When you study a PhD, you are in charge of its destiny. While creating your own structure and plan can be daunting, it is also the start of an exciting and life-changing journey. Postgraduate researcher Carolina Adaros Boye speaks about how a PhD builds your knowledge and confidence.
“Because it’s a research degree, it’s totally up to you to make your own journey,” Carolina says. “It’s certainly a lot different to studying an undergraduate or Master’s degree. There, you have a programme, classes and a curriculum to follow. If you follow them correctly, there’s a good chance you will succeed. On a PhD, you create your own path – you decide what topics you need to study, you source the study materials, you learn about other areas that could be useful.”
While having no strict structure can be liberating, Carolina says it can also make for a challenging experience. “You could spend a week reading something which you initially thought would be useful, only to realise by the end of that week that you won’t actually need that material,” she explains. “It’s all trial and error. It’s not even like a project because you don’t know what the outcome will be at the end – coming from a work background, I thought the first thing to do would be to make a Gantt chart to track my research, but then I realised it’s not that easy to plan. You don’t know how long some parts of the project will take and you can also find yourself going down unexpected paths.”
Research and innovation
Carolina’s PhD research involves a number of disciplines. “I look at cyber security, risk analysis, indicators of cyber risks in industrial systems and Internet of Things, systems that interact with sensors,” she explains. “So it’s a very challenging line of research as I have to deal with several disciplines at the same time. My specific focus is on processing indicators that can give hints that a system is at a higher risk than expected.”
Carolina has a history of such areas, having worked in electronics engineering, and IT quality and process management. She says that her research is able to tie her interests and experiences together, while also looking into a relevant area. “I found cyber security a good area to get involved in, one where I could translate my experience,” she says. “On the other hand, the part of looking into industrial systems case studies and the Internet of Things brings me back to my roots. There’s also a big research gap in that field – whenever I speak to people in industry, they tell me there’s a lot of research to do in this area. It makes it very exciting, and feels like I’m looking into something that’s incredibly relevant to both people in industry and academia.”
What's the difference between PhD and postgraduate study?
The differences between undergraduate study and postgraduate research are felt socially as well as academically. “It’s a much more disparate group of people of different ages and cultures,” Carolina explains. “Some people are mature students like myself, some are married. We chat about what we are doing and bounce ideas off one another.” While Carolina admits it is lonelier than when you’re studying for a degree, there are still social events to keep them occupied. “We go out for lunch and celebrate birthdays,” she says. “Last year, I was a student rep for the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, so I organised a lunch and also an evening out bowling.”
When it comes to advice for any prospective postgraduate researchers out there, Carolina urges you to think for yourself and trust your gut. “If doing a PhD makes sense for you, it does not matter what anyone else thinks. Only you know what the professional and personal costs could be,” she says. “If it feels right, just go for it!”