ADVANCING YOUR ACADEMIC

AND RESEARCH CAREER IN

AN EVER EXPANDING WORLD

Syed Zeeshan Rizvi

Ph.D. Fellow,
The University of Georgia, USA
 START PREPARING:
THE OBVIOUS POINTERS
o Have a good CGPA
o Be a good student
o Develop good concepts. Read more
o Do internships

What else?
 START PREPARING:
WHAT ELSE?
o Look to publish a research paper
o Conferences in Pakistan
o IEEE Int’l Multi-topic Conference (INMIC)
o IEEE Student Conference on Engg, Sci., & Tech. (SCONEST)
o Look for IEEE conferences that have student support program
o Do your homework. Look for conferences on:
http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/conferencedetail
s/index.html
o If the paper gets accepted, purchase IEEE student membership
($13.5 for half year) and apply for student support
o Avoid bogus conferences like WSEAS, WASET
o If possible, extend the work and publish in a journal Best thing to
do
 START PREPARING:
WHAT ELSE?
o Register for GRE. Start preparing !
o No need to spend money at “Students’ Inn”
o Use a good book/website to prepare
o Barron’s GRE (latest edition)
o Kaplan GRE premier
o http://www.mygretutor.com
o Start preparing for TOEFL/IELTS
o This should be very easy
o Lastly, score very good in GRE (esp. quantitative) and TOEFL
o Give yourself time in case you need repetition
 I’VE GRADUATED:
WHAT NOW?
o While you join a job, keep preparing for MS/PhD application
o Ask professors to give you strong letters of recommendation
(LoR)
o Prepare your CV
o Write a Statement of Purpose (SoP)

What NOT to do when

preparing CV and SoP?
 I’VE GRADUATED:
WHAT NOT TO DO?
o CV should NOT be long (max. 1.5 pages excluding list of
publications)
o It should NOT be cluttered
o CV and SoP should NOT have grammatical/spelling mistakes
o If you do not trust your language skills, get your CV and SoP
checked by others
o Ask your colleagues, peers, teachers, elders to read it
o Usually good idea to start CV with a summary
 I’VE GRADUATED:
CONTD …
o SoP should NOT be more than 1000 – 1200 words
o Should NOT have grammatical mistakes
o Should contain
o Past academic experience (very brief)
o Research experience (explain main papers/projects in 3-4 lines)
o Future intentions (modify this to suite the professor’s interest)
o Should NOT have long stories
o For a sample of good SoPs, check the files section of
“SAATFASE” YahooGroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SAATFASE/info?refsite=www.n
1ads.com&ref=alexa-traffic-rank
 I’VE GRADUATED:
SUMMARY
You are ready to contact professors/apply for scholarships once
you have:
o Good GRE and TOEFL/IELTS scores
o Well-written CV
o Well-written SoP
o A published paper/good project under your belt
o A good CGPA
o 2-3 professors ready to give good LoRs

What now? Where to

apply?
 PLACES TO APPLY

o Europe [you wait for vacancies to open]

o Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Finland, Belgium
o East Asia [you apply for scholarships during announced dates]
o Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea
o Middle East [you apply for scholarships during announced dates]
o Saudi Arabia
o Australia/NZ [contact professors/apply for scholarships]
o North America [contact professors, TA position, scholarships]
o Canada, USA
PLACES TO APPLY

Search

Bookmark
And
Organize Note
deadlines
 PLACES TO APPLY:
EUROPE (VACANCIES)
o The Netherlands:
o Eindhoven U of Tech (TU/e): http://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancies.html
o Delft U of Tech:
http://tudelft.nl/en/about-tu-delft/working-at-tu-delft/jobs/academic-
jobs/phd/
o Delft U of Tech, Delft Center for Sys & Control (DCSC)
http://www.dcsc.tudelft.nl/Other/vacancies.html
o Huygens Scholarships: http://www.nuffic.nl/home/redirect/huygens-
scholarshipprogramme
o Grant Finder Netherlands (has information about almost every
scholarship for The Netherlands):
http://www.grantfinder.nl/content/index.asp
 PLACES TO APPLY:
EUROPE (VACANCIES)
o Sweden [contd.]:
o KTH: http://www.kth.se/en/aktuellt/work-at-kth/vacancies
o LTH: http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24913&lang=en&ref=D
o LTH, Control Systems: http://www.control.lth.se/
o Upsala U: http://www.uu.se/jobb/?languageId=1#PhDstudents
o Upsala U, Systems & Controls: http://www.it.uu.se/research/syscon
o Linkoping U: http://www.liu.se/en/job/
o Stockholm U: http://www.su.se/english/about/vacancies
o Chalmers U: http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-
chalmers/vacancies/Pages/default.aspx
o Umea U: http://www.umu.se/english/about-umu/open-
positions?languageId=1
 PLACES TO APPLY:
EUROPE (VACANCIES)
o Germany:
o DAAD Siemens scholarships: http://www.daad.org
o Stuttgart U, Mathematical Systems Group (Prof. Carsten Scherer):
http://www.imng.uni-stuttgart.de/simtech/Scherer/jobs.html
o Stuttgart U (Prof. Frank Algower): http://www.ist.uni-stuttgart.de/jobs/
o TUM, Inst. Automatic Control Engineering: http://www.lsr.ei.tum.de/open-
positions/open-phd-positions/
o TUM, Dept. of Informatics: http://www.in.tum.de/en/research/phd-
program/scholarships-for-phd-and-postdocs.html
o Saarland U Comp. Science scholarships: http://www.cs.unisaarland.de
o Austria:
o IST PhD scholarships: http://www.ist.ac.at/graduateschool/applications/
o TUW, Automation & Control Inst.:
http://www.acin.tuwien.ac.at/1/news/job-vacancies/
 PLACES TO APPLY:
EUROPE (VACANCIES)
o Belgium:
o KU Leuven, Stadius Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing
and Data Analytics: http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/vacancies.php
o Switzerland:
o ETH Zurich:
http://internet1.refline.ch/845721/search.html?form.search.actions.text=
1&form.search.segment=doctoralCandidate
o ETH Zurich, Institute for Dynamical Sys. & Control:
http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/open_positions/index
 PLACES TO APPLY: ASIA
(CALLS FOR SCHOLARSHIPS)
o Hong Kong:
o HK PhD Fellowship Program HKPFS (very prestigious program):
https://cerg1.ugc.edu.hk/hkpfs/index.html
o Singapore:
o NUS: http://www.nus.edu.sg/admissions/graduate-
studies/scholarships.php
o NTU:
http://admissions.ntu.edu.sg/graduate/scholarships/Pages/ResearchSchol
arship.aspx
o NTU, Mech. Engg. Scholarships:
http://www.mae.ntu.edu.sg/ProspectiveStudents/GraduateProgrammesR
esearch/Pages/Scholarships.aspx
 PLACES TO APPLY: ASIA
(CALLS FOR SCHOLARSHIPS)
o South Korea
o Dongguk U: http://site.dongguk.edu/user/engineereng/menu_3_6.html
o Saudi Arabia
o KFUPM Graduate studies scholarships: http://www1.kfupm.edu.sa/gs/
o KSU graduate studies scholarships:
http://ksu.edu.sa/Deanships/DeanshipofGraduateStudies/Announcement
s/Pages/ApplicationDate.aspx
 PLACES TO APPLY: US
(CONTACTING PROFESSORS)
o Find professors in your area and contact them personally
o Write a short email explaining that you’re looking for “Research
Assistantship” (RA) position
o Attach your CV and SoP with the email
o Send !

o It takes a lot of time to find professors. Google with key words like
“Control Systems”, “Signal Processing”, “Power Systems”, “USA”,
“.edu”, “PhD positions” etc.
o Bookmark webpages of important professors and contact them with
time
 PLACES TO APPLY: US
(CONTACTING PROFESSORS)
o Benefits of US PhD can be several, including
o Large number of R&D internships available during PhD
o Big market
o Large number of good universities in US
o A lot of student exchange programs
o No language problem
o Good coursework during PhD
o Good job prospects, especially in Middle-East and Asia
 PLACES TO APPLY: US
(SCHOLARSHIPS/GROUPS)
o USA
o Fullbright scholarships (Very prestigious. You have to go back after PhD
for 2-4 years): http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/
o USEF Pakistan (register on this website): http://www.usefpakistan.org
o Some examples of good Control Systems groups are
o UT Arlington, Advanced Control & Sensors Group:
http://arri.uta.edu/acs/
o UC Santa Barbara, Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and
Computation (CCDC): http://www.ccdc.ucsb.edu/
o To search professors/groups, look at papers in good journals, and search
the author professors
 PLACES TO APPLY: US
(SCHOLARSHIPS/GROUPS)
o Canada
o McGill U, Scholarship programs:
http://www.mcgill.ca/studentaid/scholarships-aid/graduate#pgss
 PLACES TO APPLY: US
(DEPARTMENT TA POSITIONS)
o Apart from RA position, many departments in the US also have
“Teaching Assistantship” (TA) position
o As a TA, you teach undergraduate basic courses/labs
o Benefits:
o Adds to your teaching experience
o Teaching is one of the best ways to learn
o TA positions are usually provided by departments
o You can look for TA position on department websites
o You can also email “Graduate Program Coordinator” for the
department, and also ask professors if TA position is available for their
department
 PLACES TO APPLY: OTHER
SOURCES
o Other Sources
o Academic Transfer:
https://www.academictransfer.com/advanced_search/
o Scholarships4PhD:
https://www.academictransfer.com/advanced_search/
o Scholarships-Links: http://www.scholarships-links.com/
o Scholarship Portal: http://www.scholarshipportal.eu/#basic
o EastChance: http://www.eastchance.com/index.asp
o IEEE Control Sys. Society e-Letter:
http://www.ieeecss.org/publications/e-letter/archive/current
o Some mailing lists
o YahooGroups: SAATFASE, Pakgrid
o Facebook Scholarship Network Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scholarships.pk/
 FROM PREPARATION TO
BEING THERE: SUMMARY
o Keep a good GPA
o Publish a paper
o Prepare and score well in GRE and TOEFL
o Talk to professors for LoR
o Prepare CV and SoP
o Search for professors, vacancies, scholarships
o Bookmark important pages
o Note down important dates
o Apply/Contact via email
 ONCE YOU ARE THERE

o Be a responsible student
o Take care of academic integrity
o Remember that you represent your country
o If you cheat, your professor will not hire anyone from your country
o Help students back home
o After you build your career, do not forget your homeland
o Contribute back in anyway you can !

Good Luck !
QUESTIONS