Qualifiers Passed!
As of about a month and a half ago, I have passed my qualifiers and become a PhD candidate! It was a two part process spread out over about a month. While the whole thing was certainly stressful, everything went well. I am glad itis over though.
The first part of the qualifiers was a literature review paper and presentation. Over the course of a week, I was tasked with conducting a literature review on the state of the art in a topic of my choice. After, I had to write a four page paper describing the main ideas in the topic, comparing and contrasting any different methods, and highlighting any areas of potential research. A few weeks later, I then gave a fifteen minute presentation on the content of the paper to a panel of professors. There was also fifteen minutes of questions and answers.
This literature review was an insightful process. I selected monocular SLAM methods and learned a ton over the course of the the week of literature review. Considering my research interests lie in this area, this proved very fortuitous. Presenting all of the material in a cohesive, but brief, way also proved an interesting challenge due to how much information there was. The presentation went well, although I was very nervous going in. In hindsight and based on the feedback I received, I probably should have selected a smaller subtopic within monocular SLAM and spent more time walking through the technical details. Because my chosen topic was broad, I had to gloss over some of the math to fit the size requirements. Even a subtopic, like front end methods or graph optimization, would have still provided plenty of information to fill the paper and presentation. But even with keeping it a bit too high level, I personally think I did well and the panel agreed.
The second part of the qualifiers involved a knowledge test. I had to pick two subjects from a greater list of mechanical engineering subjects and solve two problems from each. I chose dynamics and controls, as those are both areas of interest to me.
Preparing for this exam was actually a year-long endeavor. I had known those subject areas would be my topics of choice. So to prepare, I took a dynamics course last spring and a controls course this spring. Both are structured to prepare the students for the exam and both do that job very well. In fact, because my review for the controls final corresponded with my preparation for the qualifiers, I was able to basically study for both at the same time. Taking the exam was fairly straightforward. All four problems I solved seemed like they were straight out of homeworks and tests, so I felt very prepared. However, I did have to dust the metaphorical cobwebs off my undergraduate level kinematics knowledge for one of the dynamics problems. Also, it is interesting to note that taking this exam was my first time back on campus since my first semester, because of the pandemic. It felt very strange to be there in person.
After completing both parts of the qualifiers, the wait to hear if I had passed or not was agonizing. It was only about a week until I heard the results. While I felt very confident, I still was anxious to learn if I passed. Soon enough, the positive news came through and I feel very relieved and proud. The first major milestone of my PhD journey is complete! Now that it is behind me, I can focus on finishing up my few remaining courses. But more importantly, I have a bit of free time again. Since I don’t have to study every night, I can use my time on other pursuits, like developing tools to help with my research.