由于教授希望匿名进行采访，所以不便于提供教授信息。

编者：冼殷，ECE， PHD

 

Question 1: There are a lot of students applying to Duke ECE PhD program every year, what quality of the applicants do you place the most importance? Is it GPA, research experience or something else?

Answer: Very good questions. But I don’t know how to answer the first one. I am happy if they are interested in my research topic. When I recruit students, I will look carefully at the application’s material, including recommendations letters, GPA, GRE, statement of purpose and CV.  I think the recommendations letters and their academic goal are most important. From the recommendations letters, you can tell what kind of person the applicant is. And it is interesting to know the students’ academic goal. You know, people with high GPA do not necessarily mean that they can do their research well, although they know how to complete their classes’ assignments well. Students with lower GPA may do their research better. However, if their GPA is like 1.5/4.0, it is unacceptable. For GRE, you cannot tell much information from the applicants’ score: almost all students have their math score from 700 to 800, and what is high verbal score meaning to me? So I think recommendation letters and students’ goal are most important for me.

Question 2:  For an undergraduate student who want to join in your research group, what quality do you think they should have? How and what would you teach them?

Answer: Very good questions again. I don’t know how to answer them. It’s hard to tell. When I go through the application material, I will know what quality of each applicant has, and I will know who would be recruited.  Each student’s background is different; I will instruct what they really need based on their interest.

Question 3: What is your academic expectation for your students?

Answer: I hope they know signal detection well. (He’s area is signal detection). But I don’t expect them to continue to work on this field after graduation, you know, students may be more interested in another area after graduation. One of  my students has become a lawyer, and one become a university president in South Africa, and one become a researcher at AT&T, one become a faculty at University of Texas, etc. They choose their career path by their own after graduation.

Question 4: What is your impression on the Chinese students? What is the difference between Chinese students and American students?

Answer: They are very good.  Chinese students know how to solve a certain problem well, but they may not know how to discover and propose a problem well. As an advisor, I will assist my students to enhance this ability.

Question 5: You research area is signal detection, what will you plan to develop in this area?

Answer: Well, I don’t know how to answer. Sometimes, ideas are just come suddenly, and I decided to do what is the most interesting for me.

Question 6: As a professor, you are very busy, how do you organize your life?

Answer: Faculty has a lot of freedom. So it is important for them to organize their time well. It is not easy to do everything based on the time schedule strictly.

Question 7: Some students want to become a faculty in the US when they graduate, what is your suggestion to them? And how to become a professor in ECE Department at Duke University?

Answer:  You should have a lot of publication. You should be an expert in your field to get the funding.

When you are graduated as a PhD, you typically start as an assistant professor in ECE Department at Duke; 4 years later, there will be a review on your performance as an assistant professor, if you pass the review, you have another 4 years as an assistant professor. At your 7th year typically, there will a review also, if you past, then you would become an associate professor at Duke ECE for 10-year tenure. At your 9th year as an associate professor, there will be another review, by Graduate School and the Department, if you could successfully convince the committee; you would become a professor, otherwise you should go away.

 

 

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