Existing Students

Semester progress -- Typical progress of a good student with me (see where you are)

1. Are you enquiring about a Semester Progress Report (MSR and PhD students only) ?
  1. Every PhD and MS(R) student has to meet his/her SRC once a semester (at least) after the grading is over and give them a Seminar about the progress made that semester.
  2. See the notice format below for scheduling this meeting once a semester.
  3. Normally in a Semester in which the student is only doing courses, the progress seminar is restricted (if the SRC allows it) to the following: (a) Reporting the grades obtained in the courses (b) reporting the literature survey / papers read (pertinent to the thesis work) (c) any other academic progress marker like papers published (if any) or awards or recognitions. In any case, the student HAS to write a progress report and get the SRC Members to sign it. This is first uploaded on the academic website by the student, and then submitted to the MSR / PhD Coordinator so that a satisfactory grade can be given.
  4. After the Course work is completed, in each following semester, MSR students MUST give a Seminar (about 45 minutes) once a Semester to their SRC. A concise progress report (at least 4 pages) must be submitted to the SRC. If the SRC then recommends your progress as satisfactory, the MTech/MSR Coordinator gives you a Satisfactory Grade. Organising the date of the Seminar Progress report is the responsibility of the student in consultation with the Supervisor.
  5. MSR and PhD students will be rated (by SRC and by IITD) on the following quantitative indices:
    1. Publication in peer-reviewed journals arising out of thesis
    2. For each publication
    3. (i) Author, Title, Journal Citation
    4. (ii) Relevant quality parameters: Impact factors/ citations etc.
    5. (iii) Indicate chapters of the thesis where the associated work is described.
    6. Books of Contributory Chapters to Books arising out of thesis work
    7. For each chapter, state:
    8. (i) Chapter Title
    9. (ii) Books Title and Editors, if edited volume
    10. (iii) Publisher
    11. (iv) Year and Place of Publication
    12. Publications in peer-reviewed Conference Proceedings arising out of thesis
      1. For each Publication, state:
      2. (i) Author, Title, Journal Citation
      3. (ii) Relevant quality parameters: Impact factors/ citations etc.
      4. (iii) Indicate chapters of the thesis where the associated work is described
    13. Patent applications arising out of thesis
    14. (i) Status (applied for/granted)
    15. (ii) Number/Title
2. Giving a Comprehensive Exam (PhD students only) ?

- 1. A Comprehensive Exam is usually given by a PhD student after completing his/her course work. It has two parts - a written part (70 marks) and a oral part (30 marks). The written exam is given based on the syllabus of any three courses out of the n courses done by the candidates. After you successfully complete (pass) the Comprehensive Exam, you are required to fill in and submit the Research plan and Comprehensive Exam completion form. Then fill the PhD registration Form . After this is notifiied by the PG Section, you are considered to have registered for PhD.

1. Planning on a Semester Withdrawal ?

- 1. Though I do not encourage it except as a last resort, you may apply for a semester withdrawal on valid grounds. Please check the rules regarding Semester Withdrawal in the Course of Studies governing your year of admission. Please see the format of the Semester Withdrawal Form below.

Writing a paper ?
1. Before you write the paper
  1. Read https://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/#:~:text=MLA%20research%20paper%20format%20requires,on%20the%20MLA%20reference%20page.
  2. and https://www.cse.iitd.ac.in/~sumantra/courses/mtech_project/mtech_project.html
  3. (From Guidelines to Author/Harvard Business review) Here are the five qualities looked for when evaluating what to publish:
    1. 1. Expertise: You don’t have to be well known to be a contributor, but you must know a lot about the subject you’re writing about.
    2. 2. Evidence: It’s not enough to know your subject deeply — you have to prove it to the reader. Referring to supporting research is one good way to do this; describing relevant examples is another. If you have interesting data, let us know.
    3. 3. Originality: New ideas are rare and precious — and one of the primary reasons readers turn to papers. If you’re writing about a well-worn topic, we’ll be looking for a unique argument or insight.
    4. 4. Usefulness: Readers come to us not only to stay on top of new developments in management thinking, but also to change the way they and their organizations actually do things. If you can explain your thinking so that the reader understands how to apply it in a real situation, that will make it more powerful.
    5. 5. Writing that’s persuasive and a pleasure to read: Readers are smart and skeptical and busy. If you don’t capture their interest right away, they will move on to something else.
    6. Also, answer these five questions (100 words max each) before you give me your paper:
    7. 1. What is the central message of the article you propose to write ?
    8. 2. What is important, new or counter intuitive about your idea ?
    9. 3. Why do others need to know about this " How can your proposed result / idea be used today ?
    10. 4. What is the source of your authority ? On what previous work (either your own or others) does this idea build ?
    11. 5. What academic, professional or personal experience do you draw upon ?
    12. 6. please describe your research methods (field study, lab study, survey, sample size etc) ?
2. Writing a BOOK ?
  1. Recommended:

- 1. 1. Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books, by William Germano
    2. Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction—and Get It Published, by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunate

Writing a thesis ?

1. Please prevent unintended plagiarism - read plagiarism.org .
2. Read www.publicationcoach.com/best-of/ (thanks to Govind for this link) and ThethesisWhisperer, specially : "What thesis examiners really want ?" , How to survive your PhD , http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ , The Dangers of Motivational Cliches , Tragic Research Mistakes , How to write a Journal paper in 7 days , ...
3. Fix Grammar - www.hemingwayapp.com , free services of https://editor.typely.com/, grammarly.com (paid service - free inside IIT Delhi till 9 Oct), http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php
4. Get (somewhat robotic and artificial sounding) help with summarising text - autosummarizer.com , smmry.com , textcompactor.com , https://www.quillbot.com/
5. For tips on how to write a correct reference to a source, see http://www.nhh.no/en/library/writing-references.aspx .
6. Please use a free Citation Manager ( see https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzdWJyYXRrYXJ8Z3g6MWM1ZGFlOGZiMDc4ZWNhYw ).
7. Organise the thesis as follows (see my mindmap and the LaTeX [ why LaTeX ? ] file below):
  1. Preamble (no page number for Title page + Roman Numerals for the rest)
    1. Title Page
    2. Certificate (The following format is nice and suggested :)
    3. Certificate
    4. This is certify that the following report titled "", submitted by <Name, Entry #> in partial fulfilment of the academic requirements of the course EED801 / JMDxyz MTech Project Part 1/2 represents bonafide work done under my supervision. It has not been submitted elsewhere to the best of my knowledge.
    5. Prof.Subrat Kar
    6. Dept of Electrical Engineering &
    7. Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management
    8. Acknowledgements
    9. Table of Contents
    10. List of Figures
    11. List of Tables
    12. List of Abbreviations
    13. Glossaryof Terms (optional - Latex will make this for you if you want)
  2. Chapter 1 / Introduction

- - 1. Motivation
    2. (what has been done) Literature Survey (approx 40 papers per semester of work)
    3. (what has been done) Past work - what have others sone so far ?
    4. (what I will do) What are the outstanding Issues and outstanding problems I will tackle
    5. (what I will do) Why do I want to tackle these problems ? Why only these problems ?
    6. Organisation of thesis

1. 1. Chapter 2 / Methodology, Approach and Tools

- - 1. (How have people done it)
    2. (How will I do it?)
      1. What are the tools I wiil use ?
      2. Why do I propose to use these tools ?

1. 1. Chapter 3 / Results and Conclusions

- - 1. Summary of the entire work, chapter-wise
    2. What is the significance of these results ? Interpretation of these results ?
    3. Any explanation of intuitive results
    4. Any explanation of unusual results

1. 1. Chapter 4 / Future Work (minimum 5 pages - if it is smaller, make it a section in the previous Chapter)

- - 1. What could I have done ?
    2. What more can the next person do ?

1. 1. Bibligraphy (please use bibtex managers to organise your references).
  2. See what https://doi2bib.org/ can do !
  3. Author's resume (300 words + photo)
2. Remember these hints:

- 1. See the checklist below.
  2. In the draft phase, in order to allow me to edit your thesis effectively, please
    1. Please see the checklist below
    2. use rough paper for printouts (unused side may be used) - don't waste good sheets of paper !
    3. use double line spacing,
    4. use 12 pt font with Time Roman or Bookman font
    5. Creating Graphics - see http://latex-cookbook.net/articles/graphics/
      1. [for figures] use tikz (with tikzedt semi-graphical editor) inside latex for best results.
      2. If you cannot, use inkscape (some alternatives are xfig, xypic, dia, yed) to prepare figures
      3. Or use dia, see http://lightonphiri.org/blog/latex-consistent-diagrams-using-dia
      4. Please choose good colour combinations - see http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/brewer/ for how to choose these color combinations
      5. [for flowcharts] Use tikz to draw flowcharts - see https://www.sharelatex.com/blog/2013/08/29/tikz-series-pt3.html
      6. [for plots / charts and graphs] use gnuplot or matlab or octave or veusz or R to prepare figures, export them to encapsulated postscript (.eps) and then include the .eps file in your LaTeX file
      7. Simple and elegant plots can be drawn using tikz (and luaTeX) - see http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/tag/axes/
      8. Simple and elegant graphs can also be drawn using tikz - see http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/tag/graphs/
      9. A surprisingly large number of objects can be drawn using tikz and LaTeX - see http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/feature/transformations/
      10. figures and graphs must be only 0.5 page or full page size (typically not smaller than that) - however, very small figures can be 0.25 of the page height.
        Do not manually change aspect ratio - the figures will look abnormally stretched or squashed
        the fonts used in the figures should be the same type and size as in the accompanying text
    6. Use a Citation Manager for references (see https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzdWJyYXRrYXJ8Z3g6MWM1ZGFlOGZiMDc4ZWNhYw )

Making a presentation ?

1. General Hints:
  - Make 1 slide per minute of talking (10 minutes = 10 slides)
  - Each slide should have maximum of 3 lines or max 2 figures (typically one figure / diagram)
  - Each line should have a maximum of 8-10 words
  - Do not animate slide transitions

- 1. For End-Term Presentations / For Mid-Term Presentations:
    1. See the Microsoft Powerpoint template at the end of this page.
    2. The Structure can be:
      1. Title Page
        Title of project
        Type of presentation : mid-term /end-term
        Students name
        Entry #
        Supervisor:
      2. Motivation - ONE 20-word sentence that captures what your project is about
      3. Outline of presentation
      4. Introduction
      5. What was supposed to be done
      6. What was done (upto four slides / one slide per task)
      7. What will be done

- - - - By the end of the semester
        By the middle of next semester (for mid-term presentation Sem 1)
        By the end of next sem (for mid-term presentation Sem 1)

- 1. 1. 1. Problems you are facing + solutions you would like to suggest
      2. Bibliography
      3. The last slide may be "Thank you for your attention. I will now take any questions."

Making a purchase ?

- 1. Contact the Administrative Team at 6250
  2. Ask them to show you the video by Subrat Kar on "Making purchases"
  3. Read the tutorial on this web site on purchasing .

Attending a Conference ?

- 1. Make sure you are presenting a paper - a letter of acceptance (even a email) from the Conference Secretariat confirms this acceptance
  2. Get the Letter of Acceptance from them verified and signed by me for validation
  3. Complete the following documentation at this stage:
    1. A abstract of your accepted paper
    2. A set of 12 recent photographs
    3. The Intimation of Acceptance of your paper from the Conference Organisers
    4. A printout of the Conference Webpage or brochure indicating clearly the venue, dates and who is organising it (a printout of the webpage will do)
    5. Some proof / information about the cost of
      1. Registration
      2. Travel (email the Travel Agents of IIT Delhi booking@planyourholiday.com for an estimate)
      3. Stay
      4. Food costs (if available, else assume USD 33 per day max)
      5. Visa
    6. A Certificate of Identity / Studentship / Employment in the format below (to be printed on my letterhead)

- - - 1. To Whom It May Concern
      2. This is to certify that _________________ is a full-time/part-time MTech / MS(Research)/PhD student / project employee (<designation>)in the project ....... of IIT Delhi since <date> (Semester I, <year>) with Entry No. ...................
      3. This letter is issued in support of his visa / travel application to attend the .............................. <event> being hosted at the <venue> from <from date> to <to date>.

- 1. 1. A cover letter to IIT Delhi in the format given below. (Conference Travel Cover Letter.docx)
  2. Ask me about the source of funds:

- - 1. If you are travelling with travel support from a IRD project or Consultancy - fill the National / International Travel Form
    2. After getting your filled Travel Form, IITD will issue a notification stating that you are allowed to travel. Use this notification for applying for leave.
    3. Else ask IITD for travel support - usually, only part travel support is available from IITD
    4. If you are a Bharti School student, ask Bharti School for Travel Grant (usually upto Rs.60000)
    5. Apply to outside agencies - see BaseCamp for addresses

- 1. The following charges can be paid (after notification ) using a Credit Card and then re-imbursed

- - 1. Registration Fees can be paid
    2. Visa Fees can be paid
    3. Mediclaim can be paid (with prior permission)
    4. Advance charges (like booking charges for local travel, and for hotel pre-booking) can also be paid

1. Handing over a project after completing ? Please see the Handover Certificate attached at the end of this page.

Handing over a final copy of the thesis ?

- 1. For IIT Delhi's copy, follow IITD guidelines.
  2. For my copy,
    1. thesis to be given to me should be spiral bound
    2. front cover of thesis should be a clear transparent pages followed by the Title page (part of the spiral binding)
    3. back cover of thesis should be a stiff cardboard (like a conventional thesis) - on the inner side, there should be a padded DVD envelope pasted (flap opening should face left margin so that DVDs do not fall out) containing TWO identical DVDs
    4. Each DVD contains in intuitively named separate folders:
    5. (a) copy of final thesis - all .tex files, .bib files, all .epsf .jpg figures, all scripts
    6. (b) copy of sem 1 thesis - - all .tex files, all .epsf .jpg figures, all scripts
    7. (c) Mid term presentations of Sem 1 and Sem 2 (for MSR and PhD students, include all presentations to SRC and Supervisor for all semesters)
    8. (d) all source codes plus makefiles (basically your entire user directory minus any personal files like songs and movies)
    9. (e) any pertinent video files
    10. (f) PDFs of all papers in the reference of the thesis - also include PDFs of other papers you have read
    11. (g) Patents if any
    12. (g) Your full resume (should contain your color photo and permanent postal address + email + permanent landline (preferable) phone number)
    13. (h) Handover Certificate - signed by you and the student / designated person to whom you are handing over this project.
    14. (i) full source latex of any papers you have published