I don’t even know if my posts make sense for readers, honestly. My English is a bit rusty and there is no feedback most of the time as I write into the void. Do you people read me? Are the texts clear? Or is it an indistinguishable mess of words?
Here is what I’ve been up to. First and foremost, new lab. Now my main work is to use neural networks to predict crystal stability. It took me a while to write and train the model for this, about a year along with studying and an internship. However, now that it’s mostly ready, I have to do an experiment.
It is not strictly necessary, but my department requires master’s dissertation to contain some experiments. I had to make one for bachelor diploma and now the history repeats itself. However, now I am in a different lab, with far better apparatus and work ethics. The experiments are mostly made with solid-state synthesis, which makes thing way easier (weigh – press – anneal – analyze – repeat).
Apart from this and an ungodly amount of papers I needed to study in the field and crippling burnout from personal problems, the last year went well. Now I have a week to finish most of the experiment and prepare something like the dissertation proposal. It is a discriminatory practice my department uses to make some students’ life more difficult. In my case it’s the theoretical nature of my work that is causing problems.
But I’ll power through this eventually.
@academicalnerd I mostly view it as a log or an unofficial journal. There's nothing wrong with your English. Sometimes it is difficult to relate to your position.
The research you are doing sounds really cool. The equipment sounds like it will help with the research. I would recommend typesetting a version for IEEE so you can have a noted presence in two fields. You are bound to make some very powerful connections by having cross discipline research submitted.
@academicalnerd It's difficult to say without pointing fingers. I managed 3 labs, one of which was my personal research lab. I did research in areas not related to my Major with a few research projects going simultaneously while having to maintain full time status as a student. I received no credit for my research or work in Academia.
It was a bad situation and staff tried to remedy the poor decisions but it fell on deaf ears. To say that I dropped out is an understatement, I quit my projects after learning how badly I was perceived. All the promising developments that were made just left questions. My last project was establishing a closely linked connection between 4 different departments to expedite research and development. It was an inefficiency that I observed. The department I was in mostly didn't like the idea but Electrical Engineering certainly was interested in making such a program.
I suppose the moral of that is to do exactly as they say and not get in a similar position. Some days I was only on campus for 8 hours and other days I worked through the night until my morning courses. I only did what I did because I enjoyed it and saw the potential of what could be.
The TL;DR is that I was discarded like trash. My research impressed an Agent and I was encouraged to apply upon graduation. I was called the brightest mind to enter a Department Chair's office and the ending of my academic career was very painful. Broken promises and betrayal were what I found in Academia.
I'm sorry you had to go through this. And there is a possibility I end up in a similar situation, but hey, at least I got some skills and experience out of it.
@academicalnerd I wish you the best. Your dedication should be rewarded especially after your research gets published. It makes the University and Department look better. It's a promising area of research too so I would imagine that it will do wonders for your academic career as well as getting corporations interested in you.
@AmpBenzScientist
This is a very cool recommendation on IEEE, thank you very much!
My position may feel awkward at times, but it was formed by very particular circumstances and it is still a work in progress. Do you mind sharing what in particular do you find difficult to emphasize with?