Shuvangkar Das, PhD

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If you’re pursuing a PhD, which mindset do you have?
Engineer mindset vs. research mindset. Let me explain.

When I started my PhD in 2021, I had a tough time generating output. The reason? My engineering mindset. Since 2013, I had been working on embedded system firmware development, constantly honing my skills to write better, faster, and more efficient C code. I would spend hours saving a few bytes of RAM and improving clock cycles, ensuring my code followed NASA and MISRA C standards. LOL!

At the beginning of my PhD, I was reluctant to concatenate vectors in MATLAB because it involved dynamic memory allocation—neither fast nor memory efficient. I couldn’t let go of my perfectionist habits.

One piece of advice from my professor changed everything: in research, you don’t need to make it work perfectly; you need to show that it will work well if you invest the time. It’s okay if it works only once and crashes later. Just make it work and collect the best results.

Now, I don’t mind concatenating vectors or writing less-than-perfect code to get the output. This shift has dramatically improved my productivity. It took time, but I did it. Thanks to my professor. 🙏

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Shuvangkar Das, PhD Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

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