2022-09-18: Update 5/75 - Jour Fixe Joy

A rather unexciting week comes to an end. I did not manage to make significant progress with any of the planned tasks.

The best part of this week was that my proposal was accepted on Monday! I had a long-awaited meeting with my supervisor and my co-supervisor. They told me about some things that I must refine in the proposal but accepted the writing already.

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What Happened Since Last Week?

Proposal - check!

What Were the Biggest Obstacles?

I had some non-Ph.D. distractions this week that kept me from refining the proposal. So this week was marked by a lack of focus.

Which Goals Did I Meet?

Done: Proposal meeting: My supervisor, my co-supervisor, and I held the proposal presentation meeting. The research plan got accepted!

Which Goals Did I Miss?

Miss: When generating answers from PDFs, the software should be able to track pages and titles (provide context for the result). This is important for users because they often need to manually verify whether the generated answers are correct.

Miss: Start the first paper, write an outline, and identify initial outlets for publication.

Was It a Good Week?

My initial instinct would be to say no because I put in less time than I wanted to. BUT: I have passed the proposal. And, if I think about it more closely, something even more significant happened during the proposal meeting: My supervisor suggested meeting with me weekly and dedicating one person from the chair to guide my research. This addresses an issue I have sensed for a long while - I needed a jour fixe. I’m definitely a big believer in jour fixes and think that this frequent checkpoint will help me detect mistakes in my research direction much quicker.

Short-Term Tasks for The Coming Week

Refine the proposal as per my supervisors' suggestions.
Carried over from last week: When generating answers from PDFs, the software should be able to track pages and titles (provide context for the result). This is essential for users because they typically need to verify whether the generated answers are correct manually.
Carried over from last week: Start the first paper, write an outline, and identify initial outlets for publication.

About “75-Step Journey Toward a Ph.D. in Natural Language Processing”

You will, from now on, witness my grind. Feel my blood, sweat, and tears.

With this series of articles, you become a real-life weekly witness of my dissertation progress, all in 75 steps. This has multiple purposes:

1) Forcing myself to keep moving through the power of public shame!

2) Helping other (prospective) Ph.D. students to stay motivated and to show that hard times are normal when going through this process.

3) Getting support from the community when I go through hard times.

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