When it comes to meta courses (no I am not talking about *that* dept :-) I mean a seminar, a mini project, or a project), the relationship between a student and a faculty member needs to be addressed. This document is about choosing guides based on my past experience as a b.tech/dd facad and my several years here at IIT. Important: Please correct any mistakes/mistaken impressions I have.
First of all, remember that both of us work together, and so it is important for the match to be a mutual consent.
In an ideal situation, only the student with the right (whatever that means) background will approach me, and that will exactly be equal to the number of students I can handle. And this will happen to every potential guide.
About the right background. For several years, I have been suggesting to the students that we should have an undergraduate course in computer graphics in the fifth semester. You should note a couple of points in this regard.
Now compare your program at IITB. You will find that you have a
lot more emphasis on theory in your first six semesters (DS, Formal
Methods: second year), POPL,
Algorithms, Theory of Computation, Compiler: third year) than what the ACM
recommends.
(Let me also list the systems courses. Databases, AI, OS in addition to
the basic courses CS101, CS152 Abstractions (though this might also be
theoretical), Advanced programming and Data Structures.)
Hold on. Every local situation demands a re-orientation based on available faculty. And yes, as a theory Ph.D, I love the theory courses. However, should all of you be doing this?
Anyway, now that you have NOT done an UG course in graphics, what's the best bet? Well not much. You'll have to pick up the material on your own which is why you need to spend more time with me (if you are going to work with me). But how are you going to do it given that in summer you plan to go outside IIT (I strongly urge this!)?
Well that is why I'm going to insist this year (2006) that
There is one more practical matter to consider.
But I don't know what I am interested in, you say. I don't know the professor's interests and whether it will all work out if I commit. Right. Nobody can argue that you should not do your homework; that you just plunge in. In fact DD students have exactly this luxury.
The key problem is that there are limited resources. Let's say you figured out after a seminar, many courses, and halfway through the next semester that Area Z is what you want to spend time. Great. You might have done this on various considerations. How tough the area is. What the job prospects are. How bad the prof in Area X is. And so on.
Now ask yourself. What's the chance that your friend will not have come to the same conclusion? Is he or she likely to be too different from you in terms of job prospects, good/bad prof and so on. Since both of you came through JEE with marginal difference in quality, the chances are that you will think alike on this topic rather than differently
And your friend might have done a seminar in Area Z. Who do you think the prof in Area Z will pick?
Or you might have done in Area Z and she might not have :-)
Of course individual skills, interests might differ. So do the homework but remember that changing next semester might be too late. There is of course the risk that you might not have enough time to do the homework AND you made a bad choice. You could of course opt out in this case.
Thanks for reading
Sharat