FAQ: What is ECE and what is EECS? Oh, and what is PhD?
Answer:
- ECE: Electrical and Computer Engineering
- EECS: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, pronounced as "ex." In many top universities in the US, EE and CS are not two departments.
- PhD: Philosophy Doctor. A better explanation is "Permanent Head Damage."
====Now we start====
The most unforgettable thing in my undergraduate study is the research I had been involved in; as much because of the results as the process in achieving these results. I am getting closer and closer to my dream, to becoming a theoretical researcher of ECE/EECS. Former experience on approaching it has granted me the greatest enjoyment. Benefits like published papers encouraged me to continue striving. I consider doing research on ECE/EECS fields as a challenge to measure the best of my energies and skills.
My interests were changed by a project on signal processing, which led me into the world of algorithms. When I was a freshman, a magazine called “Linux Focus” introduced me many circuits interacting with computers. I began to design and assemble circuits myself. However, it did not take long before I fell into the trouble of having no lab or funding. Thankfully, a PhD student guided me in doing a research on probabilistic signal processing. I learned a new way to satisfy my curiosity from that project- doing theoretical research, especially via computer simulation. As I lacked a lab and funding, I shifted to algorithm improvement on certain topics focused by both EE and CS/CE people, such as networks. After delivering my creativity to the unbounded theoretical world, I have successfully published some papers on IEEE conferences and other journals.
Various things around me inspired my research topics. For example, during an internship in a bioinformatics lab, I found that sequence data occupied too much disk space. In order to save the disk space, I planned to develop a DNA sequence compression algorithms. This is the initiation of my first IEEE conference paper. Some of my research generated new research. My project for graduate thesis was about routing in mobile Ad-Hoc networks at the beginning. During reading papers about it, I found another interesting topic, the clustering in WSNs. After finishing the job on the schedule, I joined in a research on improving an existing clustering algorithm. My research interests cover many fields, including the application in biology and medicine.
My understanding to EE and CS/CE research changed during the research. At first, I was interested in EE and thought that it had no theoretical work. After I switched my interests, the idea that EE is not only engineering formed in my mind. In my first project, when I was working on a phenomenon that could be used in image restoration, I realized that EE also needs scientists provide theoretical foundations which instruct the implementation of technologies. Later I found that some EE topics are also appealing to CS/CE people, such as networks. I began to feel that EE and CS/CE are not two irrelevant fields. After joining an embedded system club, I felt really difficult to assert that some fields should belong to EE or to CS/CE. They change our life interdependently instead of being two independent fields. I am very interested on their intersections so I have done some algorithm improvement over there.
My future work will be on certain intersection of EE and CS/CE. For example, in those fields I had already worked on, such as networks, bioinformatics and signal processing. According to my former experiences on these fields, I consider them as the research about problem solving and methodology investigation. That is why I like them. Additionally, I have accumulated some knowledge and abilities on them through previous work.
My undergraduate experience motivated me to pursue further study in becoming a professional researcher. In the past years of self-motivated research, I always felt that I was working in darkness without guidance. This made me deeply understand the importance of a supervisor. So I sincerely hope that I can get proper supervision and training in your department.
==== Not the end. To be continued. There is no end in research. ====
My interests were changed by a project on signal processing, which led me into the world of algorithms. When I was a freshman, a magazine called “Linux Focus” introduced me many circuits interacting with computers. I began to design and assemble circuits myself. However, it did not take long before I fell into the trouble of having no lab or funding. Thankfully, a PhD student guided me in doing a research on probabilistic signal processing. I learned a new way to satisfy my curiosity from that project- doing theoretical research, especially via computer simulation. As I lacked a lab and funding, I shifted to algorithm improvement on certain topics focused by both EE and CS/CE people, such as networks. After delivering my creativity to the unbounded theoretical world, I have successfully published some papers on IEEE conferences and other journals.
Various things around me inspired my research topics. For example, during an internship in a bioinformatics lab, I found that sequence data occupied too much disk space. In order to save the disk space, I planned to develop a DNA sequence compression algorithms. This is the initiation of my first IEEE conference paper. Some of my research generated new research. My project for graduate thesis was about routing in mobile Ad-Hoc networks at the beginning. During reading papers about it, I found another interesting topic, the clustering in WSNs. After finishing the job on the schedule, I joined in a research on improving an existing clustering algorithm. My research interests cover many fields, including the application in biology and medicine.
My understanding to EE and CS/CE research changed during the research. At first, I was interested in EE and thought that it had no theoretical work. After I switched my interests, the idea that EE is not only engineering formed in my mind. In my first project, when I was working on a phenomenon that could be used in image restoration, I realized that EE also needs scientists provide theoretical foundations which instruct the implementation of technologies. Later I found that some EE topics are also appealing to CS/CE people, such as networks. I began to feel that EE and CS/CE are not two irrelevant fields. After joining an embedded system club, I felt really difficult to assert that some fields should belong to EE or to CS/CE. They change our life interdependently instead of being two independent fields. I am very interested on their intersections so I have done some algorithm improvement over there.
My future work will be on certain intersection of EE and CS/CE. For example, in those fields I had already worked on, such as networks, bioinformatics and signal processing. According to my former experiences on these fields, I consider them as the research about problem solving and methodology investigation. That is why I like them. Additionally, I have accumulated some knowledge and abilities on them through previous work.
My undergraduate experience motivated me to pursue further study in becoming a professional researcher. In the past years of self-motivated research, I always felt that I was working in darkness without guidance. This made me deeply understand the importance of a supervisor. So I sincerely hope that I can get proper supervision and training in your department.
==== Not the end. To be continued. There is no end in research. ====
1 comment:
It was nice to read about the way you developed interest in EECS. It is nice to hear that you plan to pursue your interests to theoretical EECS. Great post. Thanks for sharing.
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