is much better than getting a weak letter.

iii. Check with the school to confirm that they have received a letter from each of your recommenders.

iv. Remember to at least send your recommender a thank you card! It’s a lot of work to write a

decent recommendation letter, and you may need more letters in the future.

3.6 Awards and Extracurriculars

Often applications do not have sufficient space for listing awards you may have received, or extracurricular

activities which you participate in. Think about anything relevant and include it on a

separate sheet of paper, which you attach to your application. A particularly relevant extracurricular

activity which many people do, but don’t think to note is tutoring or previous TA experience. A long

history of tutoring suggests that you are a good teacher, which is highly correlated with being a good

researcher as well.

3.7 How many schools should you apply to?

There is no rule about how many applications you should send out. People generally apply to 3

schools at their level, 2 schools above their level (you may get lucky), and 1 or 2 schools below

their level (you need a safety school). If you are unsure about what your level is, find a student

with a similar application to yours and consider where he was accepted/rejected. You can also ask

your recommenders to evaluate your application and tell you your approximate level. In choosing

a school, you may also want to consider schools which are very strong in your particular area of

interest, but possibly not as strong overall. Read Section 5 on how to choose a school.

15

4 Fellowship Information

4.1 Why you need to apply

Even before you decide which schools you want to apply to, you should pick out which outside

fellowships you are eligible for and apply to all of these. I myself applied to 5 outside fellowships.

Many outside fellowships require a U.S. citizenship, so not everyone is eligible. There are at least 4

reasons to apply for a fellowship:

i. If you are awarded the fellowship, it is an honor that will forever appear on your cv.

ii. An outside fellowship typically pays for several years of graduate school. This leaves you free

to pick any advisor you want to work with and never have to worry about whether this person

has funding or not.

iii. An outside fellowshipmakes you an attractive target for any school and for any advisor. When

I received a 6-year fellowship, I immediately sent every school I had applied to a postcard

notifying them. Within a week they all accepted me – Why not? I came free of charge.

iv. You’re a fool not to apply for at least a couple fellowships. If you’re good enough to get into

a top school, then you’re good enough to get a fellowship.

Warning: The deadlines for fellowships are usually a month or two earlier than the deadlines

for graduate school.

4.2 List of fellowships

Below is a list of the fellowships that I am personally familiar with. Please check the web for other

fellowships:

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship – This is the fellowship that everyone applies for. It pays for

3 years of your tuition and stipend. It is only available to permanent residents or US citizens.

All information is available here:

http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/dge/programs/grf/

NDSEG Graduate Fellowship – This fellowship pays for 3 years of your tuition and stipend. It is

only available to U.S. citizens. All information is available here:

http://www.asee.org/ndseg/

16

Hertz Fellowship – This fellowship pays for 5 years of your tuition and stipend. It is only available

to US citizens and permanent residents. The fellowship has a pretty tough interview process.

When I applied they asked me to write the Taylor Series expansion for some functions. All

information is available here:

http://www.hertzfoundation.org/app.html

AT&T Labs Graduate Fellowship – This fellowship pays for 6 years of your tuition and stipend.

It is only available to permanent residents or US citizens who are women or minorities. All

information is available here:

http://www.research.att.com/academic/

When you go to this web site, click on “Special Programs and Fellowships.”

National Physical Science Consortium (NPSC) – This fellowship pays for 6 years of stipend. It

was originally designed for women and minorities, but they often consider white males to be

minorities. All information is available here:

http://www.npsc.org/

The above fellowships are all general fellowships that don’t put any restriction on your studies.

There are also specialty fellowships like DOE Computational Science Fellowship or the DOE

High-Performance Computer Science Fellowship for students whose research emphasis is highperformance

computing.

5 Choosing the right Ph.D. program for you

By March, you will hear from all the Ph.D. programs to which you applied. If you haven’t heard,

you should send email to the person in charge of admissions. You will need to make a decision

by April 15, which doesn’t give you much time. During the next month and a half, most schools

will have an Open House, during which they invite accepted prospective Ph.D. students to visitthe school and meet with faculty and other students. Do not skip these visits. They are a highly

valuable source of information. Remember that you are choosing a place where you will spend the

next 6 years, and choosing faculty with whom you will work for the next 6 years.

Below are just a few things to consider in the schools that you visit. You will need to decide for

yourself which things are most important to you.

i. Count the faculty in your chosen area of research. Now subtract all the ones who are not

actually present (their name appears on the web page, but they’re actually on leave). The

number left are the resources you will have to help you with your thesis research. Since half

of all people end up changing their research area, it’s a good idea to repeat this count for at

least two more areas that you might be interested in going into.

17

ii. Count the number of faculty whose research you feel really excited about. Now subtract off

the number who are not taking on students. What’s left is the number of faculty whom you

might be choosing from when you look for an advisor.

iii. Try to assess the atmosphere within the department. Is the atmosphere competitive or collaborative?

Do people tend to mix areas (e.g., research combines systems and theory) or stick

to one area. A lot of hints can be gleaned by looking at the seating arrangements: Are areas

separated by floor, or mixed up? Are the students within an office all working in the same

area, or are students mixed up? Are the faculty offices separated in floors from the student

offices, or are faculty offices side-by-side with student offices.

iv. How are graduate students treated within your area? Perhaps the most important question

here is: How freqently do the grad students in your area meet with their advisors? Talk with

students of professors with whom you are considering working with. What do they work on?

Are they excited by their research? Is their advisor helpful? Do they like the other students?

Graduate students will reveal all!

v. How are graduate students treated by the department overall? What is the equipment and office

space given to students? Does the department have a method for reviewing grad students and

sending them progress reports every semester (this is very important to get you through your

Ph.D.). What is the fraction of students who come in wanting a Ph.D. and actually leave with

a Ph.D., (not an M.S.)?

vi. How does funding work within the department? Are you restricted to choosing an advisor

who has funding? What happens if that advisor loses her funding? Will you have to then

become a teaching assistant?

vii. What are the hurdles associated with completing the Ph.D. degree? What are the course

requirements? What exams will you have to pass? What are the teaching requirements?

viii. Pay some attention to what is outside the department. For example the Department of Computer

Science at CMU (which consists of about 66 faculty) is contained within the School

of Computer Science (which consists of over 200 faculty). The School of Computer Science

is made up of about 6 individual departments including the Computer Science department,

the Robotics Institute, the Language Technology Institute, the Human Computer Interaction

Institute, etc.

ix. Consider the overall ranking of department. This is important only because it determines the

average quality of your peers (the other graduate students). Your peers are the people who

will teach you the most in graduate school.

x. Lastly, keep in mind the cost of living. At almost every graduate school, you can expect a

stipend of around $1700 per month. In some cities, you will live like a king off of this. In

others you will be live like a churchmouse. This may not bother you at first, but it can grow

old after 6 years.

18

6 Current 2002 Rankings of CS Ph.D. programs in the U.S.

I’m including the 2002 Rankings from the U.S. News & World Report for the top 40 CS PhD

programs: (Ranking score is out of 5)Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 4.9

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.9
• Stanford University (CA) 4.9
• University of California-Berkeley 4.9
• University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign 4.6
• Cornell University (NY) 4.5
• University of Texas-Austin 4.4
• University of Washington 4.4
• Princeton University (NJ) 4.3
• California Institute of Technology 4.1
• University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.1
• Georgia Institute of Technology 4.0
• University of Maryland-College Park 4.0
• Brown University (RI) 3.9
• University of California-Los Angeles 3.9
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 3.9
• Rice University (TX) 3.8
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 3.8
• University of Pennsylvania 3.8Columbia University (NY) 3.7
• Duke University (NC) 3.7
• Harvard University (MA) 3.7
• Purdue University-West Lafayette (IN) 3.7
• University of California-San Diego 3.7
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst 3.6
• Yale University (CT) 3.6
• University of Southern California 3.5
• University of Virginia 3.5
• Johns Hopkins University (MD) 3.3
• New York University 3.3
• Rutgers State University-New Brunswick (NJ) 3.3
• SUNY-Stony Brook 3.3
• University of California-Irvine 3.3
• University of Utah 3.3
• Ohio State University 3.2
• Penn State University-University Park 3.2
• University of Arizona 3.2
• University of Chicago 3.2
• University of Colorado-Boulder 3.2
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 3.2
• Washington University in St. Louis 3.2

Take this ranking with a grain of salt. Ranking is based on people’s opinions. Even very low

ranked schools have some truly great professors and some very famous professors. Also remember

that a famous professor does not imply a great advisor.

 

Essential LaTeX Templates for Report Writing

The following archives contain some commonly used templates for creating latex documents. Please consult the PDF file for the type of output you would require, then unzip the files to see how to write it in LaTeX. These templates can be used for technical reports, thesis, seminar reports, weekly reports, etc.

For novice beginning to use on LaTeX, unzip any one of the following archives and start making changes to get your first report. To unzip the documents in GNU/Linux use one of the following commands in a terminal prompt:

• tar -xvzf latex-report-writing.tar.gz
• unzip latex-report-writing.zip

Seasoned LaTeX users may also find better ways to organise a report.

1. Creating macros for math symbols
2. Creating separate files for chapters
3. Partially compiling chapters
4. Visually appealing fonts for text and math (instead of the default Computer Modern TeX fonts)
5. Hyperlinked PDF, with PDF information

Elements of Practical Training

Elements of Practical Training

A. Background:

Students enrolled for the Undergraduate and Dual Degree programs in Chemical Engineering at

the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) are required to undergo practical training

(PT) for a minimum period of 8 weeks at the conclusion of the third year of the curriculum.

The PT may be preferably undertaken in a typical process plant. Alternately, the students may

opt for R&D work in a research organization/academic institution.

B. Requirements for PT

1. PT in Core Industry:

a. The PT is expected to familiarize the student with the basic processes that are part of

the plant.

b. The student need also gain understanding of a number of specific aspects of the plant

and the processes, namely: waste treatment technologies used, types and levels of

effluents/discharges, process safety management, and sustainability strategies

adopted by the organization.

c. In addition, the student may also be assigned a project as part of the PT, which could

provide an opportunity for problem solving in any form (for ex: improving energy

efficiency of a unit; reducing discharge, suggesting hazard/risk reduction measures

for a unit, etc).

2. PT in an R&D Organization/Academic Institution:

a. In this form of PT the student may be assigned a focused, time-bound work that

could involve experimentation and/or modeling.

b. The research topic should preferably correspond to sub-disciplines of chemical

engineering, including newer areas such as: molecular modeling, nanotechnology,

new materials, biotechnology, bioinformatics, etc.

C. Contents of PT Report to be submitted at IIT Bombay

The students need to present a certificate/document duly signed by their project guide/head of the

institute/HOD/ reporting officer certifying that the student has completed the Practical Training

for the required time period and to their satisfaction. For the purpose of evaluation at IITB, the

students are also required to submit a detailed report (maximum: 30 pages) that should reproduce

the essential elements of the PT. For reporting relevant information the student would need to

adhere to any “confidentiality” requirements suggested by the training organization.

The report should be composed in a manner that should provide sufficient technical information

that is necessary for evaluation of the work. In case the report does not conform to the required

format and/or does not provide sufficient information on the work, the report may not be accepted

for assessment.

(Prof. Jayesh Bellare) (Prof. Sharad Bhartiya)

(Faculty PT Coordinators, 2007-08)

Guidelinelines for Practical Training

General Guidelines for Practical Training 

The Practical Training (PT) could be of the following types:

1. In Indian Industrial Organizations
2. In Indian Universities and CSIRs or other Government/Private Research Institutes
3. Through Campus Placements
4. In Foreign Universities or Industrial Organizations

 The faculty PT coordinators would facilitate all the above types of PTs. However, they would be actively involved primarily with type-1 PT, seeking placements with the Indian companies. Students who are interested in doing the other types of PTs are encouraged to seek suitable placements on their own. Students should not try for PT in the companies/universities where the department PT coordinators are contacting. The list of such companies/universities will be made available to the students at the earliest.  The relevant details of each type of PT are provided below. 1. PT in Indian Industrial Organizations

• By Individual Initiative: For students who have acquaintances in companies, and who have specific companies in mind to do a PT with, are encouraged to apply to these companies on their own, along with a letter of introduction from the PT coordinators. Students who have succeeded in obtaining a PT on their own should inform the PT coordinators on acceptance of the PT.

Timeline:  Intimate the PT Coordinators about the status of your applications by end of January.

• By Departmental Initiative: The PT coordinators would also be approaching various companies to arrange for the summer placements of students. These would be in diverse areas of chemical engineering and would typically involve familiarization with the plant followed by a month long project.

Timeline: Department coordinators are likely to invite the first batch of companies by early to mid November, and the process would be continued beyond that.    2. Training in Indian Universities and CSIRs or other Government/Private Research Institutes

• Almost all the IITs and IISc have a summer internship program with an appropriate stipend for two months of training. This typically involves applying against an advertisement, followed by an interview. The students interested in these programs should check for advertisements, which are issued in websites/dailies Several CSIRs and government R&D Laboratories are engaged in advanced, high-quality research in various areas of chemical engineering or related disciplines. Examples of such institutes include: NCL, NEERI, IICT, BARC, TIFR etc.
• Students are encouraged to apply to these organizations on their own, with suitably composed curriculum vitae. Students who have succeeded in obtaining a PT on their own should inform the PT coordinators on acceptance of the PT.
• The students should take care that no spamming occurs in the process. The way to approach these organizations would be to contact a scientist whom you know through his/her work, which is of interest to you, or through other personal sources. Writing mails to the Director of these institutions directly need be avoided.

Timeline:

1. Indicate your intentions to apply for the CSIRs or other R&D organizations to the PT coordinators as soon as possible
2. Intimate the PT Coordinators about the status of your application by January

Try for a confirmation from the organization by February 3. PT through Campus Placements

• Students may also apply to companies invited by the institute for placement. Those who secure such a PT position, must intimate the PT coordinators soon upon receiving an offer.

 Timeline: All those who may secure an institute PT should report the same to the PT coordinators as soon as they secure it.   4. Training in Foreign Universities or Companies

• The PT in foreign universities should be in the Department of Chemical Engineering or allied departments like Biotechnology, Materials, Polymers, etc. The students are expected to apply to these universities individually, taking care that spamming is avoided. Students are expected to devise their own ways to deal with this possible problem. Once a student finalizes the PT with a university, he/she should inform the departmental faculty PT coordinators at the earliest. 
• For those who are applying to foreign industrial organizations should communicate so to the PT coordinators on acceptance of a PT.

 Timeline: Intimate the PT Coordinators about the status of your application before last week of January.  Special Instructions

• Students are expected to provide accurate and authentic information in their CVs. Provision of incorrect information would invite penalty.
• If a student gets an offer for PT from an organization approached by the department, he/she will not be allowed to apply for PT placements in any other organization that is contacted after the receipt of offer. Also his/her application will be withdrawn from all the other organizations in the PT procedure at that time. This is required in order to ensure that everyone in the department is able to secure a PT.
• In case two or more organizations declare their list of selected candidates for PT simultaneously, the student receiving these offers will have a choice to join any of these organizations, but he/she should notify his/her choice to the PT coordinators as soon as he/she receive these offers.
• All students should obtain letters of introduction from the PT coordinators while seeking placements on their own. Students placed through the department also need carry such a letter at the time of reporting to the organization.
• All students are expected to carry the document presenting the key required elements of training, which will be available with the coordinators. Organizations are expected to comply as best as possible with the suggested structure of training. This is needed for the purpose of subsequent assessment of the training by the departmental faculty.

 

Letter of Introduction (for students)

Department of Chemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,

Mumbai 400 076,

India

Tel: 91-22-2576 7201

Fax: 91-22-2572 6895

Date:__________________

To Whom It May Concern

Mr./Ms ________________________________________, (Roll No: __________________)

is currently enrolled in the UG/Dual degree program of the Department of Chemical

Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (India). He/She is required to undergo a practical

training of 8 weeks duration in a Process Industry/ R&D organization/Academic Institution

during the period May – July 2008.

The student may contact and correspond with prospective organizations in which he/she is

seeking to undergo training. On acceptance of the student for practical training, the organization

is requested to inform the Faculty Practical Training (PT) Coordinators, who may also be

contacted for any pertinent clarifications.

Prof. Sharad Bhartiya Prof. Jayesh Bellare

Tel: 022-25767225 Tel: 022-25767207

Email: sharad_bhartiya@iitb.ac.in Email: jb@che.iitb.ac.in

(Faculty Practical Training Coordinators, 2007-08)

Departmental Report Examiners

/internal/PT12dec/PT%20website/evaluation.pdf

Format of Report

/internal/PT12dec/PT%20website/report-format.pdf

List of Companies Approched by the Department

/internal/PT12dec/PT%20website/list_of_conmpanies_approached_by_department.html

Project List

/internal/btp/08/edp08_09_chemicals.pdf

Faculty Panel

/internal/btp/08/panels.pdf

Guidelilines for EDP

/internal/btp/07/guidelines.pdf

EDP Report Content

                                                                                                      26 September 2008

Sub: EDP/UROP Evaluation: Stage I

The following items of information are intended to assist the process of BTP evaluation:

The expected content of the 1st stage report for EDP is as follows:

• Selection of the Manufacturing Route: Use of available literature to compare
• different routes and selection of the most feasible route
• Detailed Process Flow diagram: Mass and Energy balances including purge and recycle streams
• Process Design of one principal equipment in the process: Reactor/Distillation
• Column (or an alternate separation unit), Heat Exchanger. Process design should include (i) optimization of all process parameters using thermodynamic, and
• kinetic/ transport data, (ii) Complete sizing of equipment
• For UROP, students need to decide the content as suggested by the faculty guide(s).

EDP students have been advised periodically to meet their respective panel of faculty to

seek guidance regarding the process design. Students have also been directed to select one

of the equipment for process design in concurrence with the faculty examiner(s).

All students have been provided with a reasonably expansive list of references relating to

process plant design (see below). Detailed guidelines for preparing report have also been

made available. (All relevant information are available at:

http://www.che.iitb.ac.in/internal/btp/btp08.html

In case a student is found deficient on any one of the above account, a suitable penalty may

be imposed during evaluation.

(V.A. Juvekar / Sharad Bhartiya)

(Faculty Advisers)

______________________________________________________________________________

List of references provided to students

1. Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (R), New York, Interscience Pub

2. Encyclopedia of chemical processing and design / edited by John J. Mcketta New York :

Marcel Dekker, 1976

3. Ullmann's encyclopedia of industrial chemistry , 5th rev., Weinheim : VCH Pub., 1992

4. Encyclopedia of Bioprocess Technology (R), Michael Flickinger and Stephen Drew (eds).

5. Chemical Properties Handbook (R), Carl Yaws.

6. American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Thermophysical properties for industrial

process design / edited by Theodore, B. Selover and ChauChyun

Chen, New York:

AICHE, 1994.

7. Handbook of Chemical Engineering Calculations (R), Nicholas Chopey.

8. Shreve’s Chemical Process Industries, George Austin, McGraw Hill (1984).

9. Chemical Process Technology, Jacob Mouljin, John Wiley & Sons (2001).

10. Chemical Process Equipment, Selection and Design, Couper, Penney, Fair and Walas, Gulf

Publishers (2005)

11. Perry’s Chemical Engineer’s Handbook, 8th Edition, McGraw

Hill (2003),

12. Process Equipment Design, Brownell and Young, John Wiey and Sons (1966)

13. Process Equipment Design, 3rd Edition, M. V. Joshi, 3rd Edition (2003)

14. Applied Process Design for chemical and Petrochemical Plants, E.E. Ludwig, 3rd Ed., Gulf

Publishers (2001)

Format for Report Preparation

Guidelines EDP Report Content / References Page 1 of 2

18 July 2007

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Content of EDP Report

1. Selection of the Manufacturing Route: Use available literature to compare

different routes and selection of the most feasible route

2. Detailed Process Flow diagram: Mass and Energy balances including purge and

recycle

3. Process Design of select equipments: Reactor, Distillation Column (or an

alternate separation unit), Heat Exchanger. Process design should include (i)

optimization of all process parameters using thermodynamic, and kinetic/

transport data, (ii) Complete sizing of equipment

4. Mechanical design of the selected process equipments: Selection of material of

construction, estimation of wall thickness, design of support and select fittings

5. Design of Process Control strategy: Development of control strategy for

operation of one of the designed process equipments. Methodology would involve

(i) selection of a critical input or output stream, (ii) identification of control

variables (iii) demonstration of the optimal strategy using calculations for the

control loop parameters

6. Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Aspects: Ranking of critical

equipments by hazard index, identification of mitigation techniques/technologies

for undesirable / accident events that may involve the selected equipment; one

ETP protocol and design of a critical unit

7. Site Selection and Plant Layout: Consider basic economics, standards and

process risk management aspects for deciding general layout

8. Financial analysis: Estimation of capital and annual operating costs for the

plant, calculation of net annual profit and payback period

References for EDP

Special References:

(Following handbook/ encyclopdia are available in reference section of the Central

Library)

1. Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (R), New York, Interscience

Pub

2. Encyclopedia of chemical processing and design / edited by John J. Mcketta

New York : Marcel Dekker, 1976

3. Ullmann's encyclopedia of industrial chemistry , 5th rev., Weinheim : VCH Pub.,

1992

4. Encyclopedia of Bioprocess Technology (R), Michael Flickinger and Stephen

Drew (eds).

5. Chemical Properties Handbook (R), Carl Yaws.

Guidelines EDP Report Content / References Page 2 of 2

6. American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Thermophysical properties for

industrial process design / edited by Theodore, B. Selover and Chau-Chyun

Chen, New York: AICHE, 1994.

7. Handbook of Chemical Engineering Calculations (R), Nicholas Chopey.

Comment:

• Kirk-Othmer, Ullman’s Encyclopedia etc. provide introduction to Process

technology for chemical substances

• Mcketta’s Encyclopedia (vols 1-60) provides detailed methodology for design of

all types of process units. Vols 1-5 contain examples of full-fledged process plant

design for select chemical substances

• Also one may refer to UNIDO reports for feasibility analysis of chemical processes

General References

(Amongst others all the following texts are available in the book section of the Central

Library)

1. Smith, Robin, Chemical process design, New York : McGraw-Hill, 1995

2. Dryden C.L., Outlines of Chemical Technology

3. Brownell, Lloyd E./Young, Edwin H, Process equipment design : vessel design,

New York : John Wiley, 1959

4. Backhurst, J. R./Harker J. H., Process plant design, London : Heinemann

Educational Books, 1973

5. Null, Harold R, Phase equilibrium in process design, New York : Wiley-

Interscience, 1970

6. Rase, Howard F., Chemical reactor design for process plants, New York : John

Wiley, 1977

7. Ludwig, Ernest E., Applied process design for chemical and petrochemical

plants , 2nd ed, Houston : Gulf Pub., 1979

8. Chemical Process Technology, Jacob Moulign et. al.

9. Applied Process Design, Ernest Ludwig.

Journals

1. Hydrocarbon Processing

2. Oil and Gas Journal

3. Chemical Engineering

Note: Referring to websites of major technology companies (UOP, Mobil, Dow,

Dupont, BASF, etc may also be helpful in obtaining design related information)

Prof Sandip Roy/ Prof Rochish Thaokar

(BTP Co-coordinators, 2007-08)

Modus of Administration of BTP

1

18 July 2007

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Administration of BTP (EDP/UROP) 2007 - 08

The UROPs will be directly administered by individual faculty members who have

absorbed students into their research programs.

For students undertaking EDPs, chemicals will be distributed directly by the faculty

advisors. EDPs would be mentored by panels of faculty.

BTPs would be examined by panel of examiners, each comprised of about 2-3 faculty.

The total number of panels would be 10, with about 7 students in each panel.

Faculty panelists would be available for providing general guidance to the students and

for monitoring progress of EDPs over the two semesters of project work. If needed, the

faculty member mentoring any student may suggest consultation with other faculty for

obtaining specific inputs on the system under design.

For facilitating EDPs a series of introductory lectures will be conducted by both

departmental faculty and specialists from the industry. These lectures would present

broad guidelines for executing the project.

Specific time periods would be assigned for completion of each section (group of

chapters) of EDP. A list of sub-topics which should feature in the final project report the

thesis is outlined in the content document.

Students working on UROP projects may consult faculty-guides for report format.

There may be both an in-semester and end-semester evaluation for the BTPs.

Prof Sandip Roy/ Prof Rochish Thaokar

(BTP Co-coordinators, 2007-08)

Final EDP Report Content

February 20, 2009

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay
Content of Final EDP Report (Ref: Seider, Seader and Lewin, Product and process Design Principles, 2nd ed)

1.Letter of Transmittal: Less than one page cover letter addressed to your examiners (see Faculty Panel link) that briefly describes the work.

2.Title Page
3.Declaration form

4.Table of Contents showing page numbers

5.Abstract: A less than 2 page executive summary that identifies key assumptions and summarizes recommendations

6.Introduction chapter :must include
a.product to be manufactured,
b.its chemical formula,
c.role of the product in industry,
d.significance in trade
e.selection of manufacturing route with justification
f.choice of production level and location
g.reasons for entering market
h.overview of environmental issues including safety and toxicity of product

7.Detailed Process Flow diagram (PFD) and material balances in form of stream summary table: PFD should show temperature and pressure of each stream and also include the nomenclature to all equipment on PFD and stream numbers. The stream summary table should show total flow rate in each stream along with the species flow rate. Do not present calculations here. All calculations must appear in appendix. Also temperature, pressure, enthalpy, density and other properties that may be needed in the calculations should be included in the stream summary table

8.Process description: Explanation of PFD, you can show hierarchical structure of your PFD introduced in CL451. Provide the role of each equipment in your PFD as well as justification why it was selected over other alternatives.

9.Energy balances and utility requirements: energy utilities, separation utilities (solvent and catalyst, etc), power requirements (such as turbine)

10.Equipment list and Design of TWO equipment: include all equipment even if it is a storage tank or a cyclone separator. Itemize each equipment along with the nomenclature used in the PFD. In this section, provide complete specification of TWO equipment. One of the two equipment must be a separation or reaction unit and the other must be a heat exchange unit. Process design should include (i) optimization of all process parameters using thermodynamic, and kinetic/ transport data(use ASPEN for calculating associated stream compositions rigorously) (ii)1.Complete sizing of equipment. For bioreactors, students may consult respective first examiner. In case a rigorous design is not possible readily, select simulation runs to elucidate behavior of critical reactor parameters (needed for process design) may be carried out based on relevant published models

11.Mechanical design of selected process equipments: Should include either a reactor or a separation unit, and a heat exchanger; should involve selection of material of construction, estimation of wall thickness, design of support and select fittings.

12.Specification sheet for equipment designed: Summarize the design in a specification sheet. You may find specification sheets for typical equipment in the book referred above.

13.Design of Process Control strategy: Development of control strategy for operation of reactor and a distillation column (or an equivalent separation unit). Methodology would involve (i) Relative Gain Array analysis for the equipment for which there are more than a single controlled and manipulated variable each.(say, distillation column or any other multivariable unit)

14.Site Selection and Plant Layout: Consider standard guidelines on inter-unit spacing for deciding general layout

15.Financial analysis: Estimation of capital and annual operating costs for the plant, calculation of net annual profit and payback period (this would involve at least an approximate sizing of all the equipments in the process flow diagram).

16.Conclusions and recommendation

17.Acknowledgements

18. bibliography

19.Appendices

 

Sharad Bhartiya/V.A. Juvekar

(BTP Co-coordinators, 2008-09)

Declaration Form

DECLARATION

I ____________________________________Roll No. __________________ understand

that plagiarism is defined as any one or the combination of the following:

1. Uncredited verbatim copying of individual sentences, paragraphs or illustrations

(such as graphs, diagrams, etc.) from any source, published or unpublished,

including the internet.

2. Uncredited improper paraphrasing of pages or paragraphs (changing a few words

or phrases, or rearranging the original sentence order)

3. Credited verbatim copying of a major portion of a paper (or thesis chapter)

without clear delineation of who did or wrote what. (Source: IEEE, The Institute,

Dec. 2004)

I have made sure that all the ideas, expressions, graphs, diagrams, etc., that are not a

result of my work, are properly credited. Long phrases or sentences that had to be used

verbatim from published literature have been clearly identified using quotation marks.

I affirm that no portion of my work can be considered as plagiarism and I take full

responsibility if such a complaint occurs. I understand fully well that the guide of the

seminar report may not be in a position to check for the possibility of such incidences of

plagiarism in this body of work.

Signature:

Name:

Roll No.:

Date: