Learning Outcomes:
The learning outcomes are:
Articulate a full understanding of the practicalities and logistics of navigating a structured PhD programme within UCD;
Demonstrate a firm understanding of how to effectively deliver in the Teaching Assistant role, and an ability to anticipate as well as to react to students' problems in lab settings;
Demonstrate an awareness of University, College and School policies and procedures that impact on their role as a Teaching Assistant and as a PhD student;
Understand how to use tools such as Brightspace for grading purposes;
Show a full awareness of research integrity and ethics, and be able to articulate the relevance of this for this own programme of research;
Show familiarity with export control restrictions;
Demonstrate a proper awareness of the consequences for academic misconduct;
Exhibit productive research skills;
Understand the workflow and lifecycle for writing up research as an academic paper;
Understand academic culture and norms.
Indicative Module Content:
The outline module content can be clustered into five main topics, with indicative sub-topics as outlined below:
1/ Navigating the practicalities of the UCD Structured PhD programme. This includes: the role of the Research Studies Panel; differences between stage 1 and stage 2; expectations for the transfer assessment; recommended schedule of Research Studies Panel meetings; writing a Research and Professional Development plan; identifying relevant credit-bearing modules within UCD; process for Recognition of Prior Learning; general understanding of the institutional structure of UCD; understanding institutional supports available; dispute resolution procedures; PhD examination process; UCD Academic Regulations; bound versus traditional thesis; familiarity with previous successful PhD theses from the School; maternity leaves / leaves of absence etc;
2/ Mastering the role of Teaching Assistant with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. This includes: the practicalities of laboratory demonstrating, including the adminstrative procedures for payment and progression; preparation for relevant laboratory work and laboratory safety; introduction to relevant theoretical works in the teaching and learning literature (both generic and discipline-specific); how to assess/critique their teaching based on feedback gained from their peers and/or their students; grading and rubrics; using Brightspace effectively
3/ Understanding research integrity and ethics. This includes: appreciating the scientific importance of open and accessible data; using repositories; full awareness of forbidden behaviours: plagiarism, data manipulation, authorship fraud, salami slicing; predatory publishers; the replication crisis; false colloboration cabals / citation rings / journal capture; concerns about for-profit publishers generally; confidentially and ethics in peer review.
4/ Maturing into a productive and effective engineering researcher. This includes: intentionallity in choosing software tools and workflows; mastering LaTeX and Overleaf; "recipes" for structuring manuscripts; fundamental of data visualisation e.g deliberate dimensioning of figures to e.g 8.89cm; implementing quality-control checklists, taking a systematic approach to proof-reading, LaTeX tips and tricks (book-tabs tables etc.); limitations of Word and Excel; software requirements for smooth colloboration; the need for repeatability and use of scripting (seperation of production and analysis of data); how to critically and intelligently explore the extant literature; BibTex and citation managers, Grammarly etc.; signposting classic books and resources on academic writing; phrasebanks; systematically saving e.g MATLAB and Python workspace variables; producing response-to-reviewers documents; workflows for revising manuscripts; LaTeX diffing tools
5/ Understanding academic culture and norms. This includes: how conferences and journals work; navigating prestige; Scopus, impacts factor and the limitations of bibliometrics; predatory and dubious publishers; books, invited chapters etc; how to network effectively at conferences; how funding works; how to present well; how to make a good research poster; the pros and cons of pre-print servers; navigating academic Twitter and LinkedIn; competitions, awards etc; how post-docs work; the backroom mechanics of peer review; how editorships work; the random, unfair and frustrating nature of peer review; building a good academic CV; invited talks; Research Management Systems; recommended reviewers; Procurement processes within UCD, and in general; Intellectual property management and its relation to entrepreneurship (student rights; ownership; public disclosure; assignment; licencing; start-ups; patent process, requirements, and funding)