Your creativity can freak out your supervisor. Many bosses need a “doer”, not a thinker. Unfortunately, this does occur in academia too. ▫️ I know many students who came for a PhD because they’d thought they could let their minds wander across the landscapes of science, searching for cool discoveries, proposing ideas and trying them out in the lab… But then they had to work on a predefined project (100% workload) with specific deliverables and timeline. If you are looking for a PhD/postdoc position, keep in mind that a professor may have a specific project in mind with very LIMITED room for you to express your creativity. ▫️ So, my advice: 1. ASK the potential advisor about the project and how much time you can spend on your own ideas (e.g. 1 day or 3 days per week?). 2. ASK how your ideas can be funded. It is quite common to be told “you can do whatever you want in your free time but I have no money for your side projects”. 3. ASK which instruments and resources you can use for your own ideas. Often, students are allowed to use only a few instruments (due to a small budget). If this is the case, your ideas will depend on what others can do for you. 4. ASK who funds the major project and how strict it is about deliverables and timeline. This will tell you how much commitment is expected from you. 5. ASK if you are allowed to try approaches & methods that are not listed in the initial project. Even though you may need to work within the project agenda, how FAR can you go beyond the initial plan? Will you find room for your creativity this way? ▫️ Also, a few words on how academia works: Many students who complain about the strictness of their projects and little room for personal ideas blame their advisors. Is it justified? Yes and no. Yes - Often, even if the funding source is OK with research that goes beyond the initial project, many PIs feel very uncomfortable doing it. Super-competitive funding means professors don’t want to “waste time” and wait for the students to explore their creativity. Yes - Many faculties have no idea how to help their students grow. So, even if they know the project grants a lot of freedom, they simply don’t care. No - There's a HUGE pressure from funding agencies to deliver. Some of them are quite strict. If I get such a grant, I still can't give enough freedom to a student (regardless of how caring I am as an advisor). By "enough" I mean "enough from my own perspective". No - Because many young faculties are on a tenure track. They are afraid of getting kicked out if they don’t publish IN TIME. But doing research in unexplored areas takes much more time than doing a well planned-out project. Here, university is to blame for putting too much pressure during the tenure track. ▫️ And don’t forget: The need for own creativity is fundamental to humans. If your creativity is not exercised, you can develop anxiety and low self-esteem as a researcher. Make sure your need for creativity aligns with the requirements of the position. #phdchat #AcademicTwitter #phdlife

Are you and your co-authors editing the abstract of your paper again and again before submitting to get it just perfect? 👇 Use this template instead and save yourself hoursss! A thread. 🧵

Let me share my small contribution plotting a cyclic undrained DSS test using Norsand….see you in #GeoSaskatoon #SoilPlot #FLAC3D

🚨 Job alert: I will be hiring 2 PhD students Fall 2024 & a postdoc at Rice University in the MECH department. @RiceMECH If you know someone (UG/Masters) that is interested in bioelectronics, mechanics and electromagnetic please reach out! #PhD avila.rice.edu

The first mine application of the sanisand-sf model! Check the latest work of @Brahian60724820 to see how this model and PM4Sand performs simulating filtered dry stacked tailings under seismic loadings. srk.com/en/publications/non-…

Forecasting landslides using community detection on geophysical satellite data, Vrinda D. Desai et al @karenedaniels @ncstatephysics @TheHandwerger @FarNazFaz #Geophysics #Networks go.aps.org/3O1OmUr See Research News from @PhysicsMagazine at go.aps.org/44AjJeg

Congratulations to Susan Alexis Brown and Divyanshu Lal who competed and placed in competitions at the 2023 Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference in Atlanta, GA! 🎉

Congratulations to Yidong Zhao, Mario de Lucio, and Divyanshu Lal for winning EMI 2023 Poromechanics award. We are proud of each one of you! Jinhyun Choo Purdue University Northwestern University Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology American…lnkd.in/g9th7NZE

PhD students, don't worry. Technologies, trends, and even whole fields come and go. A PhD makes you an expert in a field but, more importantly, teaches you how to become an expert. Once you know that you can learn anything, you can adapt to major disruptions in your field.

A method developed by Professor Ken Kamrin and a team of researchers quickly predicts the forces needed to push objects through soft, granular materials, which could help engineers drive robots or anchor ships. mitsha.re/vTfi50MChCe

Our recent paper explores how particle size distribution affects cyclic liquefaction resistance of granular assemblies and CSSM provides good explanation for the observations. Please find the paper via the link providing the 50 days’ free access authors.elsevier.com/c/1gLGJ…

Researchers from @NorthwesternU @UBC @umontpellier looks into the quantitative description of microstructural evolution during cyclic liquefaction @mtaiebat @MingYang09 @FarhangRadjai

Self-citation gives me the 100th citation 😂 scholar.google.com/citations…

Our recent paper explores the evolution of internal structures in cyclic liquefaction of granular materials, revealing the link with the stress-based criterion for jamming transition. 50 days free access. Please check via the link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1f3fK…

In cooperation with Mahdi Taiebat|@mtaiebat, we created a SANISAND-subpage of #AnimatingSoilModels, where we focus on SANISAND-MSf by @MingYang09|Yang, Taiebat & Dafalias (2022). You can find interactive graphics, an animation and Matlab scripts here: soilmodels.com/soilanim/#lin…

I gave this hydrostatics paradox(?) to my fluids class. I will add 5 points to their Test I, if they solve it. Can you? I will tweet the solution/explanation next week...Send your solution to kinnas@mail.utexas.edu (have fun!)

Wordle 229 5/6 I did not know the word… shard 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Our latest #research adopts four advanced sand constitutive models to illustrate the common challenges of simulating the cyclic response and provide advice for further development. Read the recent publication with @SpringerNature in Acta Geotechnica: doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-0….

⚡️Jobs alert⚡️ Colleagues and friends, 2 #postdoc positions are available at the MEL to investigate highly exciting subjects at the intersection of #electrochemistry and #mechanics of materials! Please help us advertise these positions and apply if interested!🌈

[Energy Geotechnics Webinar] We are delighted to announce that our speaker on 4th Oct (Monday) is Prof. Carlos Santamarina. Welcome to join through the Tencent Meeting link: meeting.tencent.com/dm/hghXp…