A grad student knows how challenging the academic aspects of their work can be. There also can be challenges in two other areas that can slow progress: issues around the collaboration dynamics with the adviser and student work habit issues. These challenges are not always visible - these I refer to as "headwind" - an invisible force that slows you down. Some challenges are visible, but the student may be unable to realize that the problem may have a solution (more headwind), or perhaps they see a path towards a solution, but are unable to work towards it. I call the latter case "drag" - thoughts or feelings that arise in the student that work to slow them down. In this talk, I will give examples of headwind and drag and offer techniques to overcome them.
Jed Irvine is a Senior Faculty Research Assistant in EECS. He began his career with twenty years of work in government and the private sector. He joined OSU in 2004 as a software developer, and has supported numerous research projects involving machine learning. In 2018, he began coaching grad students on addressing obstacles to progress that are unrelated to their focus of study.