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1/n I want to share some recent thoughts on students’ perception of their roles in research projects, inspired by some interesting conversations with collaborators today. Since I graduated not long ago (3 months to be exact), I can totally related to this.
2/n One idea that struck me was this notion of "ownership" of a project, and what it means to students -- many will continue their research after graduation either becoming rising stars in academia or innovation powerhouse in industry. Anyway, it all comes down to this:
3/n Research should not be thought of as tasks you are assigned or path to a diploma, but rather property that you will "own" for a long long time. Think of it as an armor -- you don't forge the armor because of you "were told so", but because you want to survive in a battle.
4/n Ownership of a project means 1) you want to do a good job assuring the quality of your research (good research pays off)
5/n 2) you want to show leadership -- to manage all resources you can find to drive your research. If your research project is a startup company, you would be the CEO and even your advisor is your employee.
6/n 3) ownership is more than leadership, in the sense that you have to do anything your project needs you to push it through -- even if sometimes it means dirty work or things outside your comfort zone. For example,
7/n in the projects I led, I often found myself putting out fires -- many of which did not demand much intellectual capability, but they must be resolved or my projects will not make it.
All in all, when I was a student, I found it helpful to think of myself as the owner of my projects. I hope sharing it would be useful to others.
