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A qualified success!
Apr. 8th, 2006 01:19 pmI'm not a doctor yet, but I will be by April 27. How's that?
The defense went moderately well. Grumpy Committee Member hit all the arguments I was expecting from him, as well as one major one I wasn't. That was a problem, and he would not sign off on my dissertation. Three other professors did; my advisor will when she gets the final draft of my dissertation.
I will graduate even if Grumpy Committee Member never signs at all. I only need four out of the five. As my advisor put it, it's a "matter of honor" to try and satisfy his requests - which aren't unreasonable or wrong, although they kind of miss the point of my research. No matter - he's the professor, and his opinion is that there shouldn't be a PhD given if certain knowledge is not demonstrated. He did not feel that I showed that I understood certain things, even if I really do.
These were mostly math things. Math things do not stay in my head. I learn them and understand them and then forget most of them, leaving only general impressions of trends or how things work. I don't immediately recall that "well of course changing this to a two-norm will cause a singularity in the Jacobian, so we can't do that." Rather, I get a funny feeling that a two-norm is a bad idea and, after two or three days of beating on the problem, will understand that the problem is with the Jacobian. I'm a high-level systems sort of gal, what can I say?
But I was rather pleased that I anticipated two of his major problems and I think adequately addressed them, and nailed his "do you really understand the details of the work you're adapting?" question. So ha-ha!
But I now have a large pile of Things To Do before April 27, which I'll be dealing with starting today. So... of to do them!
The defense went moderately well. Grumpy Committee Member hit all the arguments I was expecting from him, as well as one major one I wasn't. That was a problem, and he would not sign off on my dissertation. Three other professors did; my advisor will when she gets the final draft of my dissertation.
I will graduate even if Grumpy Committee Member never signs at all. I only need four out of the five. As my advisor put it, it's a "matter of honor" to try and satisfy his requests - which aren't unreasonable or wrong, although they kind of miss the point of my research. No matter - he's the professor, and his opinion is that there shouldn't be a PhD given if certain knowledge is not demonstrated. He did not feel that I showed that I understood certain things, even if I really do.
These were mostly math things. Math things do not stay in my head. I learn them and understand them and then forget most of them, leaving only general impressions of trends or how things work. I don't immediately recall that "well of course changing this to a two-norm will cause a singularity in the Jacobian, so we can't do that." Rather, I get a funny feeling that a two-norm is a bad idea and, after two or three days of beating on the problem, will understand that the problem is with the Jacobian. I'm a high-level systems sort of gal, what can I say?
But I was rather pleased that I anticipated two of his major problems and I think adequately addressed them, and nailed his "do you really understand the details of the work you're adapting?" question. So ha-ha!
But I now have a large pile of Things To Do before April 27, which I'll be dealing with starting today. So... of to do them!
