Encouraging young women
into problem solving and research.....in pursuits of excellence
Dr. Maushumi Barooah
Director,
Technical Education
Govt. of Assam
This is my testimony
of delving into how to get work done, how to carry out research in case of
those pursuing their MTechs and PhDs and how I personally have learnt to focus
on solving problems and getting things done. This write-up is a sincere attempt
to encourage young students and especially
young women into research and to
those who are interested to carry out research works and implementing projects.
I have penned down some motivation
points, few directional pointers
on how to work on challenges and shortcomings and come out with flying colours.
The buzzword being ‘Tread the untrodden path’
I start with a probe to ask you to dream big and then chase them to
reality. You must develop a strong desire of having faith in yourself, a willingness to have the right attitude, clarity of
mind, be passionately curious
and have a clear focus. One must love what one is doing or trying to do.
And have them cultivated systematically towards achieving your goals of reaching or pursuing whatever and wherever
you wish to be. The sky is the limit!
So the key to success is being formulated as:
P for perseverance and patience,
H for hardworking,
and D for discipline.
We call it PhD in our context but on a lighter note we can say that it stands for ‘Piled Higher and Deeper’.
In the context of our purview an important point
to note here is about choosing your research
problem carefully or whatever problem you are taking on. It is articulated
that you must make sure that you are taking a real life problem, a problem that does exist, has real implications
towards mankind and which has no obvious solutions. Look at
proceedings of Top-tier conferences, Top
research groups and try and find out what they are working on to get a
grasp of the real status of that problem. One
must start by reading survey papers and
get a grasp of the area. See if it sounds good to you and whether you are
comfortable in the area and then look at research
directions in those survey papers.
Lay emphasis purely on the fact that the Core idea must come from you and you
must put a lot of effort to get the idea of the field that you are interested
in.
You can also generate ideas by brainstorming with friends and colleagues and your peer groups to
track latest development. At this point do a breadth search of the area and
then go deep down. A keen interest has to be developed eventually. Keep sharing
your thoughts with your peer groups which will enable you into building
strength and instilling confidence in yourself and to have a feeling of “yes I
can do it” attitude.
So, the idea is to push and probe your minds, attend
conferences, cohorts, thereby empowering
yourselves to do things better while pursuing your goals or any task that
is ahead of you. The main idea is to equip yourselves with a plethora of life skills and help build
your careers and go up the ladder of success both in the physical as well as in the spiritual
sphere of life.
The talk about “MTech Vs PhD” and what
happens when you go for them, the changes that your life goes through after a Phd/
MTech, the change of perception
about your approach to life and the life
skills that you acquire along the way which eventually will lead you to a
state of being able to tackle any situation in your life come what
may and whatever it may be. The first focal point is to develop
an ability to think and work independently, exciting critical thoughts and developing perseverance. The importance is
being given on an ability to work with poorly defined goals without having much clarity
initially and then how to build the momentum.
Here patience
is the need of the hour. That there will be sometimes a lull in your research
and may not have a very defined finish line. But the show must go on. You must push yourself to develop an ability to express clearly and build verbal as well as written skills, writing compelling
abstracts and introductions and having a clear analysis. One must work hard to develop abilities to garner thought experiments, solve problems in
a simple, clear yet succinct manner. To
achieve that you need to cultivate a lot of confidence in yourself so that you
can achieve your goals.
Believe
first in yourself and that you can do it. Allow yourself to set small goals and work towards them and
achieve them, develop writing skills and thinking
exercises. Work together in a team. You must learn to collaborate with people working in similar ideas, building team work and
interpersonal skills as well as group management skills. As a result Emotional Intelligence is being
developed side by side. Work on lasting relationships and brainstorm with your
peers and colleagues frequently.
A lot of emphasis is given on reading and writing papers: Journal
papers, conference papers, books, reports etc. Take a small step: read the abstract of a paper in your chosen area;
if found to be interesting, read the conclusion and if it irks you further go
on reading the introduction and slowly delve
into it. See if you can internalize
the problem and if you can do it differently. Can you think of another
solution to the same problem? Is there a different way to solve the problem?
Keep reading Survey papers to have
an idea about the works done in the area and the research problems cited there.
Go for white papers as it is easy to
read a white paper on the specified topic of interest. Look at the anatomy
of a research paper and check how to formulate
it. The main focus in writing a paper is to keep the reader in mind. Work
your story around the problem, understand
your story and write them succinctly and convincingly. One must develop writing
skills for achieving that. Think and pick your idea and start writing a paragraph about it. Let it go
through an iterative process of ‘read-write- rewrite’ mode till you
are satisfied; compare, contrast and show it to your peers and let it progress to a point where you are
confident about what you have written. Make sure you feel good. Now read it
over and over again and reflect.
There is no short cut. This way you cannot
go wrong.
Therefore the BIG CONCEPT is that doing a PhD/
research will equip you to do original research and apply them in life in
general. Nobody is too old or young in doing a PhD and the fact that there is no shortcut to success. So take a leap
of faith, have confidence in yourself and the zeal to do it and get going.
Nothing can go wrong. You will deliver for sure.
This is a small attempt to ignite, motivate and encourage young minds towards research and doing new things in life
and progress as well. I assure you with my life’s experiences that the end
result makes you a better human being, empower
you with confidence in yourself,
equips you with problem solving skills
to deal with any situation anywhere.
Be bold and come to your own rescue, not accept sexist narratives.
Let us redefine ourselves!
Let us Learn, Listen and Link. Be impatient for change, be passionately
curious, get noticed, get relevant and dare to explore and make your own
decisions.
Why fit in when you are born to stand out!
Do what is important for you, make the
right decision, cultivate a proper work life balance, build and empower
the ecosystem around you to make it easy for others as well.
I have enjoyed penning down my thoughts and I do hope that this will help ignite a few young aspirants to do things differently and reach for their goals.
Published in: SOUVENIR 71 Foundation Day Celebration, Assam Engineering Institute Page No: